Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German最新文献

This article analyzes the open educational resource Grenzenlos Deutsch (GD) in the context of political resistance against diversity, equity, and inclusivity initiatives (DEI). Attacks on DEI are not merely attempts to curtail ideas and practices but to police and erase particular bodies. Recent legislation targeting DEI at North American schools and universities illustrates the politicization of bodies in the language classroom. In conversation with queer, trans, and disability studies, we contend that the use of inclusive teaching materials in the language classroom exposes and subverts essentialist and ableist cultures and beliefs in absolute social norms. Understanding language learning as an embodied practice, this article considers the body politics of GD and its wider implication in the face of bans on DEI by focusing on GD's representation of non-normative bodies, its attention to accessibility, and its approach to gender and grammar. The essay concludes with a call to action for fashioning more equitable educational environments.

The differences in the research on gender-inclusive language and in attitudes toward it mean that Czech teachers of German, as well as teachers from countries with a similar situation, are currently facing significant challenges. Their lived reality in the Czech Republic is heteronormative and binary-oriented in much greater frequency and degree than in Germany and Austria. In front of many teachers, trans*, non-binary, and intersex people do not feel comfortable expressing their gender identity, which further reinforces the binary. The first step for teachers, then, must obviously be to become familiar with the diversity of gender identities.

However, as emancipation efforts (currently especially for trans* people) progress, it seems likely that there will be many more situations where teachers will have students in their classrooms whose gender identity challenges the gender binary. It is to be expected that teachers will not know how to work with them, how to address them appropriately, and how to adapt language so that these pupils also feel included and addressed.

Unfortunately, there are no pedagogical/didactic recommendations for working with non-binary persons in Czech. Several articles on the use of gender-fair language (especially to make women more visible) in teaching have been published by Valdrová (2006, 2007, 2013, 2022). Recently, however, there have been training/workshop offerings that give teachers at least some insight into the issues of trans* and non-binary learners (e.g., the course Transgender Pupils and Learners: Inclusion in the School Environment run by Transparent). However, language issues (here in Czech) are only one of the topics covered in the course.

In conclusion, it can be stated that Czech teachers of German face great challenges in this area, for which, however, they do not have sufficient theoretical training, practical skills, and opportunities to acquire them are very limited. Teachers who want to address the topic of non-binary gender identities and their linguistic reflection have to rely to a large extent on themselves, independently search for the necessary theoretical and didactic information, and test various teaching materials and teaching methods suitable for the topic. However, given the topicality, it is to be expected that not only a professional publication base will gradually develop but also further didactic recommendations, which will be conveyed in the form of workshops and other seminars.

This study analyzes the inclusion of binary and non-binary gender-just language in US first-year college German textbooks. The analysis covers eight textbooks, evaluating their use of gender-just forms such as the gender star and neopronouns, which explicitly represent non-binary positionalities, as well as “neutral” or binary gender-inclusive forms such as neutralization and the co-naming of masculine and feminine forms. Findings indicate significant variation in inclusivity, with most textbooks integrating binary inclusivity, some textbooks integrating non-binary inclusive language to some extent and only one predominantly using the generic masculine. Results suggest that while most textbooks incorporate gender-just language, linguistic inclusivity often remains binary and tokenistic. The study concludes that while available teaching materials do significantly incorporate gender-just language, holistic evaluation of gender-just language in context is necessary to support pedagogies of care for transgender and gender non-conforming students.

In 2012, Illi Anna Heger published the gender-neutral pronoun system in German, xier.1 With few options at the time, the pronoun system included case endings for personal pronouns, as well as relative pronouns, and possessive pronouns. Consequently, over the past decade, some Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF) teachers in North America included these pronouns in their teaching of personal pronouns alongside sie and er both to allow non-binary and genderqueer students to express themselves in the German language and to highlight how students can avoid misgendering someone. The adoption of xier into the DaF classroom over several other gender-neutral pronoun options owes to Heger's thoughtful incorporation of a complex grammar system in German, as well as the continual recognition in various media and other areas of the xier options.2

After initially encountering Heger's work, I published an article on their pronouns and minizine (Heger 2013), which looked at gender-neutral pronouns in German (Neuman 2020). From that point, we began an ongoing discussion and collaboration that centers their grammatical and comics work. The following interview, conducted via Zoom and email, introduces Heger's xier pronoun system, situates the pronouns within the landscape of gender-neutral German linguistic options, and highlights their place, so far, in the DaF classroom.

NMN: How did you first come to create the xier pronouns?

Illi Anna Heger (IAH): Back in 2008, I could not find alternatives to sie and er in the German language. I knew about alternatives to “she” and “he” in the English language because they would show up in anthologies of short stories from the 1990s and the early 2000s. As a non-binary person, that was something I would read. A friend of mine, Felix Hill, and I started creating alternative pronouns for fun and we thought, “Oh, that can't be so difficult to set up something for German,” in order to be able to talk more generally and to not fix the gender of the people we were talking about. A new pronoun system is much more complex than a new noun, especially in German. There were different versions that evolved over time. I only found out about singular “they” as a specific personal pronoun in 2012. I used sier for some time, but it led to too much confusion when speaking German.

NMN: And when you say sier, you mean sie and er combined, sier?

IAH: Yes. So, in 2012, xier got its “x.” Xier, when I talk about it, it has the “k” and the “s,” like this harsh sound when you speak German and with xier pronouns, within sentences oftentimes they soften to “zier.” That happens with other words in spoken language, too, that they change when they're spoken, so xier loses some of its harshness.

NMN: When you created xier, how did you integrate it into the exis

Unlike English, which has broadly adopted the singular they and uses gender-neutral nouns for people, German lacks widely used or officially accepted non-binary nouns and pronouns. As a result, most German language teaching materials continue to reflect a cisnormative binary gender system. Research has demonstrated that limiting teaching materials to the binary options (er, sie) leads to misgendering and marginalizes non-binary students. Language instructors, therefore, face the critical task of identifying inclusive linguistic forms (e.g., neopronouns, gender-inclusive nouns) that allow all students to express their identities and be respectfully addressed by others. Drawing on usage-based language acquisition theory, this paper outlines key challenges in developing authentic, gender-inclusive instructional materials. We propose a socio-pragmatic framework to support the meaningful integration of gender-inclusive language (GIL) into the beginning communicative curriculum. Additionally, we show how recent programming from German public broadcasters offers valuable resources for engaging students in discussions of non-binary identity and GIL use at intermediate and advanced levels.

This article examines how tertiary language learners of German engaged with the novel Blutbuch (2022) by Swiss author Kim de l'Horizon. Celebrated as the first nonbinary novel in German literature, excerpts of this autofictional text were taught in a 3-week unit, which was part of a semester-long German course targeted at university students at the C1 proficiency level. Blutbuch formed the basis of the final teaching unit in a course on language, the self, and identity. In its first inception in 2023, the unit was taught through a student-led translanguaging framework, which highlighted the interconnections between cultural and gender identity. However, this approach left students with a certain degree of insecurity regarding the use of gender-just language, both in the German-speaking world and in the novel. The adapted reiteration of the unit made gender-just language more central, which led to students’ deeper engagement with spoken gender-just language. On both occasions, students were able to formulate confident and differentiated positions in their use of gender-just language in their discussion of Blutbuch. The article thus contributes to our understanding of the ways in which language users engage with nonbinary literature and gender-just language in the tertiary German classroom.

Recently in Germany the question of gender-inclusive language has become another front in the culture wars. Headlines portray these linguistic innovations as disruptive and unnecessary while politicians across Germany have moved to ban or restrict certain types of inclusive language. In this research article, I analyze the representations of gender-inclusive language from political parties and language organizations within Germany, as well as linguistic innovations from nonbinary and queer individuals and grassroots groups. I contrast these discussions in the press and the political arena in Germany with more inclusive perspectives and approaches from the pedagogical world of teaching German outside of Germany. I will discuss how German teachers and researchers like myself approach gender diversity and introduce alternative conceptual frameworks for understanding the relationship between gender and language, including Kris Knisely and Joshua Paiz's concept of queer inquiry-based pedagogies (QIBPs), Yuliya Komska, Michelle Moyd and David Gramling's Linguistic Disobedience (2019), intercultural competence, and culturally responsive pedagogy. These alternative understandings of language, power, and gender show how the language classroom can be seen not as a site for the dissemination of the linguistic and cultural norms of the source culture but instead as a space of encounter, where issues such as gender can be investigated and negotiated.