Multilingualism at the Interface of Formal and Non-Formal Education: Insights from the German Education System

Abstract

In an increasingly globalised world, linguistic diversity in schools is a much-discussed topic. Research in recent years has shown that the productive inclusion of multilingualism in the classroom is possible and conducive to learning. Nevertheless, it remains an exception in everyday teaching practice. Instead, measures that address language in the educational context of the migration society often focus exclusively on promoting German as a second language. This situation can be explained by, among other things, the historically monolingual orientation of schools. This article raises the question of whether and to what extent non-formal educational actors affect these manifest habits by cooperating with schools. To this end, collaborations between formal schools and non-formal education stakeholders in Frankfurt/Main, Germany that focus on language education are analysed. Four types of cooperation are differentiated according to their formal orientation and categorised into a continuum of three areas of language education: language support for all children regardless of family language, promotion of German as a second language and promotion of multilingualism. While the proportion of programmes promoting multilingualism is very low, these programmes tend to enter into very far-reaching forms of cooperation. It can be deduced from this that non-formal players have the potential to at least soften the monolingual structures of the formal education system.