Transfer oder Transversalität? – Designs zur Erforschung der Mehrschriftlichkeit

A central question of both bilingualism and plurilingualism research, and consequently of language pedagogy, is whether and to what extent languages interact with each other. However, it is notoriously difficult to develop research designs which can clearly investigate language interaction and allow for pedagogical recommendations. Literacy skills especially may more directly reflect a shared proficiency in different languages (i.e. are transversal) than a transfer of language skills from one language to another. The present article discusses research designs to investigate both transversality and transfer of language skills. It then presents the SimO research project, which investigated transfer of writing skills by enacting an intervention in the language of schooling (German) and studying how this might have an effect on the heritage language (Turkish).