Read practice-oriented articles about methodology and didactics. Authors from all over the world provide theoretical input on the current state of science and practical suggestions. The journal is published by Erich-Schmidt-Verlag and is published by Goethe-Institut and a qualified committee. Latest issue: 69 Differentiated Instruction.
Differentiated Instruction
Fremdsprache Deutsch
The current school landscape is characterized by diversity, probably more than any previous generation. Educational institutions face the challenge of supporting every student on their individual educational path. Especially the acquisition of a foreign language plays an important role in personal development and therefore offers the opportunity to recognize the diversity of learners and to support their individual needs. But how can teachers, within the allocated time and with the limited resources available to them, design lessons that meet the needs and abilities of all learners? Especially in a school environment, there is the additional pressure that curricula must be fulfilled and specified standards must be adhered to! This collection of articles presents a range of perspectives and best practice examples from educational practice and research. Selected approaches and methods are presented in various learning environments that show how differentiated Instruction can be implemented successfully.
Tandems, learning buddies, language partnerships – what are the concepts behind these terms and how can they be applied in concrete terms? How do we meet concrete challenges in internationally oriented learning partnerships, for example a big time difference? How can you adapt proven concepts to the needs of your learners? These and other questions are explored in this issue. Much has happened since Fremdsprache Deutsch published an issue on cooperative learning in 2009. As the editors Astrid Buschmann-Göbels and Tushar Chaudhuri explain in their introductory article, the degree of cooperativeness in learning activities within online and blended learning formats is crucial for learning success, not only since the corona pandemic. The practical part of the issue with a total of ten contributions consists of two parts, one dedicated to cooperative learning and the other to language tandem, which requires a high degree of cooperativeness and autonomy of the participants. For both parts, a background contribution provides a theoretical classification.
Fremdsprache Deutsch
After Blended Learning (2010) and Teaching with Digital Media (2015), this time we are particularly interested in interaction with digital media. The three core questions on the topic: How can learners be activated with digital media? How can we create authentic communication situations? What possibilities does interaction with digital media offer for the learning process? Within this framework, the contributions of our authors offer numerous suggestions for tools, methods and media: from discussion forums to e-twinning projects, computer games and podcasts, we span the arc to multimodal grammar learning offers and interactive learning videos, 360° media and virtual reality. The fact that educational institutions have had to shift much of their teaching to the digital over the years gives digital interaction a previously unknown importance. The approaches and digital tools presented here can complement or partially replace present forms of interaction. Above all, they potentiate the possibilities of interaction. This insight is not new - but due to the pandemic, we now have the technical infrastructure in many places and an acceptance of digital media on the part of institutions, teachers, learners and parents, which in turn offer space for new things and hopefully invite people to try them out.
Many factors are decisive when using textbooks in German as a foreign language lessons. Who chooses the textbook, and according to what criteria? What limitations have to be taken into account in the specific case? And how do you make the work with its components purposeful and motivating? This issue contains suggestions for a wide variety of situations. The contributions provide concrete suggestions for successful work with and supplementation of textbooks – be it didacticisation that expands the curriculum in connection with literary texts or CLIL or even the successful rededication of self-learning materials to textbooks. Several contributions deal with criteria for selecting textbooks. One article takes us to Thailand, where a textbook was selected for use in schools. Another article describes the use of a catalogue of criteria for selecting textbooks, which was tested at the Lausanne University of Teacher Education. In our subject corner, Angela Lipsky writes with a reflection on gender-appropriate language in textbooks.
