General TEFL Reading List for Students in Karlsruhe

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

At present, more than 800 students study English as a Foreign Language at Karlsruhe University of Education. TEFL is a central part of their final oral and written (state) exams. Our exam candidates usually focus on one particular TEFL topic, for instance CLT, TBI, CBI, CLIL or, more specifically, on skills development in primary or secondary EFL classrooms, teaching grammar and / or vocabulary, textbook analysis and textbook use, current curricular developments and the history of English language teaching in German schools, developing intercultural communicative competence, assessment and testing, the role of the (new) media, to mention just a few.

Prior to the final exams, all students are required to hand in a reading list (consisting of about 3-5 books plus 4-6 papers published in academic journals; no introductory literature). Since our students’ choice of exam topics is often based on the TEFL classes they attended (e.g. teaching grammar in secondary schools), most of them need relatively little further support or guidance. 

However, according to current exam rules and regulations, the final oral (state) exam has to cover more aspects of TEFL than just the specific one students wish to focus on. This is why we provide all of our students (not only our exam candidates) with a general TEFL reading list. Here is the current version of the document that I would like to share with you. Please click here. This is, of course, a context- and culture-sensitive topic. Nevertheless, any comments or suggestions?