Aus Texten lernen

This paper deals with the question of how to cope with heterogeneity in multilingual higher education classrooms, especially in a non-English speaking country like Switzerland. Immigrants, under Swiss conditions, are forced to find their way with their second language e.g. German, and they have to learn a second Swiss language e.g. French or Italian as well as English. German academic texts often used in Higher Education Textbooks are challenging. So even if the students’ everyday communication skills in their schooling language are advanced, they still encounter enormous problems in reading and understanding their textbooks in non-language subjects. The study shows that different methods of problem analysis help students to improve reading strategies. On the other hand, text comprehension can be developed by practicing writing skills using techniques like excerpting, paraphrasing, rewriting etc.