The 2025 Theme Year: "Multilingualism" – The Lecture Series in the Winter/Spring Semester 2025–2026

In 2025, multilingualism became the focus of attention for Department 10 (Linguistics and Literary Studies) at the University of Bremen. The 2025 theme year spanned the winter semester 24/25, the summer semester 2025, and the winter semester 25/26. During this period, a wide range of courses was offered to students, allowing them to explore the topic of multilingualism from various perspectives. 

The highlight of the diverse program was the lecture series "Experiencing – Shifting – Crossing – ... : On the Dynamics of Multilingualism at the Intersection of Identity, Time, and Space."  The lecture series explored how multilingualism is experienced in an increasingly interconnected world and the significance of language for identity, belonging, and social participation. Within this context, Katja Baginski’s lecture is presented in more detail.

Katja Baginski: The RAuM Educational Approach – Bridging Educational Gaps Through Resource-Oriented Learning

On January 13, 2026, Katja Baginski presented the second-language teaching approach RAuM—developed as part of her dissertation—during the lecture series. This approach views multilingualism in an educational context as a valuable resource. The acronym RAuM stands for "Resource-Oriented Transition Instruction for Unaccompanied Migrant Youth with Refugee Experience."

The lecture began by addressing the educational situation of newly arrived adolescents, whose subject-specific and language skills—acquired in their schools of origin—are generally neither recognized as such nor systematically utilized as educational resources within the German education system. This dilemma can be clearly summarized in a single sentence: When participating in educational programs, these adolescents are underchallenged academically while simultaneously being overwhelmed linguistically.

In the RAuM approach described here, instruction is designed to specifically build upon and further develop the knowledge and skills students have already acquired at their previous schools. Baginski refers to the languages in which the students can already read, write, and engage in subject-specific work as “languages of prior learning.”

Later in her presentation, Ms. Baginski introduced seven principles of the RAuM approach. The principle of resource orientation and reciprocal learning describes an approach in which teachers get to know the learners’ existing skills, experiences, and, for example, multilingual backgrounds, and actively incorporate these into their lessons. At the structural level, she explained the principles of flexibility and teamwork. Flexibility refers to the freedom to adapt times, spaces, methods, and content to suit the situation. This includes, for example, reorganizing learning groups. Teamwork, on the other hand, refers to the joint preparation, reflection, and delivery of lessons—for instance, in teams of two—where at least one student teacher is studying a language.

A key pedagogical focus is the close integration of German language instruction and subject-specific instruction; Baginski used concrete examples from real-world practice to demonstrate how multilingualism can be effectively utilized in the classroom. This includes the use of parallel texts in different languages as well as the maintenance of multilingual vocabulary lists. Recognizing the existing experiences and skills of immigrant students is intended to strengthen their self-efficacy and increase their motivation and sense of belonging. The goal is, on the one hand, to rebuild the students’ self-concept—which may have been shaken by their refugee experiences—and, on the other hand, to reinforce their ability to engage in academic discourse in subject-specific classes.

In conclusion, Baginski emphasized that the RAuM approach places high demands on teachers, students, and teacher candidates, and that they must be prepared for this challenging approach through an interdisciplinary approach.

Ms. Baginski is the academic director of the Teaching and Learning Workshop on Subject Matter, Language, and Migration at the University of Bremen. This practical program for teacher education students is a collaboration between the departments of Education in a Migrant Society/Intercultural Education (FB 12) and German as a Second or Foreign Language (FB 10), which are academically directed by Professors Yasemin Karakaşoğlu and Andrea Daase, respectively.

The Collaboration Between FB10 and FB12 - The Teaching and Learning Workshop at the University of Bremen

The LLW was established in 2006 with the aim of preparing teacher education students to teach linguistically diverse learning groups through specialized seminars and supervised teaching practice while they are still in school, while also supporting students with immigrant backgrounds in their educational journey on the university campus. Student support teachers are prepared for their role through a specialized advanced seminar within the module "Dealing with Heterogeneity in Schools" and are guided and supported in practice through weekly workshop sessions. With the support of university subject specialists, teaching materials are also developed that are multilingualism-oriented and tailored to the learners’ linguistic and educational backgrounds. 

Within the LLW program, multilingualism is explicitly viewed as a resource and utilized to develop new assignment formats and convey both subject-specific and linguistic content. The program focuses not only on the acquisition of school-relevant language registers in German as a second language

This article was written by me, Dilan Aktas. I am studying to become a teacher for high schools and secondary schools, specializing in German and biology. Since 2021, I have been working as a support teacher in the Teaching and Learning Workshop for Subjects, Language, and Migration, where I teach German and biology. I also work in the student laboratory of Department 2.