As of: April 6, 2024, 7:04 p.m
By: Felicitas Breschendorf
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Children from Ukraine are an everyday sight in German schools. Many struggle with the language barrier. How does a prospective teacher deal with this?
A trainee teacher from Baden-Württemberg describes the Ukrainian students she has had contact with so far as “super nice, just very shy”. Since the war of aggression on Ukraine, many of the refugee children and young people have been attending German schools. According to an analysis by the Federal Statistical Office, the number of students is still increasing. It is currently impossible to say exactly how many of the 107,000 students who have joined the school for the 2023/2024 school year will come from Ukraine.
Ukrainian students attend special classes to improve their German skills. In Baden-Württemberg they are called preparatory classes, in other federal states they are called welcome classes. Some of the Ukrainian students are only in separate classes part-time. In some subjects they sit in so-called regular classes instead, i.e. together with the German students. Just like Anna Keppler* in English class. The trainee would prefer to remain anonymous because she is still in training.
Ukrainian students at a high school in Saxony. (Archive image) © IMAGO/Steffen Unger
The trainee teacher finds it difficult to evaluate the Ukrainian students
In the first two years in regular classes, grades in English, other foreign languages and German may not be taken into account when it comes to the promotion of Ukrainian students. According to the trainee, this is a kind of “grace period”. This deadline has expired for the students she looks after in the 6th and 7th grades. “I am no longer allowed to make exceptions between German and Ukrainian students,” she tells
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. The rules aren't quite that strict: According to the Ministry of Culture in Baden-Württemberg, teachers still have the "opportunity to be taken into account when determining performance".
Keppler reports that the Ukrainian children still speak shaky German even after two years. Of course, in such a short time a student without knowledge of German will not suddenly become a native speaker. The trainee teacher therefore does not feel comfortable grading them. "I don't want to give them a 6 when I know that they have different requirements than the rest. In the end I tend to overlook one or two mistakes."
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The consequences of the “language barrier” between teacher and student
The Ukrainian children get an exception at their school: they are allowed to use a translator on their cell phone during class work. Keppler does not consider the risk that they will google the solutions straight away to be a problem. “They still have enough difficulties because not everything can be translated quickly.” They don’t have any more time to solve the tasks than the others. The average grade of the Ukrainian students she has supervised so far is a 5.
The oral performance is no better. “The Ukrainian students are rather reserved in class, which has to do with the language barrier.” The children almost don’t speak up at all, says Keppler. Simply calling them out, as she does with shy German students, is not that easy. In direct conversation, it is obviously more complicated to use a translator. This is also shown by the experiences of daycare center management, some of whom use the translator with foreign daycare children.
Trainee teacher would be happy about further training
The trainee teacher is also concerned about the social contacts of her Ukrainian students. Instead of making friends with their German students, they tend to keep to themselves in the playground. But the trainee teacher comes up with a counterexample. In the 10th grade, a Ukrainian student fell in love with a German student. The student has an open personality, which is an advantage for her. “She has only been in Germany for a year and yet the two are already a couple.”
Trainees or teachers do not have access to Ukrainian courses to better understand the language. They are not particularly prepared to deal with Ukrainian students. Keppler says she would be happy to receive further training in this area. “But even then I probably won’t have enough time to take care of every Ukrainian in the class individually.”
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*The name was changed by the editors.