Which language do young people who grow up multilingual prefer to use in everyday situations? An analysis of data from the National Education Panel shows that the language use of young people with family roots in Turkey, Poland, or the former Soviet Union differs primarily when speaking with their parents: The young people surveyed mostly speak German with their friends, siblings, or classmates. More than 87% also use German when reading, watching TV, and surfing the Internet. When speaking with their father and mother, however, they more often use their family’s native language. Young people from Polish families are an exception: they use German significantly more often when speaking with their parents than young people from the former Soviet Union and Turkey.
The findings in NEPS Spotlight No. 37 on the language use of adolescents with a migrant background are taken from the following publication:
Strobel, B., & Seuring, J. (2016). Spracherhalt oder Sprachverlagerung? Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 68, 309-339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-016-0360-
Spotlight No. 37
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What are the NEPS spotlights?
This and other NEPS spotlights present selected findings from the National Education Panel Study—the largest long-term education study in Germany—in a concise and accessible format. They shed light on topics such as the development of competencies over the life course, as well as aspects of personality, educational participation, integration, and civic engagement. Each spotlight features a key message, a brief explanation, and interactive graphics that visualize the respective findings. Sources and further information are also linked. The NEPS Spotlights are provided by the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and are coordinated with the authors of the original publications. The collection is continuously expanded.
What is the National Education Panel?
The National Education Panel (NEPS) is the largest long-term education study in Germany. It examines educational processes, their conditions, outcomes, and consequences from early childhood through late adulthood. More than 70,000 participants, as well as approximately 50,000 people from their social circles, are surveyed on a recurring basis. The data collected is made available to the scientific community. More than 4,000 researchers worldwide are already working with NEPS data, and to date, more than 1,900 scientific publications have been produced.