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Knowledge of German and the need for support among integration course attendees learning an additional alphabet and those with no literacy skills , , Literacy training and German language acquisition among refugees
The high level of migration by refugees in recent years, and from Arabic-speaking countries of origin in particular, has led to a growing share of individuals who have no literacy skills when it comes to the Latin alphabet. Brief Analysis 01|2018 provides knowledge about literacy training and German language acquisition among refugees who came to Germany between 2013 and 2016. The Brief Analysis particularly focuses on the knowledge of German and need for support of individuals attending integration courses who need help with literacy.
Brief analysis 01|2018 is based on the data of "IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Survey 2016", which, in the second half of 2016, surveyed roughly 4,500 refugees who came to Germany between 2013 and 2016 and lodged an asylum application. The Brief Analysis determines the level of literacy of the respondent refugees, taking their knowledge of Latin and non-Latin alphabets into account, and analysing their acquisition of German in greater detail on this basis. The analyses are based on language knowledge as assessed by the respondents themselves.
The central results include the following:
- Roughly 34 percent of refugees were able to read the Latin alphabet on arrival in the country, 51 percent were learning the Latin alphabet as an additional alphabet (i.e. they already had literacy skills in a non-Latin alphabet), and 15 percent had no literacy skills in any alphabet.
- Only a negligible number in all three groups had any written or oral knowledge of German on arrival.
- Fewer than one-fifth of those who had no literacy skills in any alphabet had attended an integration course by the time when the survey was taken in the second half of 2016. This share was 33 percent among those who were learning an additional alphabet, and 39 percent among those who had skills in the Latin alphabet.
- The greatest growth in self-assessed knowledge of German was recorded by those who had skills in the Latin alphabet, and the least by those who had no literacy skills in any alphabet.
- Most integration course graduates who had skills in the Latin alphabet on arrival stated that they had gained a good knowledge of German. The majority of those who had no literacy skills in any alphabet and those who were learning an additional alphabet had obtained basic knowledge, but subsequent support in the shape of supplementary promotion over and above the integration course appears to be expedient and important in order to enable those who had no literacy skills in any alphabet in particular to learn to use the language independently.
- Those who had no literacy skills in any alphabet, and those who were learning an additional alphabet, together continued to constitute almost two-thirds of those refugees who had not (yet) attended an integration course at the time when the survey was taken. The results therefore indicate that a considerable demand remains for literacy courses, and above all for courses for those who were learning an additional alphabet.
The author of the Brief analysis: Jana A. Scheible