Promoting German in kindergarten: Equal language opportunities for everyone!

Promoting German in kindergarten: Equal language opportunities for everyone!

Education experts are sounding the alarm: In order to improve German teaching in kindergartens, more staff are required! Verena Blaschitz, linguist from the University of Vienna, points out that the key to successful language training lies in the right relationship between specialists and children. Currently, the groups are often overcrowded, which hinders individual support for the children. Blaschitz calls for the number of specialists to be increased so that they can respond more specifically to the language needs of children. Their findings are based on practical experience and specific educational models that take into account not only the language skills but also the cultural diversity of children, as are the statements by Carina Schubert-Wachter, who works with the organization “Teach For Austria”.

Important measures for language promotion

Schubert-Wachter emphasizes that in her kindergarten group, where additional language support staff were employed, almost all children with only limited knowledge of German were able to successfully switch to school. She emphasizes that access to high-quality educational opportunities is crucial and that longer stays in kindergarten have a positive impact on language development. “It’s important to spend more time with the language, whether that’s more years or more hours,” she explains, pointing out that individual language games made a significant contribution to improvement.

The problem is further exacerbated by the existing MIKA-D test system, which has been used since 2019 to classify students in German remedial classes. Blaschitz criticizes that this test does not accurately capture the children's actual language skills and therefore makes it difficult to reliably assess the students. She therefore calls for both staff training and existing tests to be revised to meet children's language needs. In an increasingly multilingual society, it is crucial that language support is supported by professionals who are comprehensively trained in these areas, including the findings from the Academia.edu source.