A Positive Approach to Teaching German
Positive Foreign Language Didactics: How to make the most of learners’ strengths and the latest research findings

Does any of this ring a bell?

Challenging times

We’re going through an age of polycrises accompanied by rapid developments in the fields of digitalization and AI, both of which are global phenomena with profound effects on people of all ages, but especially youngsters. A great many studies from Germany and other countries around the world show the alarming toll these developments have taken on the physical and mental health of kids and teachers alike (cf. Sambanis/Ludwig 2024, 2025, 2026). Subjective strain, chronic stress, demoralization, fragmented attention and loneliness are just a few of the proven—and increasingly widespread—effects. So if you’re familiar with any of the above anomalies, your experience corroborates the latest studies.

A positive approach to teaching German

German language teachers and learners will be up against these challenges for some time to come. So the point is to find ways of making language learning in particular a rewarding investment and a positive challenge: after all, challenges are essential to our mental and physical health. Furthermore, it’s important to take the prevailing conditions seriously and to adapt teaching methods accordingly. To put these endeavours on a firm foundation, a teaching approach called “Positive Didactics” has been established at the Free University (FU) of Berlin to empower teachers and learners and to equip them (as well as the parents) with tried-and-tested “Happy Learning” exercises to that end. One integral part of Positive Didactics involves helping learners discover their own strengths and appreciate positive learning experiences in and outside the classroom.

Positive Didactics is more than theory

Positive foreign language teaching (Sambanis/Ludwig 2025) is an approach that makes use of findings in Positive Psychology, brain research, stress research and sound approaches to media education. Language learning should be appropriately challenging and empowering. It should help participants identify and appreciate their own strengths and achievements as well as to cope constructively with negative emotions and frustrating experiences, with stagnation and setbacks as well as stress. Positive Didactics is an innovative response to present-day challenges that shows how to boost “learning receptivity” and success by means of a “happy” and healthy approach to learning.

Building on strengths, enabling learning

One key to learning and teaching a language effectively is to draw on our positive inner resources, in particular our so-called “Psychological Capital” (PsyCap), which forms a central pillar of Positive Didactics. This capital comprises four key strengths that we can develop—hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism (Sambanis/Ludwig 2024, 2025)—to improve learning outcomes, gratification, well-being and motivation. “Studies show that people with high PsyCap are not only more psychologically resilient, but also physically healthier and less likely to suffer from stress-related ailments” (Sambanis/Ludwig 2025: 43). For foreign language teaching purposes, it’s particularly encouraging to note that many exercises designed to boost psychological capital can be directly applied to language learning goals (see the “Happy Learning” (2024, 2026) guide) for a wide array of such dual-purpose teaching activities). The result is a virtuous circle in which learning a foreign language empowers and improves the well-being of learners and teachers alike—which in turn makes for a more enjoyable and effective learning and teaching experience.

How language learning can help build resilience?

To show how personal strength factors and language learning can be combined, some resilience-boosting ideas are presented in the following. Psychological resilience is what enables us to get back on our feet after overcoming difficulties or navigating a stressful episode—and to grow stronger as a result. The experience of mastering one daunting challenge can motivate us to take on new ones. Language learning requires a great deal of resilience, especially during phases devoid of any noticeable progress. Reaching a learning plateau means we’ve already taken in a lot. Now the brain is busy sorting, consolidating and processing that knowledge so as not to lose any valuable information. Resilience, bolstered by an understanding of these mental processes, protects us from experiencing these phases as psychologically stressful and losing heart as a result.

Here are just three out of a whole bunch of resilience-building exercises that are worth trying out:

Breathing exercise
In moments of stress or anxiety, our breathing becomes shallower and our nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode, which is actually only needed to avert or avoid danger. It’s important to understand this mechanism and to learn about strategies to activate inner resilience. For starters, deep breathing: The so-called “4–7” breathing exercise serves to calm learners’ respiration whilst working on basic listening comprehension skills at the same time (counting and following instructions in a foreign language). The teacher counts from 1 to 4 whilst everyone draws a long, deep breath. The teacher continues counting to 7, with everyone holding their breath. Then the teacher counts backwards from 7 to 1 whilst everyone exhales.

Mastering tricky conversations
Some situations require a particularly tactful or sensitive approach to verbal communication, e.g. clearing up a misunderstanding or rejecting an offer, invitation or suggestion. It’s often hard to navigate tricky interactions tactfully, to find the right words to avoid making anyone feel uncomfortable or offended—and all the more so in a foreign language! Learning to cope with challenging conversations of this kind is important for learners’ resilience. So Positive Didactics involves working on model situations. A chatbot (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude) can be used to suggest formulations (Ludwig et al. 2025) that learners can work with and try out e.g. in role-playing exercises.

Positive feedback within the group
A good rapport between classmates and shared positive experiences help learners feel “safe” and at ease within the group, hence more willing to participate in class. Positive feedback within the group reinforces positive emotions, creating a sense of coherence as well as a stress buffer. This is why Positive Foreign Language Didactics banks on activities that involve practising language skills whilst forging connections with one’s peers and even having a laugh together.

Some selected activities of this kind were filmed as part of a project within the context of Sambanis’ professorship at the Free University of Berlin and at the Gilberto Bosques Adult Education Centre in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The resulting (short) videos can be viewed here free of charge.