Examination of Language Dominance of Turkish-Danish Speaking Students in Denmark on The Basis of Bilingualism

Abstract

Cognitive, social, cultural, vocational contributions of bilingualism come into prominence in the globalizing world order day by day. Many academic studies are conducted particularly in the countries which have multilingual population structure and/or house immigrants from varying nations.  Our study aims to examine language profiles of high school students, live in Denmark, and speak Turkish and Danish, with regards to their language dominance. In Denmark, where nearly 70 thousand of Turkish citizens live, it is necessary to put forth the characteristics of the bilinguals whose mother tongue is Turkish to secure and sustain their Turkish language capabilities. In our study, it has been aimed to identify in which language participants are dominant, with reference to a perspective which regards dominant language as being associated with age, time, period of acquisition and learning each language, language use, language preference, and language histories. Being in line with this goal, participants have been asked to fill out a questionnaire which is prepared in the framework of “A Quick, Gradient Bilingual Dominance Scale” -developed by Alexandra L. Dunn and Jean E. Fox Tree (2009)- and involves dichotomous language dimensions. The data gathered has been classified and statistically evaluated. The basic findings obtained have presented that participants are dominant in Danish language, and besides, there is significant differences among their length of acquisition periods in Turkish and Danish and language use rates of the both languages in home and school contexts. The statistical data acquired at the end of the study have been evaluated within the context of bilingualism, and suggestions have been presented about mother tongue education of bilingual Turkish students in Denmark.