Project "Language Workshop"
Project Title
Evaluation of the Language Workshop at the Brigittenauer Gymnasium I+II
Abstract
The intercultural language workshop was initiated by abif in co-operation
with Landesschulinspektor Blüml (superintendent of schools) and targets a new way of dealing with languages among young adults of the first and second generation of immigrants. First, students and their families were to be given the opportunity to improve their German, while encouraging them to retain their mother tongue, which is part of their cultural background in a non-productive framework. The goal was to bridge the gap from being "semi-lingual" to being bilingual.
Therefore, the project focussed on how to deal with bilingual or multi-lingual surroundings and the problems that can arise in this context.
In the "Intercultural Language Workshop II" young people with parents wohse mother
tongue is German were integrated, language lessons were held in connection to every-day-life situations and the role of the young migrants' mother tongues became more important.
The evaluation documents the environment of young people living in two different (language) cultures, their problems as migrants, and respectively, as descendants of migrants and their plans for the future. The expected findings of the evaluation are, among others, high acceptance of the language workshop, changes in language command and personal development. The results of the evaluation will be published in the Austrian publication "Bilinguality and Schools" scheduled to appear in 2002.
Project Management
Karin Steiner (abif)
Project Team
Irmgard Akar (abif), Ernst Gehmacher (abif)
Project Start
01/2000
Project End
10/2002
Initiator/Sponsorship/Grants
BMBWK (Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture), Municipal Department 18, Vienna City Administration, Vienna Integration Fund