English in Inclusive Multilingual Preschools. Kirsten Birsak de Jersey
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Previously, Austria had a complicated political organisation for preschools because legislation and administration lay within the responsibility and discretion of nine independent federal states. To remedy the situation, the nine federal states signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2008, which announced a “new legal basis for pre-school education to regulate responsibilities and cooperation between the Republic of Austria and its nine federal countries” (European Commission, 2011b, p. 4). This resulted in the publication of the BildungsRahmenPlan which was compiled in August 2009 (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, 2009a; 2009b). It did not explicitly rule out that English or any other foreign language could be included in preschools but placed responsibility on the individual preschools both to cater for and to finance any initiative that may take place with no official support provided. As a result, implementation of teaching a foreign language is scarce and varies greatly from preschool to preschool as is the case in other European member states (European Commission, 2011b, p. 9). Given this situation, no support for provision of a consistent foreign language learning curriculum or teacher education programmes that qualify preschool teachers appropriately, are provided. The Country Report referring to Austria simply states that more needs to be offered in the way of other languages in addition to German (Council of Europe, 2008a, p. 86). It would seem that Lower Austria was an exception; however, the financial support of this program was stopped in 2016:
In Niederösterreich, dem größten Bundesland Österreichs, wird Englisch flächendeckend schon im Kindergarten angeboten (vgl. Boeckmann et al. 2011). Außer dem Englischen bezieht dort die sprachliche Bildung ab der Elementarstufe die jeweiligen Nachbarsprachen (Tschechisch, Slowakisch, Ungarisch, Slowenisch, Italienisch) mit ein. Ferner ist vorgesehen … durch andere Familiensprachen, … [die] in der pädagogischen Einrichtung vertreten sind, die sprachlichen Erlebnisse der Kinder zu erweitern. (Sambanis, 2016, p. 173)
My research therefore addresses this situation in early foreign language education through an empirical study that has been conducted in a state preschool. This context can be said to be representative of many state preschools in Salzburg (→ chapter 6.2). The next section will give a more detailed insight in the preschool teacher education in Austria.
2.2.3 Austrian preschool teacher education curriculum
As the focus in Austrian preschools is on German as the language of instruction, the teacher education curriculum trains prospective preschool teachers how to teach and encourage the language of instruction (European Commission, 2011a, p. 8). In the context of discussing the role of early language learning in Austrian preschools, the focus is therefore on German as a second language rather than on introducing a foreign language:
The role of ELL staff is to provide an enriching, engaging environment, a structure that supports and extends learning opportunities through a scaffolding process (helping children to learn, play and solve the challenges facing them with a simple hint, question or prompt). ELL should allow them to monitor a child’s learning progress and anticipate his / her potential development through formative assessment. This will identify and build upon each child’s unique potential. There should not be any formal summative assessment of language competences involving grading. (p. 14)
The education of preschool teachers in Austria takes place over a five-year span at the BAfEP (Bildungsanstalt für Elementarpädagogik) schools. They are upper secondary level schools for students between the ages of 14 and 18 years. The state curriculum combines the regular secondary school education subjects which award the A-level certificate that qualifies the students to enter university, with the compulsory subject of Didactics and Pedagogics which additionally qualifies the students as preschool teachers. For the practical work of Didactics and Pedagogics, each school is associated with a preschool, which is responsible for providing teaching practice. The students also visit other preschools for further practical experience. Until 2016 the optional subject ‘Englisch im Kindergarten: Impulse zum Interkulturellen Lernen’ was offered in Salzburg for these students in their final year of their secondary school education. But the subject was not a compulsory part of students’ education, because teaching foreign languages, including English in Austrian preschools, is not included in the preschool educational plan, BildungsRahmenPlan (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur, 2009a, 2009b). According to a teacher of the subject ‘Didactics and Pedagogics’, the students did not enrol in the optional subject (‘Englisch im Kindergarten: Impulse zum interkulturellen Lernen’) due to the pressures of the final year A–level examinations and therefore the subject was discontinued. At the time, the A-level examinations became centralized throughout Austria (‘Zentralmatura’), which added to students’ pressure to attain their A-level certificate as the ‘Zentralmatura’ was new for both the teachers and the students.
To enable adults who already have their A-Level certificate to qualify as preschool teachers the BAfEP school in Salzburg offers an adult education evening course. It takes place in the evening to accommodate people who work during the day. The course includes the compulsory subjects: ‘Didactics and Pedagogics’, ‘German’ and ‘German as a Second Language’. The subjects, ‘English’ and ‘English as a Foreign Language’ are not included. The participants graduate with a diploma. If qualified preschool teachers wish to be educated in English teaching in Salzburg they can participate in seminars, which I offer for the Salzburger Verwaltungsakademie-Zentrum für Kindergartenpädagogik. Apart from these seminars preschool teachers are largely left to their own devices as to how they qualify for it or if, when, how and to what extent they implement English in their preschools:
Exact data on language teachers in pre-primary schools are not available. Foreign language teaching could be carried out by pre-primary school teachers with a certain level of the language, however, not necessarily defined and required by regulations. Or the language may be taught by native speakers teachers, native speakers (but not with teachers’ qualifications), students of the language at teacher training colleges, language teachers from primary schools etc. At the moment there is no legislation which would set minimum requirements for people providing foreign language lessons at pre-primary level, therefore their qualifications vary. (European Commission, 2011b, p. 32)
European education policy convincingly argues why early language learning should be a fixed component of the preschool curriculum, but as the Austrian preschool educational plan focuses on the children becoming competent in the language of instruction, German, to prepare them for transition to primary school, there is no room for foreign language learning. Consequently, little empirical research is available on early language education beyond the level of the language of instruction, (→ chapter 2.2.2).
As has been outlined in the introduction, to attempt to bridge the gap between education policy recommendations that supports early foreign language and the reported lack of provision of early language education beyond the level of the language of instruction (German), would require a detailed analysis of the contextual factors that affect the introduction of English in preschool and therefore my research would have to be organised as a (multiple) case study for lack of available data in the field. Consequently, a first step of my research involved administering a questionnaire survey that was sent to all state preschools in Stadt Salzburg. Details of the purposes of the survey and the results will be presented in the next chapter.
3 Contextual factors affecting the introduction of English in the multilingual inclusive state preschool
3.1 Data collection to identify the features of the teacher development context: macro level of case study
Chapter 3.1 focuses on investigating the macro level of the multiple case study (see chapter 6.1 for an overview of the case study levels). The information is based on data from the questionnaire survey,1 which I sent to all the state preschools in the Salzburg area. It aimed to provide information on the following contextual features that would be relevant for my teacher education project:
1 the contextual framework of preschool teachers’ contexts of work, referring to the size of the preschool and characteristics of children’s groups with a focus on their languages and the availability of German as a second language and of English as a foreign language (→ questions 1 &