Reconstructing language policy in urban education: the Essen model of Förderunterricht

Abstract

This contribution traces the development of an educational support program (Förderunterricht) for immigrant children in the German Ruhr area, a region that has traditionally been strongly impacted by different waves of immigration. The program has grown out of what was originally a small-scale application of research results of a study on the bilingualism of immigrant children at the University of Essen. Following the premise that the bilingual competencies migrant children bring to the classroom can be an asset rather than a hindrance, migrant languages (Turkish and Greek) were established as an optional component in the undergraduate curriculum for trainee teachers at the university at the same time that a program of supporting classes for migrant children attending secondary schools was being established. Through bottom-up agency, the creators of the program were able to involve migrant communities, local schools, local politicians, the local university, and different funding bodies to set up a project that sees migrant children in the secondary-school sector mentored by trainee teachers, many with an immigrant background, and bring their bi- or multilingual competence to the task. This paper explores the project's impact and relates the findings to language policy developments in Germany more generally.

Keywords:

• multilingual education
• language and migration
• German as a second language
• ethnolinguistic diversity
• bilingualism

Notes on contributors

Professor Martina Möllering is head of the Department of International Studies and Professor of European Languages at Macquarie University. Her research spans work on Language Studies and Linguistics with a particular focus on the learning and teaching of second languages. Her work on corpus-based approaches to language teaching and computer-mediated communication in second language acquisition have made Professor Möllering an expert in this field with peer recognition on the national as well as international level. Her current work on language in the context of migration has an international and interdisciplinary approach and addresses issues of language policy in Australia and abroad.

Dr Claudia Benholz holds a permanent position at the University of Duisburg-Essen as a researcher of German as a second and foreign language. She is the project director of ‘ProDaZ: German as a Second Language in All Subjects’ (ProDaZ –Deutsch als Zweitsprache in allen Fächern) and ‘Extended Teaching for Youth and Children with Migrant Backgrounds’ (Förderunterricht für Kinder und Jugendlichemit Migrationshintergrund). Her areas of special interest (both research and teaching) include multilingual language development, language education as well as language acquisition. She has considerable experience conducting advanced educational training in German as a second and foreign language for teachers as well as teachers-in-training in all school-related subjects. Moreover, she has spent many years evaluating as well as advising schools in language-learning projects and proposals both complementary to school curricula.

Gülsah Mavruk is a research assistant at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she specializes in German as a foreign and second language. She is interested in tertiary language acquisition, reading and writing skills for pupils in secondary schools as well as intercultural education. Her research explores how contrastive linguistics can be applied in language teaching for individuals hired in a field different from that of their original qualifications and training. She is also one of the leaders of the prestigious project, Förderunterricht für Kinder und Jugendliche mit Migrationshintergrund, which has been active at the Essen campus for the past 39 years, and she coordinates and oversees tutoring for multilingual pupils in all school-related subjects and counseling for pupils and parents.