37.1536, Confs: Bridging the Linguistic Evidence Gap: Research on Language Development of Newly Arrived Migrant Students in European Schools (Germany)

Wed Apr 22 14:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1536. Wed Apr 22 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1536, Confs: Bridging the Linguistic Evidence Gap: Research on Language Development of Newly Arrived Migrant Students in European Schools (Germany)

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Date: 21-Apr-2026
From: Aylin Braunewell [nams.germanistik at uni-giessen.de]
Subject: Bridging the Linguistic Evidence Gap: Research on Language Development of Newly Arrived Migrant Students in European Schools

Bridging the Linguistic Evidence Gap: Research on Language Development
of Newly Arrived Migrant Students in European Schools
Short Title: NAMS Conference

Date: 03-Mar-2027 - 05-Mar-2027
Location: Rauischholzhausen, Germany
Meeting URL: https://next.hessenbox.de/index.php/s/XRQZ3QjcQfgMxy8

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition

In many countries, newly arrived migrant students (NAMS) constitute a
significant and growing share of the school population, making their
educational integration a pressing concern for schools, policymakers,
and researchers alike. European countries differ considerably in how
they organise the school-based integration of NAMS: while some favour
direct inclusion in mainstream classrooms from the outset, many employ
separate or preparatory instructional settings in which newly arrived
students receive targeted language support before transitioning to
regular classes, and others combine elements of both approaches (e.g.,
Cooc & Kim, 2023; Kemper et al., 2020; Wagner et al., 2024).
Regardless of the specific model, a shared objective is to provide
NAMS with access to the majority language and to foster second
language acquisition, enabling subsequent participation in mainstream
schooling and, ultimately, successful integration into society (Bunar
& Juvonen, 2022).
Yet the question of how linguistic competencies develop across these
different institutional arrangements – and whether these contexts
actually enable and accelerate second language development – remains
open and pressing. Moreover, these post-migration educational
structures run the risk of defining students by their deficits rather
than foregrounding their individual resources (Nilsson & Bunar, 2016).
While a number of studies address social integration, educational
participation, and questions of belonging, the core task that separate
schooling programs are designed to fulfil has attracted comparatively
little systematic attention. Recent scoping reviews confirm this
imbalance: language development in separate schooling contexts is
under-researched and often based on small samples, cross-sectional
designs, and non-standardised instruments (Twente & Marx, 2025). For
settings whose explicit purpose is language acquisition, the absence
of a robust linguistic evidence base is striking and consequential.
Where research on NAMS’ language development exists, it indicates that
while NAMS demonstrate continuous progress in the majority language,
longitudinal data points to a persistent achievement gap between NAMS
and their peers that does not necessarily diminish over time,
particularly with regard to academic language proficiency (e.g., Marx
& Gorsch, 2026). Furthermore, NAMS demonstrate significant variation
in acquisition speed, challenging the effectiveness of uniform
instructional approaches and prompting critical questions about the
practical implementation of differentiation in these settings
(Schlauch, 2022). Individual differences in acquisition speed appear
to be closely linked to NAMS’ resources and conditions for language
acquisition, particularly their prior educational experiences (Foo &
Gamper, 2025). These highly variant individual preconditions are
further affected by structural inequities; schools with high
proportions of refugee students often operate with fewer resources and
face greater challenges in fostering social inclusion. Within these
settings, 'pedagogies of (un)belonging' can emerge, tying students'
access to mainstream participation to their perceived linguistic
readiness and creating hierarchies that marginalize diverse language
backgrounds (Cooc & Kim, 2023; Wagner et al., 2024). Finally, recent
studies show that segregated educational settings appear to delay
rather than accelerate language development (Höckel & Schilling, 2022;
Winkler & Carwehl, 2025). However, there remains a widespread lack of
robust and systematic evidence on how organizational, structural, and
individual factors interact and influence individual language
development (Aiello et al., 2025).
This research gap is no coincidence. Rather, it reflects a series of
overlapping challenges. The first and most fundamental obstacle is the
profound heterogeneity of the settings themselves. International
comparisons reveal significant differences in the arrangements for
NAMS schooling, and national guidelines and conditions vary
enormously. Rather than developing a standardised approach based on
scientific evidence, schools often design their integration models
based on the resources available to them. This creates solutions that
are not always the most effective from a pedagogical point of view.
This has led to a wide variety of different schooling models
coexisting side by side (e.g. de Fatima Ginicolo et al., 2026; Fandrem
et al., 2024; Kemper et al., 2020; Terhart & von Dewitz, 2017). This
institutional heterogeneity is further compounded by learner
heterogeneity, as NAMS vary widely in terms of their first language
backgrounds, prior schooling, age of arrival, migration trajectories
and socio-economic circumstances (de Fatima Ginicolo et al., 2026;
Fandrem et al., 2024). Separate school programs for NAMS therefore
exhibit a high degree of diversity across multiple levels. This
superdiversity poses significant methodological challenges for
linguistic research on language acquisition, since the comparability
of learning contexts is limited and the scope for generalization from
any single study is restricted. Further obstacles arise at the level
of research access and design: separate schooling settings are
frequently short-lived and subject to rapid, policy-driven change; the
high geographical mobility of students during ongoing asylum
procedures disrupts research continuity; ethical constraints around
researching vulnerable minors introduce further complexity; and
standardised instruments for assessing language development across
diverse, multilingual populations are often unavailable. These factors
may help to explain why systematic research on language acquisition in
separate schooling contexts remains so rare.
Aims and Goals of the Conference:
The primary goal of this conference is to address the ‘linguistic
evidence gap’ highlighted by bringing together international
researchers to systematically examine the language development of NAMS
in different educational settings. Specifically, the conference aims
to present international findings focused on the second language
acquisition processes of NAMS within separate schooling programs. It
also aims to provide a forum for international dialogue on a group of
learners that, despite its growing relevance in the context of
increasing migration and the central role of schools in language-based
integration, remains underrepresented in mainstream SLA research. A
core focus is placed on the specific methodological challenges
involved in investigating language development in NAMS. By integrating
these perspectives, the conference seeks to advance the empirical
understanding of the relationship between institutional schooling and
individual language acquisition.

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