In many courses, learners do not talk about their experiences. Yet these experiences are crucial for resonance in the classroom. Through writing, sharing, mirroring back and responding to prompts, a space is created in which resonance can emerge and everyone can take part.
When deaf refugees come to Germany, they need to learn German Sign Language. For an inclusive educational approach, teachers ought to accommodate these special needs.
The Kompendium DaF/DaZ series has come out with a guide to “Multilingual Learning in Social and Institutional Contexts”. This new publication delves into various aspects of the debate over multilingual education – and recapitulates them clearly for both prospective and experienced GFL and GSL teachers.
How does discrimination against languages and their speakers manifest itself? And how can teachers combat various forms of “linguicism” in the classroom? This is the focus of a Vienna-based association called Migrationspädagogische Zweitsprachdidaktik.
Multilingual learners consolidate reading strategies more effectively if they can draw on all their language skills – an approach that valorizes and makes the most of their previous knowledge.
Teachers can take steps to make sure that tests only measure students’ content knowledge rather than their reading comprehension.
Moin, Servus or Grüezi (“hello!” in North Germany, Bavaria/Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland respectively)? Möhre, Karotte or Rüebli (regional words for “carrot”)? Is it die or das Mail (“email”)? All these words and forms are correct. And they are expressions of how varied the German-speaking world is, both linguistically and culturally – a reality that ought to be reflected in German teaching. But how to go about it?
Language learning trains the brain. Learning two languages at an early age develops language skills in general. But bilingual kids also do better in other cognitive subjects – like mathematics. Professors Michaela Sambanis and Heiner Böttger explain why a paradigm shift is needed and how to make it work.
Innovative technology helps us communicate in different languages. Will translation apps make learning a foreign language superfluous? How can we rekindle the desire to learn languages? Professors M. Sambanis and H. Böttger share some fascinating findings from neuroscience research on language learning.
Language mediation is the sixth competence defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Why has it become more important and how can it be incorporated into lessons?
Sites of memory play a central role in forming a collective memory of history. Precisely because they appear unambiguous only at first glance, they are ideally suited to lessons in German as a foreign or second language.
Viewing diversity as normality, the DACH principle uses the diversity of the German language and the German-speaking area as an opportunity for multidimensionality in GFL teaching. This article uses quotes from teachers to illustrate the DACH principle and exemplifies how the principle may be advanced discursively.
Physics lessons presuppose a knowledge of mathematics; to learn basketball, one must already have learned to throw a ball; politics classes often draw on the pupils’ knowledge of history. It is surprising, then, that foreign language classes appear to stand on their own. This tendency results in the loss of important potential when teaching GFL.
Cultures do not have clearly definable boundaries, and are by no means homogenous within themselves. Instead, they are defined by dynamic relationships and interactions between people. What is the significance of these new findings when it comes to designing intercultural learning scenarios?
How can teachers take advantage of multilingual potential in their classes? And how can trainee teachers best be prepared for linguistic diversity in the classroom? Theorists and practitioners in Germany and Europe are looking into these questions.
