Ladenburg Research Networks

Language is the key to education – this applies to all people. The earlier children can express themselves in the language of the country they live in, the better opportunities they have along their school and career paths. Children in Germany from families that speak a language other than German are often disadvantaged, as has long been confirmed by relevant educational studies. But even children from German-speaking families who grow up in an environment that offers little stimulus, also in terms of language, are often lacking favorable linguistic conditions. They are overburdened by the challenges they face in the classroom and are thus held back over the long term. To alleviate this situation, as part of the “Ladenburg Research Networks” format the Daimler and Benz Foundation has been providing funding of around 1.4 million euros since 2014 for the development of a valid, reliable, and objective procedure for determining the language level of children about to commence schooling.

This process sets out to provide educationalists with a practical tool that serves to identify children in need of language support (assignment diagnosis) and at the same time to determine their individual support requirements (support diagnosis). This called for extensive basic research on language acquisition among children, and the development and repeated testing of a process based on “serious games”*: An app on a tablet records the language data collected in a playful setting and measures the children’s level of language competence by means of a highly automated analysis process. If deficits are identified, targeted support measures can then already be initiated at the daycare center.

The project reached its preliminary conclusion with an expert colloquium on June 19 and 20, 2023 at LMU Munich, the main applicant and coordinator of this research and development project. The 40 invited experts from various universities and educational institutions were presented with the motives, fundamentals, and goals of the project along with illustrative recordings from authentic research contexts. The diverse opportunities for application were open for discussion, which resulted in an intensive exchange of views and ideas.

At the opening of the event the project leader, Professor Jörg Roche from the Institute for German as a Foreign Language at LMU Munich, thanked the Daimler and Benz Foundation on behalf of the entire research team for the longstanding, generous, and invariably understanding and constructive support that this socially relevant research project had received. The project partners were the Universities of Saarbrücken, Heidelberg, Basel, and Mannheim along with LMU Munich, Stuttgart Media University (HdM), and the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt.

*Serious Games:
The term serious games refers to “games with a serious (learning) goal.” These are games that are created for the targeted teaching of specific content or competencies – especially in contexts in which playing and learning are still often perceived as opposites.