‘Welcoming multilingualism, demanding German’: the unclear role of multilingualism in German as a second language classrooms

As linguistic diversity continues to increase in European schools, pluralistic approaches to languages are widely promoted as a means of supporting multilingual learners. However, classroom research continues to document a persistent dominance of monolingual teaching practices. This study examines how multilingualism is enacted and rationalised in German as a Second Language (GSL) classrooms in Germany, focusing on the relationship between teachers’ instructional practices and their beliefs. Drawing on classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with 18 GSL teachers in lower secondary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate, the study adopts a qualitative, multimethod design. The findings reveal that, despite generally positive attitudes towards multilingualism, classroom practices remain largely German-dominant. Multilingual resources are mainly tolerated in compensatory or peripheral ways, rather than systematically integrated into instruction. Teachers’ rationales for these practices are shaped by learner-centred concerns, perceived linguistic deficits, institutional constraints, and deeply embedded monolingual norms. The study highlights a pronounced belief–practice disjunction and argues that the persistence of monolingual instruction cannot be explained by teacher beliefs alone, but must be understood in relation to policy and institutional conditions. The findings contribute to debates on multilingual education by illustrating how multilingualism is ambiguously recognised and weakly institutionalised in everyday classroom practice.