Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German最新文献

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.

Second-language (L2) learner motivation has been a thriving subfield within L2 acquisition research for decades, particularly since the development of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), a multi-faceted motivational theory. This survey-based study examines (1) whether L2MSS facets differ between students intending to continue (or discontinue) learning German past the language requirement and (2) whether any relationship exists between the different selves within the L2MSS, students’ L2 Learning Experience (L2E), and their Willingness to Communicate (WTC). Third-semester learners’ mean ratings of their Ideal Self, Anti-Ought-To Self, WTC, and Attitudes Toward the L2 Community were significantly higher among students intending to continue German study beyond the language requirement (N = 28) than those discontinuing study (N = 46). Multiple regression analyses predicted a positive effect of the Ideal Self on ratings of both L2E and WTC. Qualitative analysis revealed themes of fear and positive attitudes toward the German language/culture among learners intending to continue German study, while non-continuers predominantly mentioned the language requirement. Both continuers and non-continuers mentioned the concrete and abstract utility of language learning as an additional motivation. The implications of these results for student recruitment and retention in German language programs are discussed.

Kate Paesani and Mandy Menke advance the discourse on multiliteracies in language education with this practical volume for educators. They address teachers of all languages and levels, who may have varying levels of interest in shifting to a multiliteracies approach. Intended as a guidebook, the volume's two parts address the theory and practice of implementing this approach in language pedagogy and the practical aspects of integrating it with frameworks teachers may already know and use, like communicative language teaching. The companion website offers supplemental materials such as sample lesson plans and structured templates that teachers can use to plan their own units and lessons. It is easy to imagine this book being used as part of a reading group for language educators (perhaps facilitated by a language or teaching center) or as part of a course on second language pedagogy for newer instructors.

The book is divided into two parts, which address the theory and the practice of adopting a multiliteracies approach. Part I summarizes previous research on multiliteracies in backward design (Chapter 2), discusses how to set clear and achievable learning objectives and how to communicate them to students (Chapter 3), provides practical ideas for selecting and designing activities around texts, defined broadly (Chapter 4), and establishes principles and practices for designing literacies-based assessments (Chapter 5).

Part II presents the four processes of multiliteracies, which are loosely based on Bloom's original taxonomy: experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, and applying. Paesani and Menke provide activity types for each of the processes. This section also addresses the real concerns that teachers might hold with regard to designing and implementing multiliteracies pedagogy. Instructors may worry about the challenge of designing multiliteracies lessons for novice-level learners, the extra time required to find texts, planning lessons that carry students through all four multiliteracies processes, and the possibility that teachers’ courses may exist within a sequence where not every course takes the same approach, especially in higher education, but in K-12 settings as well.

In the five chapters of Part II, the authors present practical strategies for aligning curriculum and teaching practices with objectives and assessments and for using backward design within a multiliteracies framework. Chapter 6 dives more deeply into the four knowledge processes central to multiliteracies—experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing, and applying—and shows how they fit into the seven stages of a lesson. The goals of employing these processes are twofold: (1) to ensure that students understand texts and broader genre conventions and (2) to make sure that they can create context- and audience-appropriate texts themselves. Each following chapter addresses one of the four knowledge processes, defining the term and explaining its role in

This paper provides concrete suggestions for teaching two Holocaust testimonies, Irene Hauser's diary and Ruth Klüger's memoir Still Alive. Hauser's and Klüger's texts effectively illustrate the differences between diaries and memoirs while recounting similar experiences. Such a comparative analysis, I argue, achieves two goals: First, by comparing two different types of autobiographical texts, students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the complexities, contradictions, and tensions inherent in autobiographical writing, ultimately encouraging students to become more accepting of ambiguity in their learning. Second, by focusing on Holocaust testimonies, students learn about persecution, injustice, and oppression, increasing their awareness of global issues, interculturalism, and social justice. The pedagogical approach and teaching suggestions outlined here are easily adaptable and can be applied to the teaching of autobiographical writing in other thematic contexts.