Learning and Teaching English in German All-day Schools

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

The 2009 National GGT Conference took place at Karlsruhe University of Education between Wednesday, November 11 and Friday, November 13.  Focused on the further development of all-day schooling in Germany (“Ganztagsschulen – Motor der Schulreform”), it provided a great opportunity for researchers, headmasters and teachers, education policy makers and administrators to share concepts, strategies and personal experiences, and to discuss future directions (background information: the majority of schools in Germany are half-day schools). On Thursday, November 12 all of the several hundred participants were given the chance to visit various types of all-day schools in Karlsruhe and in the surrounding area and see them in action (including free public transport). In my view, the organizers accomplished a (logistic, etc.) masterpiece that day.

As a researcher interested in how theory and practice can be brought together more closely, this was definitely one of the highlights, something that should be taken into consideration for all future conferences focusing on school development and on the quality of education (including the teaching of English as a foreign or second language).

I was generously invited to conduct a 2 1/2 hour workshop on learning and teaching English as a foreign language in all-day schools in Germany (“Englischunterricht an Ganztagsschulen: Herausforderungen, Erfahrungen und Konzepte, Praxisbeispiele”). The central questions raised in this workshop were:  Does it make any difference to teach English as a foreign language in all-day schools (as compared to half-day schools)? What are the advantages and disadvantages, potentials and limits? Do we, perhaps, need specific approaches to learning in afternoon lessons, including specific designs of instruction? And, more specifically related to current SLA / EFL research: How is discovery, inductive, increasingly self-regulated grammar, vocabulary, culture etc. learning possible, if students are tired, disinterested, no longer capable or willing to learn between 1.30 and 4 pm?

A lively discussion arose. Whereas some participants argued that successful foreign language education and learning in all-day schools largely (but of course not only) depended on the organization of the school day, i.e. on ‘pedagogically’ convincing timetables (an optimal balance of lessons and breaks), others felt that more emphasis needed to be placed on learners and learning processes in afternoon lessons, especially on the development and implementation of specific, less linear instructional designs geared toward maintaining learners’ interest and motivation and toward keeping them on task and focused. For anyone interested in this topic, here is the presentation I came up with last Friday.

Since schooling is naturally understood in other countries as all-day schooling, it would be very interesting to hear your thoughts on this.

Children’s Literature in Language Education

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Karlsruhe

An international conference on “Children’s Literature in Language Education – from Picture Books to Young Adult Fiction” will be held at Hildesheim University, Germany from February 25-27, 2010.

Plenary speakers:
Stephen Krashen, Eva Burwitz-Melzer, Alan Maley & Andrew Wright

Strand 1: EFL extensive reading – reading for pleasure; teacher training with
non-canonical literature;
Strand 2: Pre-teens and teens: young adult novels, graded readers, non-fiction,
poems and graphic novels;
Strand 3: Young learners: picture books, poems and nursery rhymes; language acquisition with literary texts;
Strand 4: Storytelling and workshops

For further information, see the conference website (click here).

International CLIL Conference 2010

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

The International CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) Conference 2010 “In Pursuit of Excellence: Uncovering CLIL Quality by CLIL Practitioners – Evidencing CLIL Quality by CLIL Researchers” will be held September 30 to October 2 at the University of Eichstätt in Germany. For more information, including the call for contributions, see the webpages of the CLIL Consortium.

The Role of the Textbook in the EFL Classroom (3)

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

What do we really know about how textbooks are actually used in secondary school EFL classrooms around the globe today? Research indicates that EFL textbooks are used in many different ways, depending on a wide spectrum of factors. The teacher seems to be the most important factor. In a number of scholarly publications, including some introductory books to teaching English as a foreign language, different preferences or styles of textbook use are identified and described in more or less detail (see, for instance, Haß 2006), ranging from complete textbook-reliance to more selective approaches, from the eclectic use of many different instructional resources to the employment of self-made materials, especially in project-oriented or project-based sequences of instruction. In this context, textbook-bound teaching (i.e. progressing through the book page by page over the course of the school year) is often set in opposition to more flexible approaches to textbook use. The latter is often seen as the most adequate, convincing and appropriate.

The empirical basis is weak, however. This is regrettable, not only because it leaves us with a vague picture of actual textbook use (around the world, in different educational contexts). More fundamentally, identifying different styles of textbook use does not really tell us anything about how to use EFL materials and media most effectively and efficiently.

I am very interested in hearing what you think about this personally, and, more specifically, in how you make use of EFL materials and media in everyday classroom practice. On this blog, I have already referred to the many images and metaphors used by scholars to describe how textbooks and related materials and media should or should not be used in the EFL classroom (see: the role of the textbook in the EFL classroom, parts one und two).

Here are some very interesting and thought-provoking learner images for EFL textbooks documented in McGrath (2006):

“A coursebook is a pair of glasses (which help me to see what the teacher is talking about).“

“A textbook is a beggar (no one likes to approach it).“

“A textbook is an angry barking dog that frightens me in a language I don‘t understand.“

You can also find a lot of teacher images and metaphors for textbooks in McGrath (2006) as well, for instance:

„A textbook is like oil in cooking – a useful base ingredient.“

„Textbooks are like ladies‘ handbags because we can take what we need from them and ladies tend to take handbags wherever they go.“

„A textbook is the stone from which a sculpture will be made (needing bits chopped off, added on and occasionally a little crushing.“

Food for thought…

Haß, F. (Hrsg.) (2006). Fachdidaktik Englisch. Tradition, Innovation, Praxis. Stuttgart: Klett.

McGrath, I. (2006). Teachers‘ and learners‘ images for coursebooks. ELT Journal, 60 (2), 171-180.

Council of Europe: Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

The Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters has been developed as a follow up to the Council of Europe’s White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue : “Living together as Equals in Dignity”. It is a personal document which encourages users to think about and learn from the intercultural encounters that have made a strong impression or had a long-lasting effect on them. With its emphasis on the critical analysis of users’ intercultural experiences, it complements other Council of Europe Language Policy Division tools such as the European Language Portfolio .

This is a ‘must read’ for anyone interested in promoting intercultural communicative competence both inside and outside the school sector. For details klick a) and b).

The Role of the Textbook in the EFL Classroom (2)

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Back in 1934, McElroy stated that “the textbook is decidedly not the sole condition of an effective class; quality of teaching is more important” (1934: 5). 75 years later, an enormous body of research on the role of the textbook in EFL classrooms has accumulated around the globe, indicating that ’successful’ learning and teaching in primary and secondary EFL school environments is dependent on a wider spectrum of factors, not only on the quality (or quantity) of English language learning materials. The importance of the teacher is, of course, undisputed (see, for instance, Butzkamm 2005).

Over the past decades, it has become increasingly clear that context-sensitive EFL instruction requires teachers to take into account many anthropological and sociocultural factors which influence the conditions under which English is taught. Currently, global textbooks produced for teaching and learning English as a foreign language in many different countries are criticized for paying too little attention to this, especially for largely failing to assist EFL teachers in bridging the cultural background(s) of ‘their’ individual learners and the diversity of English-speaking target language cultures.

In Germany, global textbooks are rarely used in institutional contexts though. Instead, local textbooks and related materials and media, produced especially for the ‘German school market’ by a few major German publishers are usually employed in EFL classrooms. In my view, the overall quality of these products is high. However, as commercial products textbooks and related materials are – in Germany and elsewhere – last not least designed to occupy the textbook market, offering whatever is seemingly necessary and useful in terms of target language und intercultural education (see Kurtz 2002). In consequence, German EFL teachers are flooded with materials and suggestions. 

Psychologically, this makes it difficult to think about teaching options which go beyond those suggested by the textbook authors in the teaching manuals (arguing from a Gestalt theoretical perspective see Kurtz 2001). Viewed from an international perspective, this is a luxury problem, but it is not unproblematic; the more the better?

References:

Butzkamm, Wolfgang (2005). Der Lehrer ist unserer Chance. Essen: Buchverlag Prof. A.W. Geisler.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2001). Das Lehrwerk und seine Verwendung nach der jüngsten Reform der Richtlinien und Lehrpläne. Englisch, 36 (2), 41-50.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2002): Fremdsprachendidaktik als Dienstleistung und Ware: Verlagskataloge für das Fach Englisch unter der Lupe. Englisch,  37 (1), 8-12.

McElroy, Howard (1934). Selecting a basic textbook. The Modern Language Journal, 19 (1), 5-8.

“Visions of Languages in Education”

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

New publication: Doff, Sabine; Hüllen, Werner & Klippel, Friederike (Eds.) (2008). Visions of Languages in Education – Visionen der Bildung durch Sprachen. Berlin, München, Wien, Zürich, New York: Langenscheidt ELT. [MAFF = Münchener Arbeiten zur Fremdsprachen-Forschung; edited by Friederike Klippel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany]

Public discussion of school education in Germany has been dominated by a move towards purely functional goals. The obligation to compare learning outcomes between schools, regions or even countries may, in many respects, be helpful, but it narrows the teaching in schools. This is particularly true for foreign language teaching. As a consequence, general goals of Bildung, self-formation and the acquisition of cultural knowledge are neglected or even by-passed intentionally.

Therefore, the authors of this volume thought it imperative to redefine the educational goals of teaching English, French, Spanish, Russian, and other languages in schools at the beginning of the 21st century and to ask:

• Why do we teach foreign languages in schools to everybody and what are the aims of doing this?
• What exactly is the contribution of language teaching to the formation of character and the acquisition of cultural knowledge?
• In what way does language teaching support other areas of school education?
• What are the past, present and future visions of foreign language teaching?

Contributors:

a) Visions for Europe / Visionen für Europa

Werner Hüllen: Karl Magers Vision einer Bürgerschule mit Unterricht in den neu-europäischen Sprachen

Herbert Christ: Didaktik der Mehrsprachigkeit: Die Vision eines Sprachen und Schulfächer übergreifenden Lernens

Daniel Coste: Plurilingual Education, Identity, Citizenship

Michael Byram: Education for International Citizenship: Language Teaching and Education for Citizenship – In Europe and beyond

b) Visions for Learners – Learners’ Visions / Lern(er)-Visionen

Katrin Gut-Sembill: Visionen – Ein Antrieb zum Fremdsprachenlernen

Jürgen Kurtz: Life Skills-based Education in Secondary School Foreign Language Classrooms – Cornerstone of a Challenging Vision

Barbara Schmenk: Visions of Autonomy as a Core Concept in Language Education

Helmut Sauer: Von der Lernerorientierung zur Lehrerorientierung: Die Lehrkraft als Schlüssel zu “Bildung durch Sprachen”

c) Visions and Context in Historical Perspective / Geschichtliche Fundamente

Frans Wilhelm: Goals in Dutch Foreign Language Teaching: A Historical Perspective, 1500-2000

Daniel Tröhler: Zwischen Ideologie und Institution: Die Etablierung der modernen Fremdsprachen im Gymnasium Preußens und Zürichs

Christiane Ostermeier: Französisch statt Latein: Der Reformplan Julius Ostendorfs (1823-1877)

Sabine Doff: Was von Visionen übrig bleibt: Frauen, die neusprachliche Reformbewegung und ihr Echo in den Lehrplänen des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts

d) Visions in and beyond the Curriculum / Curriculare Visionen

Stefan Kipf: Schule im Umbruch – Perspektiven für den altsprachlichen Unterricht

Erik Kwakernaak: Fremdsprachenunterricht in den Niederlanden: Ein Fach ohne Identität?

Henry Widdowson / Barbara Seidlhofer: Visions and Delusions: Language Proficiency and Educational Failure

Claire Kramsch / Michael Chad Wellmon: From Bildung durch Sprache to Language Ecology: The Uses of Symbolic Competence

 

 

 

New Primary English Curriculum in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its brand-new curriculum for learning and teaching English in primary schools is now available online.

Form-Focused Instruction in Afternoon Secondary School EFL-Lessons?

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany

Spurred by some rather disappointing test results in recent international, national and regional comparative studies more and more educational policy-makers in Germany seem to be convinced that implementing purely structural measures such as a) reducing the number of school years specified for the Abitur (the main university entrance qualification in Germany) from 13 to 12, b) extending primary and secondary half-day education to full days, or simply c) lengthening students’ time at school with an increasingly test-centered and outcome-oriented philosophy of education is vital to strengthening Germany’s future competitiveness in the global economy and to ensuring a high standard of living for all.

All this has resulted in an increasing number of English lessons in German secondary schools in the afternoon, especially at the intermediate and upper-intermediate levels. Teaching and learning English in the afternoon is quite different from teaching and learning it in the morning, however. On extended school days with more than six preceding lessons in subjects other than English, it seems that many students tend to find it hard to concentrate and focus their attention on learning English, especially if this is the final lesson of their school day. The following result of an informal, merely explorative survey which included 274 7th and 8th-grade learners at a comprehensive secondary school in Dortmund, Germany is, of course, non-representative, no more than a snapshot really, but it does indicate the kind of problems with which EFL-teachers and learners are already now confronted and will be perhaps increasingly in the near future: three quarters of the students interviewed said that they find it easier to learn English in the morning lessons than in the afternoon lessons, mainly because they feel that their capacity to focus on what is being taught is reduced in the afternoon (see Kurtz 2004). How relevant or important is this for SLA research and foreign language pedagogy in general and for practice-oriented EFL-theory construction in particular?

Current international research on form-focused sequences of instruction in communicative classroom environments revolves around concepts such as ‘focusing attention’, ‘noticing’, ‘consciousness and awareness (-raising)’ as well as ‘language learning strategies’. However, many of the (empirical) studies on which these concepts are based were not carried out in all-day school EFL-classrooms. The participants of these studies were predominantly adult second-language university students exposed to the target language not only in the classroom. As far as I can see, potentially inhibiting factors to form-focused EFL afternoon instruction, such as fatigue, stress, poor concentration, reduced attention capacity, and perhaps reduced motivation to focus on systematic language work have not yet been addressed adequately in research. It is therefore very difficult to say if these rather general concepts (which are drawn from research done in a significantly different learning environment) and the implications for teaching and learning ‘deduced’ from them are equally valid with regard to the changing learning conditions outlined above.

Reducing form-focused sequences of instruction in all-day schools to those days where English is taught before noon is certainly no solution. With only three or four English lessons a week, too much precious learning time would be squandered. Disregarding the learner’s impression of limited capacity to focus and concentrate on what is being taught in afternoon lessons is no solution to the emerging problem either. Theories based on mental capacities that are (probably) only available to a limited extent in EFL afternoon lessons are not really convincing. Empirical research carried out in actual afternoon classes is definitely needed to shed more light on this (for a critical review of national and international research and a detailed analysis of the theoretical implications and methodological consequences of learning and teaching English in all-day schools see Kurtz 2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2007).

Kurtz, Jürgen (2004). Englischunterricht am Nachmittag: Ergebnisse einer Schülerbefragung. Englisch, 4, 121-130.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2006a). Kernprobleme und Entwicklungsperspektiven des Englischunterrichts an integrierten Gesamtschulen. Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung, 1, 1-35.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2006b). Einige Impulse zur Weiterentwicklung des Englischunterrichts an integrierten Gesamtschulen im Verbund mit den Grundschulen im jeweiligen Einzugsgebiet. In: Angela Hahn & Friederike Klippel (Hrsg.) (2006). Sprachen schaffen Chancen. Dokumentation zum 21. Kongress für Fremdsprachendidaktik der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fremdsprachenforschung. München: Oldenbourg, 127-138.

Kurtz, Jürgen (2007). Englischunterricht an schulischen Ganztagseinrichtungen – auch nach der Mittagspause? Lehren und Lernen, Zeitschrift für Schule und Innovation in Baden-Württemberg, 33, 6, 24-28.

Action-Based / Action-Oriented Foreign Language Education

posted by Jürgen Kurtz, Karlruhe University of Education, Germany

Handlungsorientierung is a core concept in foreign language education in Germany today. Generally speaking, the term refers to developing the ability to use the foreign language as an instrument of action in a variety of communicative contexts. Methodologically, it is closely related to task-based instruction, to product- and process-oriented, participatory, inductive and experiental learning in foreign language classrooms. On the whole, Handlungsorientierung focuses on the psychosocial dynamics of language in action, and not only on the cognitive processes involved in individual target language reception and production (see, for instance, Bach & Timm 2003).

In a recently published article in the inaugural issue of INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING (ISSN: 1750-1229), van Lier (2007) uses the terms ‘action-based’ and ‘action oriented’ teaching and learning to refer to Handlungsorientierung and / or Handlungsorientierter Unterricht. The paper is available online (click on link below), and I highly recommend reading it (especially, but not only because of his brief discussion of (un-)predictability and improvisation; van Lier 2007: 53).

I would like to add, perhaps, that in order to fully appreciate the historical context from which the overall concept (or approach) has emerged, the European Modern Language Reform Movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century should not be left unmentioned. In particular, I wish to refer to the important works of Max Walter (1857-1935) in this context. 

Bach, Gerhard & Timm, Johannes-Peter (2003). “Handlungsorientierung als Ziel und Methode.” In: G. Bach & and J-P. Timm (Eds.). Englischunterricht. Grundlagen und Methoden einer handlungsorientierten Unterrichtspraxis. Tübingen: Francke, 1-21 (first edition 1996).

Van Lier, Leo (2007). “Action-based Teaching, Autonomy and Identity”. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1, 46-65.

Walter, Max (1931). Zur Methodik des Neusprachlichen Unterrichts. [On the Methodology of Modern Language Instruction]. Marburg: Elwert (first edition 1908).