Basler Schulblatt: Many teachers experience language diversity daily in the classroom. What does this mean for teaching?  
Esther Wiesner: When we talk about language diversity, we often think first of multilingualism or German as a second language. For me, the important thing is that language diversity is always present, even when all the children in a class speak Swiss German or High German.

Children bring different linguistic experiences with them. They differ in their language level, in what they hear at home, what they talk about with their peers, which words they know and in which situations they need language. From a linguistic point of view, a teacher therefore always has a complex job. They have to consider: What do my students need in order to understand what is going on and to be able to act?

You have already mentioned multilingualism: what does that mean?
Multilingualism takes many forms. There are children who grow up with two or more languages. However, multilingualism can also develop later, for example when someone moves to another country and the surrounding language becomes part of their everyday life. The important thing is that multilingualism does not mean that you have to be perfect in a language. Often it is enough to use it appropriately for the situation and the communication goal – for example on holiday or at work.

We can distinguish between external and internal multilingualism. External multilingualism refers to different languages such as German, Albanian, Turkish or French. Internal multilingualism means that we are linguistically competent in different situations. We speak differently with friends than at work or at school, and in German-speaking Switzerland we are flexible in our use of High German and Swiss German.

How do children learn a new language – and what influences this process?
A child never starts from scratch. They already bring knowledge with them from their first or family language, such as how to tell stories. They now have to transfer this knowledge to the target language. This is why children often understand more than they can express.

How quickly children learn a new language depends greatly on the context. How much and what kind of contact do they have with the target language in everyday life? Are they the only ones in the class who speak the language, or do they also hear it on the school playground? That makes a big difference.

What are the biggest challenges when it comes to learning languages?
It is difficult to express communicative understanding verbally. Fortunately, communicative understanding is not only conveyed through words, but also through the way they are emphasised, through accompanying laughter, a furrowed brow or a gesture of pointing. Children therefore usually communicate and understand more than they can already express verbally. Being aware of this and supporting them in this process removes the biggest challenges.

In terms of speaking grammatically correctly, those structures are particularly difficult that are not heard frequently, such as grammatical gender or cases. We pick up such things ‘for free’ when we grow up with a language. If we lack this contact, we need targeted support and many linguistic opportunities.

What is it about children learning languages that fascinates you the most?
I find it fascinating how children approach this challenge with such enthusiasm. If you look at it more closely, you realise just how impressive it is. Learning a language is a very complex task. Children have to hear sounds, form words, structure sentences and at the same time understand what they actually want to say. In addition, there is the transition from oral to written language, which is often underestimated.

Mistakes are an essential part of this process. When children overgeneralise rules, it is a sign that they have understood something. Spelling mistakes are also often an expression of this learning process and indicate where a child is at and what needs to be explained to them.

How can teachers productively use multilingualism in the classroom?
First, it’s about appreciation. There are languages with high prestige, such as English or Japanese. Other languages are more quickly associated with prejudices. Such expectations can affect children’s self-image and also their performance. Of course, a teacher cannot teach in 20 languages. That’s not the point. But a teacher can show: Your language matters.

How can this be implemented in everyday school life?
There are projects, such as our project ‘Multilingualism as a Resource’ with Bibliomedia, in which reading materials are also made available in the children’s first languages. This way, children can take a book home in their first language and read or discuss it with their parents. This sends the message that their language is valuable. Such conversations generate a lot of what is important for language development. Of course, the target language remains central. But engaging with content and literary language in the first language can also be very helpful.

So should other languages be allowed in the classroom?
A ban on languages is difficult from a linguistic and didactic point of view. Language is learned in linguistically rich, content-rich and socially significant situations. When children talk to each other about something, they learn. German as the language of instruction remains the central goal. But other languages are not a hindrance, but a resource.

Children today communicate not only verbally, but also with images, videos, emojis, and audio. Does this change the way we learn languages?
Images and text together are nothing new. What is new is the omnipresence of digital media and the fact that children have access to them very early on. This can also offer opportunities. For example, we had the ‘myPad multimodal’ project, in which younger children from kindergarten and the first two primary school classes worked on expert topics, even though they were not yet good at writing. They demonstrated their knowledge using various forms of expression, such as drawing or recording it as an audio file and then passing it on. If they had had to write everything down, a lot of it would not have been visible at all.

What matters in digital media?
The quality of the discussion. Digital media are not inherently good or bad. What is crucial is how children are accompanied and what practices they learn. And it is also about equal opportunities. Children have very different experiences from home. It is the school’s task to balance this out.

A study has recently been carried out in the canton of Basel-Stadt on the teaching of French at an early age. The question keeps coming up as to whether starting in Year 3 is too early. What is your view on this?
The first thing to clarify is: What do you want to achieve with French lessons? French is a national language. So it’s not just about language, but also about a political and cultural commitment. If you want to strengthen the connection within Switzerland, that’s an important goal.

Whether a certain time is ‘too early’ cannot be answered in general terms. It depends on what you want. If the goal is to learn a cultural asset, that is something different from expecting children to be able to communicate very competently very quickly. Language is learned particularly well in meaningful situations with a competent counterpart. This is not always easy to achieve in school foreign language classes.

If you could share one key message with teachers, what would it be?
It is important that teachers do not only look at language with requirements, but also with fascination. Learning languages is a complex process, and children do a lot in this process.

Above all, language is not just a matter for German lessons, where the focus can be placed on specific language skills and where ‘conscious language learning’ and the practice of language strategies are possible. Language plays an important role in all subjects. In most subjects, learning the subject matter requires language above all, and thus enables ‘situated language learning’. Whether in mathematics, sports or the subject ‘Nature, Humanity, Society,’ children need to understand what is at stake and be able to act linguistically. It is a demanding task to keep this in mind, but it is worth it.

Interview: Tamara Funck