Unterrichtspraxis-Teaching German最新文献

This study investigated stereotypes about teachers of German that 67 novice learners of German at a U.S. university had reportedly encountered. Consequently, the investigation explored the perceived accuracy of clichés associated with native-speaker and non-native-speaker instructors. Students' stereotypical notions were sorted into categories using principles of grounded theory. Statistical analyses showed that respondents were able to list various stereotypes about instructors of German. Responses also reflected societal narratives concerning native-speaker and non-native-speaker teachers' strengths and shortcomings. Last, and of importance to the future of German Studies, participants considered more favorable stereotypes about teachers as more accurate and less-favorable clichés as more inaccurate. The study discusses implications for teaching, program advertisement, and research on how learners' imagined construct of the language classroom community may benefit the study of German.

The development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) becomes increasingly important in the world language curriculum and a crucial goal to prepare students for real-life communicative situations outside of the classroom. This article discusses how a simulation exercise based on the contentious construction of the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, facilitated the growth of students' ability to take perspectives other than their own – a crucial step toward ICC. Using the controversies about the Tesla Gigafactory as a real-world case study, students participated in a role-play simulation, set up as a town hall meeting, where they had to develop arguments whether Tesla should be given the official construction permit or not. This project-based and student-led exercise was designed to develop critical awareness of the cultural intricacy of the Tesla case by considering authentic dilemmas and conflicting perspectives. The activity was implemented in a virtual study abroad, advanced-level German course. Comparing responses from a student feedback survey with Byram's ICC model (2021) suggests that the exercise helped students increase their factual knowledge, skills of interpreting, relating, discovering, and interacting, and develop differentiated understanding of other perspectives – important 21^st-century ICC skills for a global life and work environment.

German is a pluricentric language with many standard and nonstandard varieties. Students of German are usually unaware of its rich regional variation, and studies attribute this to limited resources and instructional time (van Kerckvoorde, 2012). The “DACH” model of teaching German, which includes linguistic and cultural elements from Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH), has constituted an effort to go somewhat beyond a model that exclusively teaches Standard German, from Germany. However, when not contextualized properly, DACH itself oversimplifies language variation, shifting the attention from one standard version of German to three. This article proposes that German's variation should be taught to students at all levels and may be considered in the framework of the ACTFL Guidelines and Standards. These strongly support learners' successful functioning in real-world and authentic situations, including in dealing with varying dialects. This article will offer an overview of German language variation, it will outline how its integration is aligned with the ACTFL Guidelines (2012), and it will discuss some current instructional challenges. Finally, it will offer concrete examples for instructors by using existing sections from popular college German textbooks and by presenting several worksheets on dialect teaching for the novice, intermediate, and advanced levels.

This observational study examines the use of the German hip-hop music video, “Gute Menschen” by the band OK KID (2015), as a basis for developing students' symbolic competence regarding contemporary discourse on racism in Germany. Based on earlier investigations (Putnam, 2006; Sosulski, 2013), this article advocates for the use of German music videos to develop students' abilities to decode multimodal symbols (i.e., visual, musical, and lyrical symbols) individually and holistically. Existing research supports the use of target language music videos in beginner- and intermediate-level lessons because of their affective and aesthetic properties (Gullete et al., 2016; Kaiser, 2011; Schier, 2014; Spinner, 2008). Prompted by the lack of adequate discourse on racial and cultural diversity in many widely used textbooks (Ilett, 2009; Risager, 2006), and in the specific German curriculum (at an R1 university located in the Southwest) circa 2019, this project offers an example of internet-accessible realia that directly addresses discourse on racism in Germany. Resulting findings and discussions are based on students' written assignments from two third-semester German classes. The results demonstrate that conversations about racism can be successfully taught in beginner- and intermediate-level curricula.

The current focus on diversity and inclusion amid calls to decolonize the German curriculum prompts us once again to examine what we understand to be “German” about German Studies. This article pursues this agenda by addressing a lacuna in our understanding and representation of migrants to Germany, specifically the presence, history, and legacies of labor migrants to East Germany. The first half of this article contextualizes the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) recruitment of foreign workers and examines key similarities and differences between the East and West German guest worker program models. This section focuses particularly on the labor migrants recruited from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the People's Republic of Mozambique – the largest cohorts of non-European workers recruited by the GDR – and concludes with a brief overview of the long afterlife of the Vertragsarbeiter*innen through the Wende, reunification, and beyond. The second section offers a range of texts and assignments keyed to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) guidelines for integrating the narratives of Vertragsarbeiter*innen into German language and Studies curricula. Recuperating the history of non-European contract workers in East Germany serves to expand our conception of German Studies and to dismantle artificially exclusive boundaries, thereby working toward the deterritorialization of the discipline.