Role of Language in Internationalizing a German University at Home

Abstract

•National system of education could perform higher with regards to inclusion of non-traditional learners into its system of primary, secondary, and tertiary education (OECD) •“German higher education system seems to be struggling with the task of including disadvantaged students and those with a non-German AND/OR nonacademic background, (while) the country faces an unprecedented demographic change that will make young people a rare good and education even more valuable than it is today.” Hannah Leichsenring, CHE Consult, Germany. •Upward educational mobility has been traditionally very limited despite low or no tuition (to name just one traditional barrier). Other barriers remain. ROLE OF GERMAN PROFICIENCY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND STUDY OUTCOMES/DROP OUT RATES: •Role of Language: a)national language is German and language of instruction. less than perfect language skills are a barrier to acquisition of Bildung as German as a academic language tends to draw on abstract nouns and verbs. Measure to tackle issue: UoC students teach local elementary school students German as a second language (http://www.uni-koeln.de/sprachfoerderprojekt/). Research on German as an academic language carried out at University of Cologne will likely trigger reforms (in the long run) at the primary and secondary level of the system of education, e.g., system of language instruction of German as a “Bildungssprache” (academic language or discourse) (Gogolin/Lange).