Examining the language skill levels of bilingual children in their mother tongue in preschool period: An example of digital activities

In this study, the language skill levels of bilingual children in the pre-school period in their mother tongue were examined through the example of digital activities. This research is in the experimental design and is in the single-group pretest-posttest model, which is one of the experimental models. The sample of the study consists of 18 bilingual children aged 42-72 months, whose mother tongue is Turkish and the second language is Dutch, living in the Belgian country of Flemish Region Ghent. Language skills of children in their mother tongue were measured with the Test of Early Language Development (TELD-3). Data on the child's demographic information was obtained through the Personal Information Form. In order to support children's language skills in the research, nine digital activities were prepared based on the acquisitions and indicators related to the field of language development in the Turkish Ministry of National Education Preschool Education Program. The demographic data of the research group and the language skills available before and after the digital activities are given in the tables as percentage (%) and frequency (f) values. Fisher's Exact Test was used in the examination of language skills according to gender and parental education factors. In order to compare the language skill levels before and after the digital activities, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, which is one of the non-parametric statistics, was performed and the data obtained were given in the tables in the findings section. According to the results; While there was no significant difference between the educational status of the parents and the language skills of the children, it was seen that there was a significant difference between the genders of the children and the language development levels they had. In addition, it has been revealed that there is a significant difference between the language skills of the children before and after the digital activities created to support the language development of bilingual children. Key Words: Bilingualism, Early Childhood, Language Development, Language Acquisition