Learning in Multilingual Classrooms. Basic Assumptions, Didactic Concepts, Models for Developing Literacy

Literacy is the basic instrument of learning at school - competence in this field leads to the ability of extracting knowledge from texts and to communicating with the help of texts. Especially second-language-learners, however, often do not possess enough literacy: thus they are not able to utilize the offers of the teaching environment in full and are not able to master all demands on the acquisition of knowledge and of language competences (see PISA 2000). A further development of this basic assumption that underlies the submitted research project will inevitably lead to a new valuation of established didactic models prevailing in multilingual classes. The research project at issue tries to achieve both: to present the theoretical foundations of literacy and to develop the didactic concepts and models enhancing a quality of literacy that should prepare multilingual classes for integrated language and subject learning. The focus lies on developing effective didactic instruments within the framework of a task orientated curriculum, with an emphasis on writing skills that is applicable to all learners of a multilingual classroom. In order to establish a reliable basis for the creation of these didactic instruments, a detailed analysis of relevant findings of related areas will be provided (such as second language acquisition theories, text linguistics, cognitive psychology and research on literacy and writing processes). Thus, attention will be paid to a widely ignored field of didactic research opening academic discussion to major problems of learning at school: theoretical approaches to and concepts of literacy in various fields do exist; what it takes, however, is networking the results and relating them to classroom contexts with an emphasis on learning requirements in multilingual classrooms. This project will establish the missing connection between utterly active and rich areas of research on the one hand and classroom reality on the other hand - a classroom reality that shows the basic role of literacy for language and subject learning in a learning environment in which foreign language does not only appear as a tool of communication but also resembles the medium of learning itself.