“Multilingualism Is a Huge Potential” — Yet Schools Barely Use It

Original title: “„Mehrsprachigkeit ist ein riesiges Potenzial“ – doch Schulen nutzen es kaum“, pubblished on News4teachers.de, March 2026., April 2026. Translation by Alessandra Zuanazzi

 

DÜSSELDORF.  Multilingualism has long become part of everyday life in German classrooms. As of today, many children grow up speaking several languages – the family language at home, German at school. While educators often perceive this as a challenge, research findings show that multilingualism can actually be an advantage.

 

Growing up multilingual offers children lots of benefits — just not within the German school system.

One thing is clear: multilingualism is no longer something exceptional. According to the report «Multilingualism in German schools» , commissioned by the Robert Bosch Foundation, an estimated 18% of children and adolescents in Germany speak at least one additional language besides German; among children with a migration background, the percentage even rises to around 48%.  

This should actually be cause of celebration, since scientific research in psycholinguistics suggests that people benefit from multilingual socialization. “Multilingualism is a huge potential,” summarizes Simone Plöger, Junior Professor of School Research and Inclusion at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, referring to the scientific findings.

 

Multilingualism Brings Great Opportunities

In her lecture at the conference “Multilingualism in Schools – Recognizing, Appreciating, and Advancing It”, Plöger explains that multilingual individuals often possess much deeper metalinguistic knowledge — in other words, they better understand how language works — than people who speak only one language. As a result, multilingual people can often learn additional languages more easily. She also says: “They have greater creative potential, which is linked to cognitive networking, and therefore also stronger problem-solving skills that exceed those of monolingual individuals, as well as greater overall cognitive flexibility. All of this has been demonstrated through studies in psycholinguistics.”

 

Nevertheless, multilingualism is still often regarded as a problem in schools. Professor Plöger attributes this phenomenon to persistent social prejudices. As an example, one enduring belief is that multilingualism overwhelms children. Plöger counters this by saying: “Today we know that this theory has been disproven. All people have the cognitive ability to learn several languages, and this does not constitute excessive demand.” Instead, there is considerable variation in language acquisition, even among children raised monolingually. “Some children grasp grammatical structures very early, others much later, and some hardly speak at first and then suddenly produce five-word sentences.” With sufficient language support, multilingual children can acquire a language just as quickly as monolingual children.

 

Disadvantages Caused by the Structure of the School System

Another persistent myth is the belief that children should speak as much German as possible in order to learn the language more quickly. Plöger explains: “However, this has been disproven for second-language acquisition. In fact, it is very useful to make use of the multilingual resources that already exist, because connecting languages actually helps students acquire the target language — in this case German — more effectively.”

Yet despite research showing that multilingualism is not an obstacle to linguistic or cognitive development, multilingual students perform worse on average within the German education system. “We can see this, for example, in PISA and other major educational studies such as IGLU, which consistently demonstrate it,” says Plöger. In her view, the cause of this contradiction lies less in multilingualism itself and more in the structures of the school system. Schools in Germany, she argues, are traditionally designed around the assumption “that children grow up monolingually — specifically monolingually in German.” Teaching materials, expectations, and examinations are all geared toward a monolingual student body.

 

Schools Should Use Multilingual Resources

However, this no longer reflects reality. Both Plöger and the Robert Bosch Foundation report therefore advocate valuing linguistic diversity in schools and integrating it into teaching. The junior professor refers to her own research involving immigrant students. These students already possessed academic linguistic skills in their native languages — foundations that teachers could use to support second-language acquisition by building connections between languages. “’How does a feature work in other languages, and then how does it work in German?’ These are the metalinguistic competencies that students acquire, beyond the linguistic rules.”

According to the Robert Bosch Foundation report, multilingual approaches in the classroom benefit the entire class. They can “promote the reading and writing skills of all students as well as their language awareness.” Learners are more motivated and participate more actively in lessons. In addition, multilingual teaching approaches support identity formation: “Students demonstrate greater self-efficacy — meaning increased self-confidence and empowerment — as well as greater initiative.”

Against this background, the authors of the Foundation’s report recommend supporting multilingual children in the classroom by allowing them to think and work in all the languages available to them. “By doing so, students could initially approach tasks in or with the help of their family languages and work in groups with children who share the same native language for reading and research. Afterwards, they can switch to German when presenting their solutions.”

 

Demands On Teachers

However, both the report and Plöger emphasize that the transition from simple recognition to the systematic use of linguistic resources is by no means a given for teachers. Many educators perceive linguistic diversity “as a challenge for which they do not feel prepared. And this can lead to overload” the Robert Bosch Foundation publication states. Plöger adds with regard to teachers: “Crucial is the ability to tolerate uncertainty. I must be able to tolerate people speaking in languages I do not understand, so I have to give up control and no longer have oversight of everything.”

At this point, the Foundation’s report attempts to ease concerns about this perceived loss of control. To do so, it refers to analyses of audio and video recordings from classrooms, according to which “students primarily use family languages to solve classroom tasks or coordinate with other students.”

 

A Task for School Development — and for Politics

The experts do not see the responsibility for recognizing multilinguism as an integral part of the educational equity — as Plöger describes it — as resting solely with teachers. Rather, they see it as a central task of school development. On this point, the Junior Professor and the report’s authors are in agreement.

The Robert Bosch Foundation publication goes one step further by focusing attention towards policymakers. Educators, it argues, need more support in order to address the reality of multilingualism effectively. The report therefore calls for greater emphasis on linguistic diversity within teacher education programs. “To this end, it would be important to bindingly integrate the approach to linguistic diversity into initial and continuous teacher training, as a responsibility shared by all actors within the school system.”