Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German最新文献

This praxis-oriented article reports on the design, implementation, and evaluation of an upper-level online German course aimed at advancing the second language (L2) proficiency of US university students. Drawing on the noticing hypothesis and empirical L2 acquisition research, the study underscores the necessity of combining attention to linguistic form and meaning to optimize learning. The course design leveraged the multiliteracies approach and a multimodal guided reading framework to address the challenge of integrating multiple linguistic levels and literacy dimensions, prioritizing reading and development of the vocabulary knowledge and utilizing technology to present materials in various formats conducive to multimedia learning. The study presents both an affordance-based and evidence-based evaluation of the course. Findings indicate significant improvements in vocabulary size, high engagement levels, and positive learner perceptions toward the course materials and assignments. These outcomes suggest that the complex interplay of the focus on meaning and form within a multimodal online learning environment can effectively enhance L2 proficiency. The article concludes with recommendations for educators looking to implement similar courses, offering a model that can be adapted to various upper-level university contexts.

Immersive virtual reality (iVR) is a novel form of computer technology that promises to transform not only the delivery of language and cultural instruction but also how students produce language. The existing, yet limited, scholarship on the applications of iVR in the language classroom suggests affective and cultural benefits (e.g., increased student motivation and enthusiasm and bringing inaccessible locations and cultures to students) and a positive impact on vocabulary acquisition and speaking proficiencies, but evidence of iVR's effect on listening comprehension, reading, writing, and grammar instruction as well as higher-level cognition remains scarce and inconclusive. The project presented in this article, “Mapping Queer Berlin,” targets this scholarly gap by investigating how iVR can improve students’ reading and listening proficiencies and promote advanced research and communication skills. The explanation of the project design and the learning process and outcomes aims to guide instructors on how to integrate iVR into their classrooms, including its technological constraints and pedagogical pitfalls. Drawing on the instructor's and students’ reflections, the article concludes that iVR is currently not mature enough to facilitate significant improvements in students’ language proficiencies beyond an elementary level but shows potential for transforming language curricula with future developments.

This article explores the potential and pitfalls of performative pedagogies for teaching literature that thematizes issues of race and racism and argues that racial literacy requires a rethinking of drama-pedagogical practice. An initial segment situates pedagogical discussions of race in North American German curricula within research on racial literacy and then considers the ethical limitations of the usual approaches from drama pedagogy (role-play and identification exercises) when addressing literature about or from minoritized communities. The second half of the article outlines a case study of a performance-oriented teaching unit in a German theater practicum course for German at the B2 level, which combined work on performing and staging poetry with a discussion of the Enlightenment's entanglement with white supremacy and scientific racism. Centering on Black German poet Philipp Khabo Köpsell's poem “The Brainage,” the unit raised the question of performative ethics, namely, how and whether the class, consisting of 11 white students and a white instructor, could ethically perform the poem in a live performance at the end of the semester. The article analyzes examples from student learning and the final live performance and makes the argument for performing the process of students’ encounter with literary form using theatrical means.

So-called survey courses have been a persistent but contested genre in world languages, especially in regard to “the canon,” an unstable concept that has historically determined the textual choices of such surveys. This article presents a case study for redesigning the survey course genre in line with theory to diversify, decolonize, and decanonize the curriculum. It discusses a number of steps concerning the theoretical background, textual improvements, approaches to assignments, classroom atmosphere, and general pedagogy. It reflects on questions of positionality, institutional support, and workload. Focusing on music and short texts, the survey course described here questions the common practices and core values of German studies, music history, and musicology, and takes a critical stance toward privilege and power. In this context, the course counters tokenization, juxtaposes non-canonical and canonical works, and focuses on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility work, as well as universal instructional design principles and social justice education. Thus, the survey becomes a new genre—one that still offers students the breadth of cultural production but relies on a particular set of prerequisites determined by factors such as the space, time, and accessibility of a course, as well as the identity markers of instructor and students.

There is a need for a continued focus on language learning in advanced language classes beyond the foundations that are formed in the beginning and intermediate levels. Despite this need, little work exists on how to implement language-focused instruction in upper-level courses. As one possible solution, this paper outlines a functional, meaning-based approach to teaching language that could be easily adopted by all instructors, regardless of their professional training and/or research interests. As an example of this approach, the study described in this paper investigates the instruction of Subjunctive 1 through its function as indirect speech in a literary context. Eight participants in a fourth-semester German course engaged with the Subjunctive 1 form through a lesson focused on Kafka's authorial choices in the text Vor dem Gesetz that create a sense of uncertainty. This approach complements the traditional teaching of Subjunctive 1, such as in journalistic contexts, by centering it as a tool for meaning making in an author's lexicogrammatical toolkit. An analysis of pre/posttests that included both quantitative and qualitative data was used to assess the effectiveness of the approach. The results indicate an overall positive effect for the instruction but also individual variation by the learner. These findings support both the utility of and need for functional, meaning-based approaches in upper-level courses. Finally, I discuss how this type of approach could be adopted for any linguistic feature and by any instructor teaching advanced courses to support students’ linguistic growth throughout the curriculum.