Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Pedagogy - School System, Educational and School Politics, grade: 2, ÖBV Pädagogische Hochschule Wien, language: English, abstract: In dieser Arbeit soll herausgefunden werden, ob die Einführung einer bilingualen Volksschule für alle Kinder sinnvoll wäre. Englisch ist heutzutage eine der wichtigsten Sprachen der Welt. Da es Kindern besonders leicht fällt neue Sprachen zu lernen, ist es sinnvoll so früh wie möglich damit zu beginnen. Außerdem legt die EU besonders großen Wert darauf, dass jedes EU-Mitglied mindestens zwei weitere Sprachen, die in der EU gesprochen werden, beherrscht. In österreichischen Volksschulen wird Englisch als "Verbindliche Übung" unterrichtet. In der ersten und zweiten Schulstufe sollen insgesamt 32 Jahresstunden Englisch unterrichtet werden. Ab der dritten Schulstufe gibt es eine festgelegte Wochenstunde Englisch. Obwohl es viele Gründe gibt, warum es sinnvoll ist, die Kinder beim Englischerwerb zu unterstützen, wird dies in österreichischen Schulen immer noch nicht angemessen verwirklicht. When you take a closer look you realize that five out of the eight Austrian neighboring countries have another official language than German. Knowing that there are 24 official languages in Europe it is obvious that the EU wants its citizens to learn as many languages as possible. English is a universal language which is used to communicate with people who do not speak each other’s first languages. Being able to speak English is a skill which is not only helpful to have a successful school career but to have success in life. Elementary schools are primarily responsible to introduce and teach English to all children. Most bilingual elementary schools are run completely or partly private which makes it impossible for families with lower incomes to enroll their children in these private bilingual schools. Wouldn't it be great if every child in Austria could get an education in both English and German in their public elementary school?

This book contributes to current issues in TLA and multilingualism research. It discusses multilingual learning and development from a Dynamic Systems Theory perspective. The author argues that trilingual education does not harm or confuse young learners but that the teaching of three languages from an early age carries positive implications for children's linguistic, metalinguistic, and crosslinguistic awareness.

The most comprehensive overview available, this Handbook is an essential guide to sociolinguistics today. Reflecting the breadth of research in the field, it surveys a range of topics and approaches in the study of language variation and use in society. As well as linguistic perspectives, the handbook includes insights from anthropology, social psychology, the study of discourse and power, conversation analysis, theories of style and styling, language contact and applied sociolinguistics. Language practices seem to have reached new levels since the communications revolution of the late twentieth century. At the same time face-to-face communication is still the main force of language identity, even if social and peer networks of the traditional face-to-face nature are facing stiff competition of the Facebook-to-Facebook sort. The most authoritative guide to the state of the field, this handbook shows that sociolinguistics provides us with the best tools for understanding our unfolding evolution as social beings.