„… dass sich halt keiner ausgeschlossen fühlt“: Wahrnehmungen der Verwendung nicht-deutscher Erstsprachen im Unterricht.

Translated title of the contribution: Perceptions of and attitudes towards the use of non-German first languages in the classroom

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article examines the perception of the use of non-German languages in Austrian schools from the perspective of students and teachers. By differentiating between teachers, students with exclusively German L1 and students with a non-German L1, different perspectives on language change in group work situations are examined. For this purpose, data was collected via online questionnaires, semi-structured guided interviews and focus group discussions between students. The results show that switching to another language in group work settings is perceived as inappropriate especially by those students who have no competence in a non-German language. Moreover, they associate switching with poorer performance in class and interpret the use of a non-German language in class as an action specifically directed against themselves (“gossiping”). In contrast, – and contrary to the assumption that they evaluate language switches in the classroom more negatively due to stricter normative views – teachers show a consistently more positive perception of code- switching behaviour and its multilingual speakers. It can be concluded from these findings that multilingualism in the school context and its overall benefits should not only be addressed in teacher training, but that it would also be useful to raise students' awareness of these issues.
Translated title of the contributionPerceptions of and attitudes towards the use of non-German first languages in the classroom
Original languageGerman
Pages (from-to)249-282
Number of pages34
JournalZeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik
Volume2024
Issue number81
Early online date1 Aug 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 bei den Autorinnen und Autoren, publiziert von De Gruyter im Auftrag der Gesellschaft für Angewandte Linguistik 2024.

Keywords

  • German in Austria
  • multilingualism
  • Language attitudes
  • Language perceptions
  • language of instruction
  • language bias

Fields of Science and Technology Classification 2012

  • 602 Linguistics and Literature

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