voneinander und miteinander Sprachen lernen und erleben

Ein Beitrag von Elisabeth Schaludek-Paletschek, voXmi-Koordinatorin am Schulzentrum HTL HAK Ungargasse, Wien

At Schulzentrum Ungargasse (SZU), multilingualism is part of everyday life – languages other than German are used between students to communicate in lessons, corridor conversations, projects and break-time chats. A look at our school community makes this very clear: of our 1,083 students (683 male, 400 female), 37% speak German at home, while 63% speak another language. At SZU, young people with 34 different nationalities and 13 different religions learn together. Another source of diversity is our strong focus on reverse integration: we give priority admission to students with physical or sensory disabilities – currently, 126 students with disabilities attend SZU. Diversity is not the exception here; it is an everyday reality.

Diversity is our strength

Our diversity shapes our mindset. The school motto is ‘We live and learn together by embracing diversity.’ This is tangible in day-to-day life at our school – in the respectful way students and teachers interact and in the mutual appreciation they show one another. Multilingualism is a key part of this because it fosters connection: when students feel comfortable with their language diversity in school, they can participate, learn with others and feel a sense of belonging.

Resources, not mistakes: seeing multilingualism as potential

We take into account all the languages and cultures of our students. The key strategy here is translanguaging: learners are encouraged to use their full linguistic repertoire to understand content more easily, clarify key terms and activate prior knowledge from their other languages. This often makes learning faster and deeper – and it strengthens confidence. The mindset behind it matters. Multilingualism is seen as a strength, not as a “mistake”. We therefore foster language awareness – online and offline – and use digital tools such as translation and terminology support purposefully as learning resources.

Multilingual subject teaching (CLIL)

We also set clear priorities in subject learning. Through teaching subjects in English using the CLIL (content and language integrated learning) approach, we connect language and subject content in practical, meaningful ways and support the gradual development of subject-specific language. In future, we hope to introduce CLIL lessons that will enable speakers of languages other than German to develop their subject-specific language skills in these languages (e.g. teaching aspects of business administration in Polish).

Projects: international experiences, real encounters

Multilingualism and intercultural learning are also visible beyond the classroom, in the form of language and project trips, our participation in Euroscola (European Youth Parliament), our role as an EU Ambassador School and activities with UNESCO, the Zero Project, and initiatives in civic education (e.g. participation in the celebrations of the European Capital of Democracy). This means social learning and global citizenship education are a part of school life, strengthening communication skills, a sense of responsibility and the cooperative learning environment. At SZU, languages build bridges – between people, cultures, and future opportunities.