“Es waren die Stengel urr aufgewachsen.” Language/s in Education – Going Back and Moving Forward

Abstract

The present contribution positions language/s in education in a Human Rights perspective. It is argued that language is an influential factor in achieving educational equity. Educational equity is linked to the pedagogical principle that all teaching shall start with the learners’ capacities. In super-diverse classrooms the linguistic capacities may vary significantly, whereas the competencies to be reached remain equal for all. In the background of Human Rights this calls for a strictly learner-centred approach that oscillates between what learners already know and the institution’s requirements. What this means for language/s in and for education is discussed in the light of scaffolding and translanguaging. Both approaches were developed specifically for institutional learning in the context of super-diversity. It is argued that they both only partially meet the challenge and may complement each other. This is illustrated with examples from action research in a sequence of biology lessons in a Viennese middle school.

Keywords

• academic language, scaffolding, translanguaging, (in)equity in education, biology lesson