The Latest at Goethe

Almost 3,000 teachers in one place: it may sound alarming to an ingenuous sixth former, but it is truly an optimistic sign. The event that brought them together focussed on the German language and its future and the mood was very upbeat. By Christoph Mücher

Kurt Dissentori is a quiet man. But when the subject of the South Tyrolean identity comes up, the Tramin fruit-grower becomes outspoken. The days when his language and culture were at risk are still too alive in his memory. “My mother taught German secretly in the church to keep our language from dying out,” Dissentori explains.

Ludwig Eichinger has also heard of the “catacomb classes” held in South Tyrol. The director of the Institute for the German Language studied minority languages in detail. “It’s an exciting story ... with a happy ending, at least for the younger generation.” Today, everyday co-existence is rather relaxed, not least due to the impressive economic success of the autonomous province of South Tyrol. “Many today have grown up bilingual and that is an important plus in multilingual Europe.”

It seems the International Association of German Teachers (IDV) could not have picked a better place for its international German teachers’ conference. Every four years, academics and practitioners from around the world meet for the International Conference of German Teachers, or IDT, to share and explore ideas and trends. The motto of this year’s conference, “German from Inside – German from Outside,” describes this multi-perspective aspect very well. About 2,700 people from all over the world made their way to Bolzano for it.

New teachers, new methods

Spirits are high and that’s not only because of the sunny summer weather and charming surroundings. The German language has gained ground. While only a few years ago discussion was dominated by negative growth scenarios and concerns about a stealthy decline in the German language, today the mood is upbeat. German is in demand again. Goethe-Institut courses are being signed up for in record numbers and prominent German learners from the pope to Pep Guardiola demonstrate that the language of Goethe and Schiller – perceived as so cerebral – can still be learned.



The new coach of FC Bayern is not the only Spaniard (or Catalan) presently boning up on German to facilitate their work in Germany. In southern Europe, high youth unemployment is moving many young people to look elsewhere for work. “The word has gotten around that well-trained skilled workers can find work more easily in Germany,” explains Heike Uhlig, director of language work at the Goethe-Institut. “Our courses in Barcelona, Lisbon and Madrid are overflowing.” The boom in southern Europe has also become noticeable to the publishers. After years of stagnation, Hubert Bornebusch from Langenscheidt is overjoyed about the clearly rising demand. “Spain is our most important growth market, and Turkey is also on the rise,” Bornebusch tells us. “But demand is also growing inside Germany.”

The new upswing is also leading to a new generation of teachers being hired and they bring new and innovative teaching methods along with them to German classes. Interactive whiteboards have long replaced good old chalkboards in classrooms. In Bolzano, the conference addressed the use of media in communications and lessons, e-learning, mobile learning and virtual learning environments. Jan Hillesheim devised model courses at the Goethe-Institut Tokyo, for example, that systematically integrate new media such as the iPad in lessons. This makes classes more fun and tablet computers bring the reality of the outside world into the classroom, Hillesheim reports.

Berlin is calling

There was agreement in Bolzano that the classroom walls should no longer constitute limits. “We have to re-think the classroom as a networked learning space,” demands educator Michael Legutke, professor at the University of Giessen. Life and learning need to blend. Various projects demonstrate how to use the foreign language in the direct environment of the students. This works especially well in countries bordering German-speaking regions, of course. Erika Broschek from Amsterdam, for example, tries to motivate Dutch teachers to take excursions to Germany and has already launched a collaboration project with Berlin Tourismus.

Speaking of Berlin, where would the German language be without the appeal of the capital city, so popular among young people? Consequently a joint project by the Goethe-Institut and Deutsche Welle also takes advantage of the city’s charisma: Ticket to Berlin is the name of a lively competition between two groups who face a variety of tasks all over Germany to win the desired ticket to the capital. Out of 2,000 applicants from around the world, the organizers recruited six young learners who have thrown themselves into the undertaking of “everyday life in Germany.” They are followed at every turn by cameras documenting their adventures, large and small, that produced twenty video sequences that will be posted online soon.

Nonetheless, the most important argument in the choice of a foreign language remains good and animated lessons, an insight recently confirmed by the large-scale Hattie study. Martina Kasova from Slovakia is proof: She chose German in school because the lessons differed refreshingly from the theory-heavy teaching methods of other languages. Today, she teaches it herself.

Saturday morning the conference is over and Fribourg has been chosen as an attractive conference venue for the 2017 IDT. The colourful bunch heads back to their homes across the globe. South Tyrol and its model found 2,700 friends from around the world. Kurt Dissentori will be delighted.