Moving up or moving on? Educational pathways of students in German language support classes in Austria

This conceptual paper analyses the mobility patterns of language minority students in Austria, who attend German language support classes for the maximum duration of two years. For this time, they are irregular students facing a number of educational and social inequalities. Only when passing standardised language assessment, they may move out of language support on to mainstream classes. As this research field on German language support classes has only emerged five years ago, the concrete educational pathways of language minority students are under-researched and here for the first time explicated on the basis of sociological mobility theory. In addition to its conceptual approach, the study showcases data from national statistics. These show that only 40.2% of language minority students experience a vertical-linear mobility to mainstream class, while 59.8% experience a form of horizontal mobility or immobility with an increased risk of grade repetition. The study concludes with two themes for future research: studying the standardised language assessment tool and possible alternatives, and studying immobilities and grade repetitions from the perspective of language minority students themselves.