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Language support for multilingual learners plays a major role in classrooms today. Because there is a need for facilitation of academic language in all subject areas of the classroom, all teachers are expected to have the ability to scaffold language acquisition in their subject area. The development of special teacher training programs in the field of second language teaching which help pre-and in-service teachers to acquire the abilities to facilitate their students’ academic language learning is seen as important in Germany as much as internationally. This article describes the role of German as a Second Language (GSL) in German university teacher training and a theoretically and empirically validated competency model. Furthermore, this article presents not only the description of a GSL preservice teacher training in Berlin universities but also the evaluation results. Future teachers’ GSL competencies were measured using the standardized DaZKom test at two measurement points. Students showed significantly higher skills after attending GSL training. Students who study German showed higher skills than students who do not and students who study a foreign language also showed higher skills than students who did not. Master students had significantly higher GSL competencies compared to bachelor students. © 2020 selection and editorial matter, Svenja Hammer, Kara Mitchell Viesca, and Nancy L. Commins; individual chapters, the contributors.

There is an absence of empirically based standards for pre-service teacher education regarding competencies in the field of German as a Second Language (GSL) needed for being able to adequately facilitate second language learners in the mainstream classroom. The DaZKom study aims to fill this gap by providing a theoretical framework and competency model in this field for pre-service teachers of all subjects. This article primarily focuses on the rationale, generation, and explication of the GSL competency model, which discerns three dimensions: subject-specific registers, multilingualism, and didactics. The model also describes three competency stages, which are based on the first three stages of the Five-Stage Model of Adult Skill Acquisition by Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1986). In order to empirically measure preservice teachers’ GSL competencies, a paper and pencil test was developed on the basis of the model and tested on a large sample of pre-service teachers; the model was further content validated by a group of experts from the field of GSL and educational science.

We analysed the beliefs about multilingualism in school of in-service teachers from the US (n = 60) and Germany (n = 65), utilising a survey originally developed in German that was translated and adapted into English. Results show that teachers from both samples, on average, strongly agree that a person’s identity is connected to their language and culture. However, we found significant differences in scale mean values between US teachers and German teachers concerning their beliefs about (1) the interconnected nature of language with culture and identity, (2) language demand in content classrooms, (3) responsibility for language teaching, and (4) valuing multilingualism. Our results provide insight into cross-cultural differences between German and US teachers’ beliefs, as well as a strong instrument in two languages to measure teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism in schools We analysed the beliefs about multilingualism in school of in-service teachers from the US (n = 60) and Germany (n = 65), utilising a survey originally developed in German that was translated and adapted into English. Results show that teachers from both samples, on average, strongly agree that a person’s identity is connected to their language and culture. However, we found significant differences in scale mean values between US teachers and German teachers concerning their beliefs about (1) the interconnected nature of language with culture and identity, (2) language demand in content classrooms, (3) responsibility for language teaching, and (4) valuing multilingualism. Our results provide insight into cross-cultural differences between German and US teachers’ beliefs, as well as a strong instrument in two languages to measure teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism in schools.

The research study “DaZKom” is an interdisciplinary and inter-university project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) program “Modeling and Measuring Competencies in Higher Education” (KoKoHs). The objective of the project “DaZKom” is to theoretically model and empirically validate teacher competencies in the field of German as a Second Language (Deutsch als Zweitsprache – DaZ).