Language assessment is a central aspect not only of language education in the general population, but also amongst heterogeneous, low-incidence populations. One such population are immigrant deaf and hard-of-hearing learners (IDML) who are bimodal-multilingual and whose languages development often includes the spoken, written, and/or signed…

For newly arrived students who are d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH), language acquisition is particularly complex. The spectrum of initial language situations ranges from no first language to multilingual acquisition contexts. In Germany, there are currently no studies that focus on the education of these learners. This prompted an interview study…

In the field of educational sociolinguistics there is a body of literature with a focus on children in complementary schooling. While timely, such work often does not often pay much attention to the parents who frequent the school setting, preferring to focus on the interactions between children. This paper addresses this absence by reporting on a…

The aim of this contribution is to analyze the linguistic practices of a migrant collective, speakers of a minoritized language, from a glottopolitical perspective. This will be illustrated by the description of the communicative practices of the migrant workers from Galicia (Spain) in Hanover (Federal Republic of Germany) in the 1960s and beyond.…

Due to globalisation and migration, multilingualism has become both a reality and an aim of education systems across Europe, affecting how language education is shaped. To improve the ways in which schools cater for language education in diverse settings, research is required on the potentials of multilingualism in order to design curricula that…

Ethnolinguistic vitality theory asserts that Status, Demographic, Institutional Support and Control factors make up the vitality of ethnolinguistic groups. An assessment of a group's strengths and weaknesses in each of these dimensions provides a rough classification of ethnolinguistic groups into those having low, medium, or high vitality. Low…

In conversations between immigrants and officials, problems of understanding are often noticeable. About 280 recordings realised at the Argentine Aliens' Department and at several public authorities in Germany show that knowledge divergences regarding linguistic, cultural and institutional knowledge result in (sometimes grave) difficulties of…

Introduces the topic of this special issue of the journal--linguistic construction and negotiation of social relations among bilingual Turkish-speaking adolescents in North-western Europe. The studies included focus on Turkish-German bilinguals and the Koge project in Denmark, a longitudinal study of bilingual development among Turkish Danes.…

Addresses conditions of identity education in Germany within the framework of multicultural education. Particular focus is on the interaction theory of Krappmann (1971), which provides a framework for dealing with the necessities of identity education for migrant and German students. The importance of identity education for migrant students and…

This paper analyses W. G. Sebald's "The Emigrants" and Norbert Gstrein's "Die englischen Jahre" from the perspective of intercultural identity. In Sebald's work, intercultural identity emerges as a political crisis that leads to a series of devastating personal crises: Sebald's protagonists' inability to fully abandon early…

Approaches the linguistic setting of a European inner-city, an area with a long history of migration from a sociological and linguistic perspective. After a qualititative-heuristic approach and conversation analysis, presents a description of sociolingual conditions and the process of their transformation. (Author/VWL)

Presents a study of mixed language use within the frame of interactional sociolinguistics by looking at how adolescents of Turkish background living in Germany have developed their own patterns of bilingualism. Analyzes transcripts of Turkish-German mixed speech and shows that the switching and mixing oscillates between local sequential functions…

Reports on three investigations concerning the acquisition of a third language in bilingual immigrant students in Germany and Sweden. The results suggest that immigrant students who always use Swedish at home but have passive knowledge of their first language clearly perform better in English than do Swedish monolingual students. (SL)

Discusses negative experiences resulting from the use of migrant literature (literature by and about immigrants) in German educational settings. Problems, such as the classifying of immigrant children as "outsiders" and the native group's resentment at the accusatory nature of some literature, can be lessened by proper, culturally…

In an examination of the feasibility of developing a "European melting pot," the psychosocial situation of Italian youth in Germany was studied. The need to develop a consciousness for political and social, not just economic, unity of all European countries is noted. (12 references) (Author/LB)