Second Language Teaching – An Appraisal of European Countries

178 Pages·2011·3.46 MB·English

by  Scientific Network

Second Language Teaching –
An Appraisal of European Countries and Regions

Sabine Wilmes & Maike Prestin (eds.)
European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano
Drususallee 1
39100 Bozen/Bolzano – Italy
Tel. + 39 0471 055 033
Fax [phone]

Responsible Director: Stephan Ortner
Editing: Sabine Wilmes & Maike Prestin

An online version of the publication is available at:
http://www.eurac.edu/en/research/institutes/multilingualism/Publications

The project was carried out with the support of the European Community within the
Programme “Solidarity and the Management of Migration Flows” by the Fund for the
Integration of third-country Nationals.
The contents of this project do not necessarily reflect the position of the European
Community or the National Agencies, nor does it involve any responsibility for their part.
This work is protected by copyright law and cannot be used, reproduced or disseminated in
any way without the previous consent of the authors.

LinguaINCLUSION (No JLS/2008/EIFX/CA/1037)
Co-financed by European Commission

Last modified: October 2011
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Content

A Introduction
(Sabine Wilmes) 4

B Sweden
(Tore Otterup & Maud Gistedt) 10

C Germany – Hamburg
(Maike Prestin) 21

D Austria
(Elisabeth Furch, Viktoria Grumer, Gabriele Khan-Svik, Sybille Roszner) 62

E Italy – South Tyrol
(Sabine Wilmes) 78

F Hungary
(Magdolna Szilágyi) 94

G Lithuania
(Vita Petrušauskaitė, Dovilė Vildaitė) 117

H Bulgaria
(Tihomira Trifonova) 143

I Conclusion and Outlook
(Sabine Wilmes) 175

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A Introduction

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1 Background information on the project
We would first like to introduce the LinguaINCLUSION Project and the story of how it came
about and resulted in this publication.
LinguaINCLUSION is a project of the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) and eight other
European partners. The aim of the partners was to work together to filter out good
practice in the linguistic integration of children with migration backgrounds at primary
school in order to develop from this a concept for the continuous professional development
of teachers who face the reality of multilingualism in their work in the classroom.
The project is financed by the European Fund for the Integration of Third Country
Nationals and commenced at the end of December 2009 with the relatively short duration
of 18 months. The measures that have been carried out should therefore be regarded as a
trial study which can form the basis for further research and initiatives.
1.1 Partners and staff involved in the project:
European Academy of Bolzano
Institute for Specialised Communication and
Multilingualism
Sabine Wilmes, Franziska Plathner, Tatjana Atanasoska
and Angela Guadatiello
University of Hamburg
Institute of German Language and Literature I
Angelika Redder and Maike Prestin
University of Gothenburg
Swedish Language Institute
Tore Otterup and Maud Gistedt
University of Education in Vienna
Institute of Research, Innovation and School
Development
Elisabeth Furch and Sybille Roszner
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Carinthia University College of Teacher Education
Centre of Excellence in Multilingualism and Intercultural
Education
Gabriele Khan and Viktoria Grumer
University of West Hungary, Apaczai Csere János Kar
Faculty
Institute of Linguistics, Literature and Communication
Magdolna Szilágyi and Stefan Aubreville

Immigration and Integration Centre, Sofia

Tihomira Trifonova

Lithuanian Social Research Centre (Institute for Ethnic
Studies), Vilnius
Vita Petrušauskaitė, Dovilė Vildaitė

Initiativgruppe e.V. (Intercultural Encounter and

Education), Munich

Manfred Bosl and Sabine Bobisch

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2 Continuous professional development for teachers and supporting
tools
At the initial stage of the project, the training systems in the respective countries as well
as the models and methods of linguistic support and integration of children with migration
backgrounds were analysed and compared. (NB: The results are listed in the regional
report published as part of the project.) Based on these analyses, a training programme for
the continuous professional development of teachers was developed which was to meet
the needs in all the participating countries. The aim of this publication is to share the
modules of the teacher training programme with those who were not directly involved in
the project and to give them the opportunity to support their own development or to use it
for teacher training.
The teacher training course was held in Bolzano, Hamburg, Gothenburg, Vienna, Klagenfurt
and Györ with a total of 50 teaching staff who were then supported for seven months in
their teaching. It was supported by Teamsite (a website provided for sharing experience,
tips and materials), an email helpline and a regular newsletter on the subjects covered by
the teacher training and any other issues beyond that.
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3 Language development surveys
The teaching staff who took part in the teacher training course taught a total of 341 pupils
whose countries of origin were predominantly non-EU member state third countries.
To ascertain whether there had already been any impact as a result of the teacher training
even within the short duration of the project, a language development survey was
conducted among the pupils involved at the start and on completion of the period when
the teachers were supported by project workers. The language development survey
focused on the area of basic morphological and syntactic skills in the area of literacy. The
pupils were shown either a cartoon strip or a short cartoon film and composed a text about
it which was then assessed in the Swedish-speaking region using Håkansson's profile
analysis and in the German-speaking regions using Grießhaber's profile analysis1. Profile
analysis based on Grießhaber represents - as does profile analysis based on Håkansson - a
further refinement of profile analysis based on Pienemann and Clahsen2. It is, however,
only available for German-speaking areas, which is why the tool based on Håkansson -
which closely follows Pienemann and Clahsen - was used for the Swedish language. In the
absence of a corresponding instrument for the Hungarian language, it was not possible to
conduct any language development surveys in Hungary.
By using language development surveys, the teachers were able to evaluate their pupils'
morphological and syntactic skills. This enabled them to assess their pupils better (and
more systematically). However, as the profile analyses related solely to the morphological
and syntactic area, the University of Hamburg developed a more comprehensive
instrument which took account of features that are specific to the narrative (i.e. the
introduction of actants, clou, typical genre formulae, (in)direct speech, tenses,
embellishment) as well as criteria relating to content (e.g. 'completeness', clarity) and
criteria relating to structure (e.g. isolating type, linear type) in order to provide teachers
with feedback in greater depth.
Due to the short period of support the teachers received through the project and therefore
the brief interval between the first and second language development surveys, the surveys
found that the teacher training had had no - or in some cases only minimal - measurable
impact. This made it necessary to fall back on the evaluation of the training by teaching
staff who regarded the training throughout as very relevant and useful.

1 Grießhaber, Wilhelm (2005): Language development diagnosis in second language acquisition: A
functional and pragmatic foundation for profile analysis. Series of papers on multilingualism -
Research Centre 538, University of Hamburg. Available for downloading as a pdf file at:
http://spzwww.uni-muenster.de/~griesha/pub/tprofilanalyse-azm-05.pdf. Accessed: 23.8. 2010.
2 Clahsen, Harald (1985): Profiling second language development: A procedure for assessing L2
proficiency. In: Hyltenstam, Kenneth/Pienemann, Manfred (Editors): Modelling and Assessing
Second Language Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, p.283-331.
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4 Summary
In conclusion, it can be stated that in the countries and regions participating in the project
it is absolutely essential to train teachers in second language teaching at universities and
teacher training colleges as well as to provide in-service training in their day-to-day work
and to support them in their teaching. Structured training is needed in the areas of:
second and multi-language acquisition; well-grounded diagnostics aimed at promoting
language development; linguistic typology and related error analysis; second language
teaching skills in whole class teaching, and the intercultural learning implicit to the
subject.
The LinguaINCLUSION Project shows that the need for such training exists in all
participating countries and that this must be implemented systematically in order to
achieve the successful inclusion of children with other first languages in European
classrooms. Teaching staff need preparation for multiethnic and multilingual class
structures and support in working with these heterogeneous classes.
Therefore it is helpful to know the status of second language teaching in different
countries. This offers the possibility to learn from each other and to realize the desiderata
in this field.
In this publication, we would like to take you through different European countries and
regions to give you an overview over solutions, best practices and drawbacks.
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B Sweden
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