These are the reasons

Study: pupils complain about German support classes

German remedial class (archive image)

(Bild: JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

If children and young people do not understand German well enough to follow lessons without support measures, they have had to spend a large part of the school day in separate German support classes since 2018/19. A team led by Susanne Schwab from the University of Vienna is currently investigating how secondary school pupils cope with this model. Initial results of the study show that the young people feel excluded - by classmates and teaching staff.

For the survey, 78 pupils in years 5 to 9 were interviewed in May and June. The majority of them had only arrived in Austria a few months ago via family reunification, some had at most limited access to formal educational institutions in their country of origin and were therefore unable to read and write in their first language.

Pupils mostly came to Vienna via family reunification
This year, a total of around 300 children and young people came to Viennese schools via family reunification alone.

Different previous experience and skills
As a result, the German support classes, in which the young people are taught German separately for 15 to 20 hours a week for up to four semesters, are filled with young people with increasingly diverse previous experience and skills, which presents teachers with new challenges, according to Schwab. She is concerned about the exclusion reported by the interviewees and the effects of the separate German support classes on the young people's academic development.

In the German support classes, in which the young people are taught German separately for 15 to 20 hours per week for up to four semesters, there are young people with increasingly different previous experiences and skills, which poses new challenges for teachers.

(Bild: JOE KLAMAR / AFP)

Lack of rapport with teachers
While the quality of teaching and social climate in the German support class are predominantly rated positively, many young people feel excluded in their regular class, according to the study: They would have little or no rapport with the teachers there, they would not show any consideration for pupils with lower German language skills when teaching and at the same time would have lower expectations of their performance than the teachers in the German support class. Due to the separate lessons in the German support class, these young people also miss out on important content in other subjects.

Few points of contact with classmates
There are few points of contact with classmates in the regular class, with whom the interviewees are only taught together in subjects such as handicrafts, music or gymnastics. "Nobody talks to us and we don't talk to them either," is one quote from the study. According to the young people, there is a "clear separation" into groups based on language skills and national origin.

Lack of German-speaking language role models
At the same time, the interviewees mentioned that German cannot be learned as quickly in the separate remedial class because there are no German-speaking language role models. According to the study, young people tend to adopt language rules and prohibitions and often justify this by saying that they would learn faster if they were only allowed to speak German. The motives for learning German are "to be like the others" or to help the family.

Nach einem Jahr Deutschunterricht haben sich etwa 80 Prozent der Kinder deutlich verbessert.

(Bild: Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz)

School staff overwhelmed
Overall, Schwab believes that the results of the study show once again that school staff are increasingly overwhelmed: there is a lack of comprehensive training and further education programs that prepare teachers for linguistically heterogeneous classes and appropriate teaching materials. Multilingualism must finally be recognized as a valuable resource, demands Schwab.

Separate German support classes have been criticized by academics and practitioners since their introduction, among other things because the pupils concerned are excluded and language support without German-speaking role models is made more difficult.

More freedom of choice for schools required
In an evaluation study of 700 teachers and principals commissioned by the Ministry of Education, the majority argued that schools should decide for themselves how German should be taught. Such separate support classes would actually have to be set up for eight or more pupils per location. However, Schwab has shown in an earlier study that some schools do not adhere to this requirement due to a lack of the necessary rooms or teaching staff.