The secret life of languages. Origin‐specific differences in L1/L2 acquisition by immigrant children

Focussing on Turkish immigrant children, in whom weak L1/L2 performance has repeatedly been reported, the article aims at providing explanations for origin‐specific differences between the L1/L2 acquisition of immigrant children from Turkey and former Yugoslavia living in Austria. The discussion focuses on the countries of origin, taking into account particularly their policies on (minority) language(s) and education. The resulting new explanatory model integrates approaches from socio‐ and psycholinguistics as well as language attrition studies, sociology and pedagogy. This model is applied to a sample of 60 primary school immigrant children from the two countries of origin. Because of their interdisciplinary and specifically language‐political character, the results may have considerable implications for further research as well as educational and political practice.