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A Parent's Guide

9
Interesting facts on multilingualism

1

Facts on multilingualism

  • Growing up multilingual is the daily routine for most children in the world.
  • The European Union (EU) officially has 24 languages. However, at least 200 more are spoken throughout Europe (Undehn, 2023 — Goethe Institut).
  • Countries in the rest of the world have many more official and minority languages: Zimbabwe, for example, has 16 official languages. India has more than 1000 dialects and more than 100 different languages, with 23 of them being official languages (including English).
  • The goal of the EU is to establish multilingualism throughout Europe. Therefore, multilingualism is supported officially, and every citizen should speak at least 2 to three languages (European Commission 2017).
2

Facts for Austria:

  • In 2023, 21.7% of the Austrian population were born outside of Austria. In Vienna, this number increases to 39.3% (Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, 2023).
  • In 2021, 26,9 % of the pupils in Austria had a non-German family language (Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, 2023).
3

Facts for Germany:

  • In 2017, 20,2 % of all children under six mainly did not speak German at home (Geis-Thöne, 2022).
  • In 2019, only 65,3 % of 3-4-year-old children from families with less knowledge of the school language visited a kindergarten (Geis-Thöne, 2022).
  • In 2022, 21 % of all children under 14 spoke more than one language at home in Germany (Geis-Thöne, 2022).
  • 15 % of households use German alongside other languages or no German as a family language (Destatis, 2022).
  • Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Polish, and English are the most spoken languages besides German (Destatis, 2022).
4

Facts for Lithuania:

  • Most people in Lithuania are bilingual or multilingual—90% can speak and understand more than one language. The most common foreign languages are Russian (around 86% of non-native speakers can speak it) and English (70% of the population in Lithuania can speak it). However, this situation is changing: the number of people who can speak Russian is getting smaller, and more and more people speak English nowadays.
  • For many years, most immigrants were returning Lithuanian citizens (82%); since 2022, most new immigrants are non-EU citizens (84%).
  • About 6% of the Lithuanian population was born outside Lithuania. At the beginning of 2022, Lithuanians accounted for 85.1% of the country's permanent population, Poles - 6.6%, Russians - 5.1% and others - 3.2%. The majority of people of non-Lithuanian nationality have a family language other than Lithuanian.
  • In 2022-2023, almost 10.6% of the school children attended non-Lithuanian secondary schools (but instead Russian, Polish or other), where some encountered Lithuanian as a state language for the first time.
  • However, some families of non-Lithuanian nationalities, both Lithuanian minorities and recent immigrants, choose to educate their children in Lithuanian schools. Lithuanian migrant families who are re-migrating to Lithuania also send their children to Lithuanian schools. The Lithuanian language proficiency level of these children varies greatly.
5

Facts for Poland:

  • Until recently, Poland was mainly a monolingual country. This gradually changed after joining the EU in 2004 due to migration in and out of the country and mixed marriages. Additionally, the rights of ethnic minorities have been acknowledged.
  • There has been a steady increase in the number of learners from migrant and multilingual families in the school setting, from 9610 in 2009 to 51363 in 2019 (NIK, 2020). These numbers also include children from Polish migrant families returning to Poland.
  • Since 2022, 1879,000 Ukrainian refugee learners have been admitted to Polish schools and kindergartens. (samorzad.infor.pl, 2023).
  • The most spoken languages besides Polish are Ukrainian, Belarussian, German, Russian and Vietnamese (GUS [Main Statistical Office], 2020).
6

Facts for Slovenia:

  • In 2023, 9 % of pupils in Slovenia were born outside of Slovenia.
  • The most common home languages besides Slovenian are Serbo-Croatian, Albanian, Macedonian, Hungarian and Italian.
Literature
  • De Houwer, A. (2015). Integration und Interkulturalität in Kindertagesstätten und in Kindergärten: Die Rolle der Umgebungssprache für das Wohlbefinden von Kleinkindern. In: E. Reichert-Garschhammer, C. Kieferle, M. Wertfein & F. Becker-Stoll (Hrsg.): Inklusion und Partizipation – Vielfalt als Chance und Anspruch (S. 113-125). Göttingen: Vandenboeck & Ruprecht.
  • Dintsioudi, A., Krankenhagen, J. (2020). Mehrsprachigkeit in der KiTa von Anfang an gut begleiten. nifbe-Beiträge zur Professionalisierung Nr. 12. Osnabrück: nifbe.
  • Feierabend, S., Plankenhorn, T. & Rathgeb, T. (2015). miniKIM 2014. Kleinkinder und Medien. Basisuntersuchung zum Medienumgang 2- bis 5-Jähriger in Deutschland. Stuttgart: Medien pädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest.
  • Panagiotopoulou, A. (2016). Mehrsprachigkeit in der Kindheit. Perspektiven für die frühpädagogische Praxis. In: Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V. (Hrsg.): Weiterbildungsinitiative Frühpädagogische Fachkräfte (Wiff-Expertise Nr. 46). München: DJI.
  • Tracy, R. (2008). Wie Kinder Sprache lernen. Und wie wir sie dabei unterstützen können. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempo Verlag.
  • Woerfel, T. (2022). Mehrsprachigkeit in Kita und Schule. Köln: Mercator-Institut für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache.
  • Bialystock, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy and cognition. New York, NJ: Cambridge University Press.
  • Bialystock, E., Majumber, S. & Martin, M.M. (2003): Developing phonological awareness: Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24(1), 27-44.
  • Byers-Heinlein, K., Burns T.C. & Werker, J.F. (2010). The Roots of Bilingualism in Newborns. Psychological Science, 21(3), 343-348.
  • Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. West Sussex, UK: Wiley- Blackwell.
  • Gogolin, I. (2012). First language and second language learning. In: J.A. Banks (Ed.): The Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education (p. 915- 918). Thousand Oaks, CA & London: Sage Publication.
  • Mampe, B., Friederici, A.D., Christophe, A. & Wermke, K. (2009). Newborn's cry melody is shaped by their native language. Current Biology, 19(23), 1994-1997.
  • Zurer Pearson, B. (2008). Raising a bilingual child. A step-by-step guide for parents. NY: Living Language.
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