«Sie haben nur darauf gewartet, bis endlich mal jemand nachfragt» – Lehrpersonen über mehrsprachige Schüler:innen

Students build up metalinguistic knowledge based on their individual, often plurilingual language experience, although this background is hardly ever part of metalinguistic discourse in the classroom. This paper discusses examples of teachers’ assumptions and observations about how students respond to questions concerning languages, especially regional varieties. Data from 10 interviews with teachers for grades 7-9 show they are interested in and even impressed by students’ knowledge and experience, but they do not normally refer to it in language lessons. Thus, research as well as teacher training should highlight both the way students think about language(s) and teachers’ knowledge about their doing so.