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In Austria, segregated German language support classes (GLSC) were introduced in the school year 2018/19 to intensively support students who had previously little or no contact with German, the official language of instruction. These classes have been widely criticised; however, a formal evaluation of their effects has yet to be published. In absence of this evaluation, this article describes the language support model as it currently exists in Austria and reviews existing evidence about its efficacy. The literature review synthesises findings from educational research undertaken in other contexts that offer insight into features of 'good practice' in language support models. The article then explores the extent to which GLSC comply with these features. As such, this review allows insights into ways of ensuring students' language and socio-emotional development -- all central aspects of academic success -- in language support models. It therefore allows research-informed understanding of the effects of the newly implemented model of German support classes in Austria and makes recommendations for further development.

This study provides a counter-narrative to commonly found deficit discourses about LX English learners from migration backgrounds in Europe. A questionnaire was conducted with 108 middle school students and 100 high school students in Austria in a context which has been relatively unexplored: non-elite, linguistically diverse small-town schools. Here, students are meeting their learning outcomes for English at a higher success rate than the national average, and this success in LX learning aligns with high reported levels of home language proficiency. Responses indicate that linguistically diverse students are more likely to succeed when they feel comfortable in the English classroom and actively participate in lessons. Students' success is also related to their teachers showing an interest in their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Findings thus suggest that this context is allowing for the creation of 'pockets of possibility' where teachers take on the rudiments of a translanguaging stance and create safe spaces in which students perform their multilingual identities as valued and welcome members of the classroom community.

The educational disparities that can be found in the English language learning outcomes of middle school students in Austria have gone relatively unexplored in international research. National studies have tended to attribute lower educational outcomes either to students' socioeconomic status or their multilingual background. In this article, we use the theory of intersectionality to shed new light on how educational disparities that run along socioeconomic lines are tightly entangled with beliefs about students' multilingualism, arguing that these two factors must be explored in tandem to understand educational disadvantage in this context. Our study brings together a rich description of the educational context with a quantitative exploration via questionnaire of the beliefs and classroom practices of 56 English teachers at Austrian middle schools. Analyses of the data allow insight into how teachers' beliefs about their students' abilities, motivations and access to English outside of school and teachers' language use in the classroom all relate to the lower outcomes in English at Austrian middle schools. The article closes by considering the importance of the findings for policy and practice in English language education in Austria, including ideas for the transformation of these.

Educational research in Austria has demonstrated that early tracking into academic secondary schools and middle schools results in inequities for students with low socioeconomic status, from migration backgrounds and/or with German as an additional language. It has also found gaps in performance between students in the two school types, including in English. To better understand the reasons for this, we collected data from teachers in both school types about their beliefs and classroom practices. Teachers in academic secondary schools indicate higher achievement levels for English amongst their students compared to teachers in middle schools. Descriptive and inferential analyses reveal higher perceived levels of motivation amongst academic secondary school compared to middle school students, and students' perceived level of motivation influenced English language outcomes in both school types. Moreover, there were significant differences aligning with school type in teachers' reported language use in the classroom and their perceptions of students' access to English outside of school. These findings suggest factors that contribute to gaps in achievement in English language education according to school type. The article closes by considering how plurilingual pedagogies might be employed to transform beliefs, alleviate disadvantage and support equity in English language education in Austria and beyond.

Migration has become a vital element of the Bangladeshi economy, which has led to an increasing focus on providing Bangladeshis with the skills needed on the international labour market. English is often cited as one of these skills, and previous research has shown that a primary reason why Bangladeshis wish to learn English is due to its perceived value for pursuing work abroad (Erling, Elizabeth J., Philip Seargeant, Mike Solly, Qumrul H Chowdhury, & Sayeedur Rahman. 2012. "Attitudes to English as a language for international development in rural Bangladesh." London: British Council. Available online at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/attitudes-english-a-language-international-development-rural-bangladesh.). The extent to which English is of value in economic migration, however, has been underexplored in research (Coleman, Hywel. 2010. "The English language in development." London: British Council. Available at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/english-language-development.). Drawing on data from a qualitative study which provides new insights into the experiences and perceptions of a cohort of returnee migrants, this article investigates the perceived value of (English) language skills for migration. The study finds that economic migrants see the advantages of having particular skills, especially English, for economic gain. However, applying a capabilities lens to their narratives (Sen, Amartya. 1999. "Development as freedom." Oxford: Oxford University Press.) reveals the difficulties of classifying their experiences in terms of "success" given the deeply embedded structural issues and challenges the participants report facing. This article therefore questions assumptions that language skills can be transformational when social inequality is (re)produced in the context of migration.

The increased status of English as the language of international communication and business has meant that development aid has increasingly been used to finance language planning initiatives aimed at improving and/or expanding English language education. The intended outcome of this aid is often to provide expanded economic returns and opportunities for those who learn the language. But is it really the case that they receive these benefits? In this paper I attempt to form a deeper understanding of the relationship between English language skills and economic value by providing a meta-analysis and critical evaluation of 11 research studies. By critically evaluating this research using Sen's capabilities approach [1999. "Development as freedom." Oxford: Oxford University Press], I find that while English language skills might enhance opportunities for individuals, they also appear to reinforcing embedded inequalities and therefore not necessarily contributing to the well-being of societies. English language education may have limited impact without sufficient political and economic stability. Moreover, there are ongoing and significant needs to develop literacy and numeracy in local and national languages. Equipped with this more nuanced understanding of the value of English, I argue that development aid and language planning initiatives can make more significant contributions to holistic development and social justice.

This paper reports on a rigorous literature review of research into medium of instruction in Ghana and India, whose language-in-education policies represent two contrasting models of use of local languages and the development of competence in English. The paper begins by briefly overviewing the language-in-education policy in these two countries and sets out the methodological approach underpinning this review. It then turns to the initial findings, which are discussed in two parts: the first categorises the three areas of research explored in the empirical studies reviewed, namely the effectiveness of language-in-education policies, problems hindering the implementation of these policies, and attitudes to these policies. The second provides an overview of the recommendations for how, given the obstacles in implementing the current policies, to better ensure the effectiveness of language-in-education policies in Ghana and India. Together these findings show that similar issues arise that contribute to challenges of providing equitable, quality education, and similar recommendations have been put forward as a result. This paper thus provides a valuable overview of key issues in the role of language-in-education policies in improving equity and quality in education in LMICs.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether differences in academic attainment between university students could be correlated with their use of English for academic purposes. Using the diagnostic language assessment procedure known as Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students (MASUS), as well as informal analysis of assignment feedback and interviews with students, students' performance in assignments in three subject areas was investigated. Results confirmed that there was a strong correlation between the overall scores students obtained in the MASUS language assessment and their attainment as represented by their assignment grade. However, analysis of the five separate categories of the MASUS scores showed that only the scores for the category, "use of source material," correlated strongly with student attainment and that the scores on the more explicit language categories, "structure and development of the text," "academic writing style," and "grammar," did not. The paper considers the implications of these findings for future studies of the role of English for academic purposes in students' attainment and for EAP pedagogy. (Contains 1 table.)

Measuring the Academic Skills of University Students is a procedure developed in the 1990s at the University of Sydney's Language Centre to identify students in need of academic writing development by assessing examples of their written work against five criteria. This paper reviews the literature relating to the development of the procedure with a focus on studies exploring its reliability and validity. It then describes a study in which teams of language experts and subject experts used the procedure to rate assignments produced by students taking three distance-learning courses. This study provides further insight into the psychometric properties of the procedure: the overall ratings had satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability and were highly correlated with the marks awarded to the assignments analyzed. However, the ratings were also highly correlated with each other and yielded just one principal component, suggesting that even skilled assessors were unable to differentiate between different aspects of academic writing. We therefore conclude that the procedure is a reliable and valid means of identifying students who need writing skills development but that it should not be relied on to identify their particular areas of weakness. (Contains 5 tables.)

This paper examines a specific group of English users in Germany: students studying English at the Freie Universitat Berlin. The first section outlines the various domains in which these students encounter English in their daily lives, both within and outside university, as they make and maintain intercultural connections. This analysis suggests that, at least among these university students, English-German bilingualism seems to be the norm. The second section of this paper shows how students' proficiency in English plays a role in their creation, or re-creation, of local, national, European and global identities. What is more, in this small community of students, it seems that the ability to use English is intricately tied in with the (re)definition of what it means to be German, or at least an educated, urban German. Although they constitute a small community, these students' uses of and attitudes towards English highlight some general trends of globalization and provide some insights into the evolving role of English in Europe.