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Multilingual education in Germany: discourses, practices and experiences in two-way immersion

Multilingual education in Germany: discourses, practices and experiences in two-way immersion
Multilingual education in Germany: discourses, practices and experiences in two-way immersion
This chapter focuses on multilingualism and language education from a German perspective. In particular, it looks at two-way bilingual immersion (dual-language education) and explores some of the ways in which this fairly new model plays out as an approach to developing multilingualism. I examine three aspects: (1) the German sociolinguistic context in which multilingualism is debated as a goal of schooling and as a social reality; (2) the story of one particular bilingual project that portrays the competing interests and conditions for implementing multilingual education; and (3) some preliminary results from an ethnographic study that illustrate the impact of bilingual education on social identification and ways of learning. Within the framework of a community of practice, the findings suggest that two-way immersion creates a set of specific practices in which the majority and the minority languages are equally valued. These practices allow for identities and ways of learning that integrate the diversity of linguistic resources and potentially challenge dominant views of language hierarchies in the society.
bilingual education, germany, multilingualism, migration, italian-german two way immersion
0807749729
169-199
Teachers College Press
Budach, Gabriele
0ef7057b-886a-4821-bf3d-50b2ca84e1b1
Torres-Guzmán, Maria E.
Gomez, Joel
Budach, Gabriele
0ef7057b-886a-4821-bf3d-50b2ca84e1b1
Torres-Guzmán, Maria E.
Gomez, Joel

Budach, Gabriele (2009) Multilingual education in Germany: discourses, practices and experiences in two-way immersion. In, Torres-Guzmán, Maria E. and Gomez, Joel (eds.) Global Perspectives on Multilingualism: Unity in Diversity. New York, USA. Teachers College Press, pp. 169-199.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter focuses on multilingualism and language education from a German perspective. In particular, it looks at two-way bilingual immersion (dual-language education) and explores some of the ways in which this fairly new model plays out as an approach to developing multilingualism. I examine three aspects: (1) the German sociolinguistic context in which multilingualism is debated as a goal of schooling and as a social reality; (2) the story of one particular bilingual project that portrays the competing interests and conditions for implementing multilingual education; and (3) some preliminary results from an ethnographic study that illustrate the impact of bilingual education on social identification and ways of learning. Within the framework of a community of practice, the findings suggest that two-way immersion creates a set of specific practices in which the majority and the minority languages are equally valued. These practices allow for identities and ways of learning that integrate the diversity of linguistic resources and potentially challenge dominant views of language hierarchies in the society.

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More information

Published date: 1 July 2009
Keywords: bilingual education, germany, multilingualism, migration, italian-german two way immersion

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 66560
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/66560
ISBN: 0807749729
PURE UUID: 8549c568-b881-4a9f-9cea-6d0609d953c9

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Jul 2009
Last modified: 10 Dec 2021 16:11

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Contributors

Author: Gabriele Budach
Editor: Maria E. Torres-Guzmán
Editor: Joel Gomez

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