The Linguistic Development of Yugoslav Migrant Children in the Federal Republic of Germany

Questionnaires were administered to students of a Yugoslav supplementary school in Mannheim, West Germany (N = 30, aged 8 & 9) & to their parents to determine attitudes toward Serbo-Croatian & German, the mastery & communicative use of Serbo-Croatian by the children, & parents' perception of this use & skill. Respondents were selected according to specific social & linguistic criteria of residence length in West Germany, bilingualism, language development, & attendance in German elementary school & Yugoslav supplementary school. It was found that both parents & children displayed positive attitudes toward Serbo-Croatian & its communicative use, but these were not matched by the latter's communicative proficiency. German had become the first language in their communication & they communicated in Serbo-Croatian with significant support of nonverbal means. It is concluded that migrant parents devoted to the preservation of their ethnic language generally overestimate the success of their efforts, underestimating the significant role of the immediate cultural milieu in their children's linguistic behavior. 27 References. Z. Dubiel