Exploring the Relationship between Pre-service Teachers’ Language Biographical Experiences and their Prospective Teaching in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

Linguistic diversity in classrooms has increased across Austria and other EU and OECD countries. In Austria, migration-related multilingual pupils now comprise over a quarter of the student population, facing higher rates of grade repetition and early school leaving than their monolingual peers. While policies promote recruiting multilingual teachers to enhance educational equity, evidence of their impact is mixed. To explain these mixed results, this study explores how pre-service teachers' language-related biographical experiences may shape their prospective teaching in linguistically diverse classrooms. Using teacher noticing as an indicator of prospective teaching practice, data from 20 pre-service teachers at the University of Vienna were analyzed via questionnaires and retrospective interviews. Qualitative content and linguistic text analysis revealed three categories of language-related experiences: Flexible language use, Linguistic adaptation, and Linguistic insecurity. Experiences of linguistic adaptation were significantly associated with negative evaluations of multilingual practices, suggesting that it is not teachers’ multilingualism alone but their experiences with language and the meanings they attach to them that matter. The findings highlight the need for teacher education programs that encourage reflection on language-related experiences. However, the small sample size warrants further research.