Austria

Key Findings overall

Austria is characterised by ambivalent developments in terms of multi- and plurilingualism. On the one hand, the government programme recognises the increasing diversity of Austrian society by emphasising the importance of acquisition of language skills mainly through education for children and young people, particularly referring to English, the languages of the neighbouring countries, and immigrant languages (Republik Österreich 2008: 206). 

On the other hand, it is above all a question of resources (for example, when it comes to the number of qualified teachers), which prevents the creation of a more diverse and comprehensive language education provision and makes it difficult to form a continuous language education process. 

Whereas German is regarded as the most important language for successful integration (also strengthened by current education and immigration policies), society is slowly becoming aware of the benefits of additional language skills, at least when they are seen to be ‘useful‘, for example in the economy for specific export-oriented trade and business.

Promising initiatives and pilots

There are many good practice examples throughout the domains of Language Rich Europe. One example is a project that EDUCULT is actively involved in: 

Sag’s multi is an annual rhetoric competition for bilingual pupils organised by an association of business people, the Verein Wirtschaft für Integration (VWFI) together with EDUCULT. Pupils from grade seven (age 12) onwards present their speeches switching between their German and their additional language. Since 2009, approximately 700 pupils have already taken part in the competition, presenting in more than 40 languages.