Global methods such as the grammar-translation method, the communicative or the intercultural approach and what are known as the principles of foreign language teaching such as student-centred learning, task-based learning or learner autonomy are sometimes interpreted as if they could serve as general guidelines for teaching and learning foreign languages. In fact it was established in the mid-1970s that there is no such thing as a best method: successful foreign language teaching must bear in mind the differences between the involved individuals, that is, teachers and learners, as well as varying learning goals or institutional conditions. A look at current teaching practice however shows how influential and evident in everyday teaching this discussion of methods and principles is.

This module presents methods and principles and illustrates why and how changes have taken place, that certain aspects suddenly become more prominent while others recede, and that certain aspects become standard parts of the curriculum once they are introduced while others are soon almost forgotten. Users of this module will develop the ability to assess methods and principles with regard to their relevance to the respective language learning situation and to combine discussion of large-scale methods with discussion of the appropriate methodology at the micro level.

Authors                                                        

Prof. Dr. Nicola Würffel     
Project lead    

                                                           
Prof. Dr. Dietmar Rösler     
Project lead    
               

Filippa Buda, M. A.
Project collaborator     

Natallia Baliuk
Project collaborator     

Universität Leipzig
Herder-Institut

Universität Gießen
Institut für Germanistik

The “Course and Lesson Planning” module centres on how to plan, execute and reflect on teaching and learning processes in the field of German as a foreign language in a scientifically well-founded manner. This module is aimed at university teachers in the fields of GFL and German studies at universities abroad who would like to develop students’ dynamic planning skills and thereby contribute to their professionalisation as future language teachers at schools, higher education institutions or in other learning contexts. As teaching German in connection with another subject (e.g. geography, economics) is becoming increasingly widespread, the module discusses both lesson planning for GFL and approaches to planning content and language integrated learning (CLIL).

A number of influencing factors must be considered when planning courses and lessons; these include for example the respective institutional conditions and curriculum requirements as well as learners’ circumstances (their goals, language skills, experience learning languages). The aim is to prepare future teachers as well as possible for this complex task e.g. through analytical work with illustrative materials, through video observation, through reflective tasks or by means of projects that promote a research-oriented approach.

A wide range of materials (e.g. introductory texts, original academic texts, exercises, teaching videos, questions on text analysis, project suggestions) are offered on the following topics:

• Topic 1: Basic questions of course and lesson planning (focusing on GFL and CLIL)
• Topic 2: Curriculum requirements
• Topic 3: Assessing language skills
• Topic 4: Creating and reflecting on lesson plans (focusing on GFL and CLIL)
• Topic 5: Observing, analysing and reflecting on teaching

Authors

Prof. Dr. Heike Roll     
Project lead     


Dr. Susanne Guckelsberger     
Project collaborator     


Christoph Chlosta     
Projekt collaborator     


     

Universität Duisburg-Essen
Institut für Deutsch als Zweit- und Fremdsprache

The aim of this module is to theoretically and practically familiarise users with the potential added value of using electronic – mainly online – media. The focus is not on media for their own sake between media hysteria and medial edutainment, but on media as targeted tools to improve and accelerate the acquisition of language and cultural knowledge. The intention is to show at which points, for which groups of learners, under what circumstances and with what aims the use of online media can generate added learning value.

Accordingly, the module’s seven topics and 21 chapters always discuss theoretically well-established perspectives of medially supported foreign language teaching that reflect participants’ previous or future teaching and learning practice. Learning theoretical, psycho- and cognitive linguistic, media theoretical and didactic, linguistic, technological, evaluative and administrative perspectives are covered.

The content of the module will be constantly updated and complemented with relevant material to present the latest topics such as gamification, virtual reality and social virtual reality.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Jörg Roche     
Project lead     

Tamara Schabka
Project collaborator      

Isabel Hoffmann
Project collaborator          

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Institut für Deutsch als Fremdsprache

The Master’s module “German for professionals” aims to provide future teachers of the subject with the skills required for planning and teaching GFL classes at all levels that take the particular demands of professional language use contexts into account. Students’ target competences include demand analysis, models for determining career-oriented learning goals and implementing them in teaching, and the various aspects of planning language classes that focus on key professional qualifications and polyvalent speech acts in professional and general language. The latter also includes fundamental skills in teaching sector-independent language requirements relating to communication in the workplace, such as describing workflows, work products and materials, workplace-related communication in teams, and working with professional texts. Teachers will be familiar with the basics of the subject.

The module meets both research- and application-related goals, as it requires users not only to analyse the latest studies but also to carry out practical projects.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Hermann Funk     
Project lead     


Dr. Christina Kuhn     
Project lead     
 

Anna Korneva, MA     
Project collaborator    

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Institut für Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache und Interkulturelle Studien
Bereich Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache

Technical language skills are today in higher demand than ever and an important part of effective and efficient communication. The need for qualified specialists who are able to operate internationally at appropriate language levels is growing steadily. Lecturers in German studies abroad are facing the challenge of meeting the complex demands of education and further training for specialists.

With this in mind, materials are developed that gradually introduce the topic of German technical language. In addition to linguistic fundamentals, the particularities and principles of specialised communication are taught. Models for integrating language and specialised learning and on planning and developing specialised teaching are discussed and tested in order to enable participants to reflect on, produce and teach complex technical language content.

In addition to the forms and functions of various technical languages, the module explores linguistic, subject-specific, social and cultural barriers to technical communication and discusses principles for overcoming them. The focus is on the teaching of technical language and on methodological and didactic procedures for planning and designing foreign technical language classes. Both the development of teaching and learning materials and the practical implementation of methodical and didactic principles in teaching German as a foreign and technical language in the applicable country-specific context are covered.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Roelcke
Project lead    

Luna Schwarzer
Project collaborator

Technische Universität Berlin
Fakultät I – Geistes- und Bildungswissenschaften
Institut für Sprache und Kommunikation
Deutsch als Fremd- und Fachsprache

Exploring academic methods of working and the norms and standards of academic discourse is imperative for those aiming to participate successfully in international academic discourse in everyday university life and their own research. Due to established traditions in discourse and research and to various institutional and social practices, such methods and standards differ, sometimes significantly, between different regions and academic areas. Based on academic traditions and the associated communicative behaviour patterns the module examines the linguistic characteristics of German as an academic language in different types of academic texts and discourse. The different contexts of everyday academia and the associated roles of students as participants in classes or as stakeholders in the organisation of studies moreover require skills such as taking notes or the ability to hold consultations that are appropriate in terms of form, language and content. The module discusses academic situations and the various roles of students and facilitates them through practical exercises. The reflective level included in the module uses comparative tasks to initiate constant intercultural comparison and general reflection on the module’s materials in order to individually adapt the materials to one’s own teaching and classroom contexts.

The module contributes to improving students’ academic competence and moreover creates the basis for a deeper scientific examination of German as a foreign academic language.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Christian Fandrych
Project lead

Silke Schiekofer
Project collaborator

Antje Rüger
Project collaborator

Universität Leipzig
Herder-Institut

This module is designed to deliver insights into the theoretical foundations and practical applications of multilingualism research and tertiary-language didactics. Participants explore a range of multilingualism models and practise their ability to theoretically examine the topic of multiple language learning. The relevance to teaching German is highlighted in various contexts and derived by the participants themselves e.g. based on life-world language learning biographies. The module helps participants to develop skills with which they can better assess and utilise the multilingualism of learners in their courses. In addition, the module touches on current research questions and provides the option of expanding on individual topics which the participants can select themselves according to their needs.

With regard to practical aspects the module moreover presents specific examples and recommendations for using multilingualism in foreign language classes, which can be discussed based on teaching and learning theories. This means participants on the one hand discover new teaching concepts and on the other hand have the opportunity to develop materials individually with the help of the presented suggestions.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Britta Hufeisen
Project lead    

Constanze Bradlaw, M.A.
Project collaborator    


Madeleine Schmorré, M.A.     
Project collaborator     

TU Darmstadt
Institut für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft,
Fachgebiet Sprachwissenschaft – Mehrsprachigkeit

Personal practical experience as a foreign language teacher and/or learner gives rise to numerous unanswered (research) questions, for example: What do mistakes tell us about the learning process? How can different learning speeds and outcomes be theoretically modelled? What factors positively or negatively affect learning success? What didactic principles can be derived from these findings? All these questions have not been fully answered. This module therefore encourages students and teachers to scientifically examine the processes of learning and teaching German as a foreign language in their own personal context and to familiarise themselves with current research findings; they also receive inspiration for their own research. Participants are introduced to some fundamental explanatory models and general learning theories for processes of foreign language learning, and to research method(olog)ical questions and selected empirical research methods in the field of learning foreign languages. They are specifically encouraged to refer back to their own practical experience at various points in the module, in particular through suggestions for independent, sometimes low-threshold empirical work. Existing knowledge and previous experience can in this way be subjected to critical reflection and developed further, and possible advancements for one’s own GFL teaching can potentially be identified.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Claudia Riemer     
Project lead    


Dr. Sandra Ballweg     
Deputy project lead    

Universität Bielefeld
Fakultät für Linguistik und Literaturwissenschaft
Fachbereich Deutsch als Fremdsprache

The teaching and learning of foreign languages are inseparably connected with the teaching and learning of cultural aspects. So far, in the teaching practice of the subject German as a Foreign Language those were mostly implemented by concepts of ‘regional studies’ or ‘intercultural learning’, which in light of the cultural variety and heterogeneity of globalized migration societies are no longer appropriate. In the subject German as a Foreign Language new concepts have therefore been developed, tested, empirically explored and realized in teaching and learning materials during recent years, for which the designations ‘cultural studies’ or ‘discursive regional studies’ were achieved.
The module will derive the most important basic principles of cultural studies, respectively ‘discursive regional studies’, from practice-related experiences and recondition them in their central theoretical columns. It shall be shown why we even need cultural aspects while learning languages, which those are, how they can be described, which challenges they bring for learners of German as a Foreign Language and why we will not get ahead with the concepts that we have been using so far.
In detail, the module attends to the connection of language and culture, the existing concepts of ‘regional studies’ and ‘interculturality’ and their limits, the central term ‘culture’, ‘interpretation pattern’ and ‘culture-related learning’ and the analysis and development of teaching and learning materials for culture-related teaching for the chosen topics. Finally, the participants shall be encouraged to develop their own research designs and questions regarding the study of cultural science and to work on those in the form of small research projects.

Authors

Prof. Dr. Claus Altmayer     
Project lead    

Universität Leipzig
Herder-Institut
Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache

This module introduces teachers and students theoretically reflected and based on the history of the subject to the handling of literature and aesthetic media in German as a Foreign Language. The conceptual frame is built by the specific perspective of the subject German as a Foreign Language on literature and aesthetic media, according to which language acquisition and language teaching profit from the consideration of literature and aesthetic media: On the one hand, those can kick off processes of language, mediality and cultural reflexion; on the other hand they can promote a creative-poetic use of language.

Central aims of the module are to sensitize teachers and learners for the literary dimension of language and media and – building on that – to bring their attention to the various potentials of working with literature and aesthetic media for the mediation of language and culture (respectively its reflexion), for the mediation of (audio-)visual literacy and of discourse ability. Teachers shall be encouraged and supported to implement literature and aesthetic media suitable for target groups on each level of the curriculum and enabled to make theoretically reflected, methodical-didactical assessments and decisions.

The module holds nine topics: three basic topics which lay down the theoretical, subject-historical and didactic foundation; four media topics which reflect literature and aesthetic media (we chose film, graphic novel and auditive literature) with regard to their specific mediality as well as their didactic potential and challenges; the topic “text and media selection” as well as the topic “research on the interface of language and literature”. This structure aims to facilitate a flexible implementation of the module into various university and regional contexts. A focus will also be on making connections and references to other Dhoch3 modules and their topics.

Authors

Dr. Michael Dobstadt     
Project lead    

Barbara Kovar, M.A.
Project collaborator

TU Dresden
Institut für Germanistik

In cooperation with

Dr. Renate Riedner
Stellenbosch University