ABSTRACT
In Austria, when children leave primary school at the age of ten, they can choose between “Gymnasium” (grammar school) and “Hauptschule” (secondary modern school). The Gymnasium lasts for eight years and finishes with a final exam (“Matura”) that enables students to go to university. The Hauptschule lasts for four years and aims at providing the learner with basic general education depending on their interests and abilities and preparing them to enter the world of work. The research project focuses on problems that occur in English as a Foreign Language for the students who change over to the various types of secondary schools described above after leaving Hauptschule or after the fourth year at the Gymnasium. The hypothesis that the curricula for teaching English as a foreign language for upper secondary schools are not sufficiently coordinated with those for teaching English as a foreign language at the lower secondary level cannot be generally verified.
