Editorial

Abstract

Linguistic Diversity in the classrooms of most mainstream educational institutions in Europe has been increasing for many decades now. The large migration flows across the world, high levels of mobility within the European Union (EU), and a number of other factors, lead to a growing number of plurilingual speakers in primary and secondary schools. In many cases, non-native speakers of a national language outnumber native speakers in mainstream classrooms in European urban areas. In addition, some EU member states have seen a considerable increase in the number of students whose educational careers have been disrupted due to having fled from their home countries. In the scientific community, there has been a consensus over the past years that educational institutions need to respond to the diverse population and the societal changes that come along with it. However, there are no clear-cut empirical answers how to best serve the student population. Generally speaking, there are different levels that need to be addressed in this context: the education system, the institutions and their routines, learning and instruction in the classroom and the stakeholders involved in respective processes. On the systemic level, it has to be asked whether the structures are still adequate to provide all students with equal chances in education. In Germany, for example, a number of different systems are in place in various federal states that range from special classrooms for newly immigrated students, so-called “International Preparation Classes” to almost complete immersion. These approaches answer to different legislative constraints as well as firmly held beliefs about ways to culturally and linguistically integrate newcomers. Despite first attempts to evaluate these diverging systems, a significant gap in research still remains (Fuchs et al., 2017). Another systemic question is whether language education policies on the institutional, regional or even national level are still up-to-date or if they need to be reframed including plurilingual and multilingual perspectives on language education and (foreign) language learning. It also needs to be addressed if and how new lan-