Aims and objectives: In the present study, we investigated whether Moroccan- and Turkish-heritage children living in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, acquire new Dutch vocabulary to the same extent when they are provided with exactly the same type of language input. Turkish-heritage children seem to have significantly lower language proficiency in Dutch, compared to their Moroccan-heritage peers. Previous studies have shown that existing language skills in the second language can affect sequential bilingual children’s vocabulary acquisition in the second language considerably. Design/methodology/approach: The novel word learning of Moroccan- and Turkish-heritage six-year-olds ( N = 52) was investigated by means of four dynamic storytelling sessions in which six new object labels and six new action words were incorporated. Data and analysis: The children’s conceptual and linguistic knowledge of the novel words was extensively tested. Six analyses of covariance were conducted, with origin as a between-subjects factor and proficiency in Dutch as a covariate. Findings/conclusions: Our findings indicate that Turkish- and Moroccan-heritage children acquired the novel words to almost the same extent when their prior language proficiency in Dutch was taken into account. However, Moroccan-heritage children still outperformed their Turkish-heritage peers, producing the novel object labels. Originality: For this study, we used a methodology specifically developed for this age group. In addition, we statistically controlled for the children’s initial proficiency in Dutch, in order to get a better insight in the actual learning processes of new Dutch vocabulary of Moroccan- and Turkish-heritage children. Significance/implications: Our outcome suggests that initial language proficiency in Dutch is an important predictor of novel vocabulary learning. Furthermore, we argue that linguistic properties of the children’s first language may play a role in second language acquisition, suggesting that a different approach to the stimulation of second language (vocabulary) acquisition in minority children of different ethnic origin may be necessary.

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The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) is a widely used test of receptive vocabulary, but no researchers to date have examined the performance of low-educated, low-literate L2 adults, or compared these individuals’ performances to their more highly educated peers. In this study, we used many-facet Rasch analysis and mixed-effects linear regression to determine the impact of educational background and other demographic variables on PPVT test performance. The analyses rely on the performance data of 1014 adult learners of Dutch as a second language on the Dutch version of the PPVT (PPVT-III-NL). The results show that a substantial proportion of score variance can be attributed to educational background variables and to the educational tracks the participants followed. These tracks, which cater to the needs of different L2 learner profiles, appear to exacerbate rather than mediate any performance differences. Although this study provides evidence of performance differences and differential item functioning resulting from linguistic, demographic, and educational variables, it offers no data to invalidate the use of the PPVT on low-educated L2 adults.

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Governmental education policies provide vague, general confines in which local actors have to design concrete policies tailored to their needs. Such policies rely on the local capacities of schools for implementing them. Recently, qualitative studies reveal that a great deal of variation in policy enactment should be attributed to school contextual variables. This study adds to these findings by examining to what extent school contextual variables influence the implementation of one type of education policy in Flemish schools: school-based language policies (SLP). It combines quantitative survey data from 28 primary schools with focus group interviews in a subsample of six schools in order to verify whether and why the school context affects the implementation of SLP. Results confirm that school context does affect implementation. Particularly, the ethnic composition of the student population is one of the main motivations for school teams to implement an SLP, and this is often associated with a deficit perspective.