In Austria, segregated German language support classes (GLSC) were introduced in the school year 2018/19 to intensively support students who had previously little or no contact with German, the official language of instruction. These classes have been widely criticised; however, a formal evaluation of their effects has yet to be published. In absence of this evaluation, this article describes the language support model as it currently exists in Austria and reviews existing evidence about its efficacy. The literature review synthesises findings from educational research undertaken in other contexts that offer insight into features of ‘good practice’ in language support models. The article then explores the extent to which GLSC comply with these features. As such, this review allows insights into ways of ensuring students’ language and socio-emotional development – all central aspects of academic success – in language support models. It therefore allows research-informed understanding of the effects of the newly implemented model of German support classes in Austria and makes recommendations for further development.

The articles in this special issue explore approaches to research and action in language education that have the potential to transform subjectivities and practices in relation to linguistic diversity. They seek ways within education and teacher education to overcome what Gogolin ([1994]. Der monolinguale ‘habitus’ der multilingualen Schule. Waxmann Verlag) called the ‘mononlingual habitus’, i.e. the deep-seated habit of assuming monolingualism as the norm for all individuals and thus for schooling. In doing so, the contributors aim to (re)inscribe multi/plurilingual education in Europe as a socially engaged pedagogical approach and field of research grounded in ideals of social justice. In this introduction, we provide a brief overview of multi/plurilingual education in Europe, linking to current critical work on neoliberalism, language, education and social justice. We then introduce and discuss some of the key theoretical concepts used by the different authors for studying subjectivities (e.g. attitudes, beliefs, ideologies, mind-sets) as well as the methodological approaches employed in the articles. We close with an overview of the different articles that make up the special issue and by highlighting some of the enduring issues in the field of multi/plurilingual education.

This article reports on an interview study with six secondary school LX English teachers working in a part of Austria where there is an above-average number of residents–and thus also students–who are multilingual and come from migration backgrounds. It attempts to extend research on deficit perspectives of multilingual learners from migration backgrounds to the area of LX English learning and to provide insights into a language learning context that is underrepresented in international applied linguistics research, which has tended to focus on elite language learning. The article explores teachers’ perceptions of teaching English in this context. We hypothesized that teachers would hold negative beliefs about their students’ multilingual backgrounds and practices. The typological analysis of teachers’ interview data revealed that teachers did hold some dominant deficit perspectives about their students’ multilingualism and language learning; however, it also suggests that teachers are taking on the rudiments of a translanguaging stance that values multilingual practice. The article thus closes by considering how possibility perspectives can be harnessed and extended to foster students’ multilingual and multicultural development, with particular regard to LX English language learning.

The educational disparities that can be found in the English language learning outcomes of middle school students in Austria have gone relatively unexplored in international research. National studies have tended to attribute lower educational outcomes either to students’ socioeconomic status or their multilingual background. In this article, we use the theory of intersectionality to shed new light on how educational disparities that run along socioeconomic lines are tightly entangled with beliefs about students’ multilingualism, arguing that these two factors must be explored in tandem to understand educational disadvantage in this context. Our study brings together a rich description of the educational context with a quantitative exploration via questionnaire of the beliefs and classroom practices of 56 English teachers at Austrian middle schools. Analyses of the data allow insight into how teachers’ beliefs about their students’ abilities, motivations and access to English outside of school and teachers’ language use in the classroom all relate to the lower outcomes in English at Austrian middle schools. The article closes by considering the importance of the findings for policy and practice in English language education in Austria, including ideas for the transformation of these.

Educational research in Austria has demonstrated that early tracking into academic secondary schools and middle schools results in inequities for students with low socioeconomic status, from migration backgrounds and/or with German as an additional language. It has also found gaps in performance between students in the two school types, including in English. To better understand the reasons for this, we collected data from teachers in both school types about their beliefs and classroom practices. Teachers in academic secondary schools indicate higher achievement levels for English amongst their students compared to teachers in middle schools. Descriptive and inferential analyses reveal higher perceived levels of motivation amongst academic secondary school compared to middle school students, and students’ perceived level of motivation influenced English language outcomes in both school types. Moreover, there were significant differences aligning with school type in teachers’ reported language use in the classroom and their perceptions of students’ access to English outside of school. These findings suggest factors that contribute to gaps in achievement in English language education according to school type. The article closes by considering how plurilingual pedagogies might be employed to transform beliefs, alleviate disadvantage and support equity in English language education in Austria and beyond.

This study provides a counter-narrative to commonly found deficit discourses about LX English learners from migration backgrounds in Europe. A questionnaire was conducted with 108 middle school students and 100 high school students in Austria in a context which has been relatively unexplored: non-elite, linguistically diverse small-town schools. Here, students are meeting their learning outcomes for English at a higher success rate than the national average, and this success in LX learning aligns with high reported levels of home language proficiency. Responses indicate that linguistically diverse students are more likely to succeed when they feel comfortable in the English classroom and actively participate in lessons. Students’ success is also related to their teachers showing an interest in their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Findings thus suggest that this context is allowing for the creation of ‘pockets of possibility’ where teachers take on the rudiments of a translanguaging stance and create safe spaces in which students perform their multilingual identities as valued and welcome members of the classroom community.