SpraBÜ - Language education at the transition from preparatory to regular class

A qualitative study of newly immigrated pupils in lower secondary education

Background

Migration is not an unknown phenomenon for the German education system. Nevertheless, the immigration since the year 2015 has presented schools and teachers (once again) with challenges. Newly immigrated pupils are usually taught at secondary schools in preparatory classes that focus on systematic German language acquisition. The subsequent transition to the regular school system is considered a particular challenge. However, this transition has hardly been investigated so far and is therefore the subject of our research project.

Theoretical framework

The theoretical framework includes

• an understanding of school development that perceives the integration of new immigrants as a regular task when organising school and teaching in a migration society - and not as a special feature to be countered with special measures;
• a concept of language education that combines the acquisition of German as a second and academic language and the constructive consideration of migration-related multilingualism; and
• the investment model from language learning research, which considers language learning to be both a cognitive and a social process.

Research questions

In a first step, the study deals with the questions:

• How do the individual schools shape their language education programmes?
• How do they interlink language and subject-related learning in lower secondary education?

Building on this, we address the following question:

• Which programmes can the pupils use profitably for themselves at the transition from preparatory to regular class?

Methods

• Methods of ethnographic research are used to compile school portraits and case studies of selected pupils. These cover participating observations, informal discussions, and qualitative interviews.

Publications in English language

• Plöger, S. & Barakos, E. (2021): Researching linguistic transitions of newly-arrived studens in Germany: insights from Institutional Ethnography and Reflexive Grounded Theory. In: Ethnography and Education, 16(4), pp. 402-419. doi:10.1080/17457823.2021.1922928.

 

Project team:

• Prof. Dr. Sara Fürstenau
• Simone Plöger
• Dr. Elisabeth Barakos

 

Duration:

01.01.2020 – 31.12.2022

 

Funding:

DFG (German Research Foundation)