In educational institutions in Germany, a monolingual habitus (Gogolin, 2009) still prevails. Students need to acquire language skills not only in their everyday language but especially in academic language use. Cummins (1984) differentiates between cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), which refers to language used in the context of teaching, and basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS), which describes everyday communication. The former is in particular challenging to achieve for students who speak the target language, in this case German, as a second language. While this shows a deficit view on multilingual learners, it is important to replace this perspective towards a resource orientation: multilingualism as a chance and not a deficit. To reach this aim, teachers have to take the initiative to support learners in becoming confident multilingual personalities. Thus, teachers of all subjects need competencies in teaching and supporting multilingual learners, allowing them to simultaneously engage with curriculum content and the language of schooling across educational contexts. This goal has to be addressed by teacher education programs by preparing pre- and in-service teachers for the multilingual reality in the content classroom, especially as many teachers currently do not feel sufficiently prepared (Becker-Mrotzek et al., 2012).

Until recently, it was unclear what teachers should know to meet those needs of the multilingual classroom. Köker et al. (2015) developed a model as well as a test that empirically measures pre-service teachers’ German-as-a-Second-Language competency (DaZKom model). This model consists of three dimensions which are central to the facilitation of multilingual learners: subject specific registers, multilingualism, and didactics. With respect to these dimensions, a paper-pencil-test was developed that measures the cognitive facets of the competency continuum (Blömeke et al., 2015). The level of situation specific skills and performance of this continuum cannot yet be captured by this test, as these higher levels need to be tested with instruments that target performance rather than explicit knowledge.  Since competency is linked to experience in specific (professional) situations and their demands (e.g. Lindmeier et al., 2013; Blömeke et al., 2015), the test instrument developed in the DaZKom-Video project presents authentic video-taped classroom situations. This way, the instrument is taking account of the context dependency of competency. For example, experts and novices differ substantially in their ability to perceive situations relevant to German as a second language. Experts are thought to be characterized by a more holistic perception and an intuitive grasp of relevant features of situations (Bromme, 2014; Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1989). Therefore, the situation-specific skills (Perception, DecisionMaking and Interpretation) identified by Blömeke et al. (2015) mediating between cognitive facets and performance may act as indicators of expertise.

While the aspect of perception is related to concepts of noticing (van Es & Sherin, 2002) and professional vision (Seidel & Stürmer, 2014), decision making is also relevant in other studies (e.g. Lindmeier 2011). Lindmeier classifies reflective competencies and action-related competencies.  This study measures action-related competencies by asking for explicit decisions teachers would make in multilingual teaching-situations. Based on this theoretical framework the aim of the DaZKom-Video-project is to answer the following research questions:

1.)    How is a standardization of the test procedure possible that guarantees the highest degree of objectivity and validity in realization and evaluation of the test?

2.)    Which relationships exist between the individual German-as-a-second-language experience, institutional and extra-institutional opportunities to learn (OTL) and the German-as-a-second-language competency of tested individuals?

3.)    Which qualitative levels of performance-oriented German-as-a-second-language competency can be identified in a standard-setting-procedure?

To collect data, a computer-based test instrument is used, consisting of video-based stimuli and corresponding items. The development of the items is based on the situation-specific skills perception and decision-making (Blömeke et. al, 2015). The instrument offers two different kinds of items to each video-based stimulus: 1.) What do you perceive? 2.) How would you act? The test is presented computer-based and the responses are audiotaped. Therefore, a coding manual is needed as part of the instrument. The manual offers an objective, structured instruction of how to code possible answers. Correct responses for the manual are defined by expert interviews. Experts in this study are graduated university instructors or professors in the field of German as a second language/multilingual learners, as well as experienced teachers with further teacher training in the field of German as a second language/multilingual learners or who are teacher educators.

The developed video-based test instrument measures performance-oriented German-as-a-second language competency on an expert level. It will be applied to evaluate opportunities to learn for pre- and in-service teachers. This may possibly lead to curriculum revisions in teacher education programs (concerning German as a second language/multilingual learners). Furthermore, it could be used as a consistent diagnostic tool, as it determines the success of the opportunities to learn in different regions in Germany. Additionally it is planned to adapt the instrument to other European contexts to allow comparability on a European level. The test instrument presents standards which allow a classification of pre-service teachers into classes with different German-as-a-Second-Language levels. For advanced students, specific learning opportunities in practical phases could be an option to encourage performance-oriented competencies. Thereby, an advanced level of German-as-a-Second-Language competency could be achieved during the academic education of teachers. The developed test instrument can also be used to evaluate the quality of specific teacher training programs, to examine if teachers use the teaching material provided by the schools, and to analyze if the use of the material demonstrates specific German-as-a-Second-Language competencies of teachers.

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