Due to numerous violent conflicts around the world, many children and young people continue to come to Osnabrück who do not yet speak enough German to be able to participate successfully in school lessons. This makes learning and arriving in Germany even more difficult for them.
This is where the Multilingualism Research Center at Osnabrück University comes in and supports refugee children and young people in school support services to help them acquire German as quickly as possible. To this end, "Sprachlernassistenz Osnabrück" is now being continued as a service-learning project and will be funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture until fall 2028.
As early as 2016, the research center was committed to the integration of schoolchildren, most of whom were refugees from Syria at the time. In recent years, a particular focus has been on supporting Ukrainian children and young people.
As part of the project, students from Osnabrück University are expanding their language skills in a preparatory block seminar. They then act as "language learning assistants" to help refugee pupils at various partner schools in the Osnabrück region to learn German. They receive professional supervision and support from experienced teachers at the schools as well as from the project team.
"Targeted language education and support is central to equal opportunities and social participation," says Prof. Dr. Katharina Nimz from Osnabrück University. "With the language learning assistance program, we are creating a bridge between the academic education of our students and the language support of children and young people who face enormous linguistic and other challenges in their new school environment due to their experiences as refugees."
More than 140 students have been active in the project so far and have been able to support newly arrived pupils both in individual settings and in the classroom context. The ninth cohort of language learning assistants is currently working in schools. Recruitment of the next cohort is planned for summer 2026.
Interested school principals and teachers from the region can find more information at: sla-os@uos.de.
Further information for the media:
Prof. Dr. Katharina Nimz, Osnabrück University
Institute of German Studies
E-mail: katharina.nimz@uni-osnabrueck.de
