Page 101 - Diversity in Action

Language Learning in the Context of Diversity

them, including their family languages (Allgäuer-Hackl et al., 2018; Le Pichon-
Vorstman et al., 2020).
Researchers and practitioners in Austria strongly support promoting mul-
tilingual literacy as a core part of education. Especially for children who grow
up with multiple languages due to migration, it is important to focus on how
their identity and personality connect to their languages. Encouraging and
supporting multilingual learning helps these children use all their linguistic
resources to understand and engage with school content (Dirim & Mecheril,
2018; Riehl & Blanco López, 2019). A monolingual education system limits
these learners because it only allows them to use part of their language skills,
putting them at a disadvantage (Gantefort & Maahs, 2020). Designing educa-
tion for diverse classrooms means first recognising the different realities and
unequal starting points children have. It also means responding to their in-
dividual learning needs and understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all
solution. To make language learning fair and effective in diverse settings, we
need many perspectives and teamwork across disciplines. Only then can ed-
ucators create transformative educational approaches that embrace linguis-
tic diversity and make multilingual literacy accessible to all, treating multiple
languages as a natural part of everyday life.

Equal Opportunities
When existinglinguisticdiversityismarginalised,research showsthat it often
contributes to educational inequality. According to the principle of meritoc-
racy, every learner should have equal opportunities to succeed in education
based on their abilities and efforts, regardless of their background (Becker
& Hadjar, 2009). This means that factors like family socio-economic status or
linguistic and cultural identity should not affect a child’s success in school.
However, large international studies on school performance – such as IGLU,
PISA, DESI, and TIMSS – reveal that a learner’s background strongly predicts
their educational success in many countries (Göbel & Buchwald, 2017). These
findings show that education systems often fail to compensate for differ-
ences in learners’ starting points (Stojanov, 2008). Children from disadvan-
taged or immigrant backgrounds are most affected by this inequality. Dif-
ferent academic fields explain these causes in various ways (Gaus, 2019). In
Austria, the importance of early language education as a way to reduce ed-
ucational inequality has only recently gained wider recognition. Language
support in early childhood education is now seen as key to promoting ed-
ucational fairness. However, public debates often oversimplify this complex
issue. Blaschitz (2024) stresses the need to invest in high-quality language

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