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The Routledge Handbook of German Language Teaching book cover

1st Edition

The Routledge Handbook of German Language Teaching

Edited By Ruth Whittle Copyright 2025
    352 Pages 21 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Routledge Handbook of German Language Teaching evaluates and addresses multifaceted, multilevel needs of students and teachers within teaching German as a foreign, as well as a second, language through taking a transcultural approach.

    Each contribution starts with the author situating themselves in the geographical and institutional context in which they teach as well as the way in which they teach, e.g. in-person or online. This acknowledges the Handbook’s internationally widespread contributors, from countries with different histories in terms of cultural, linguistic and educational diversity more generally and the teaching of German in particular. The chapters reflect their voice and consider language learners as people who have their own identities.

    Material such as plays, poems, short literary texts, rap, singing, and drawing are discussed in this book as being influential for language learners from beginner level and beyond. This book proposes that ‘learning’ happens by both the teachers and the learners going on a journey, and both changing the outlook on each other and themselves along that journey. Alongside this, questions are asked with respect to curricula and the relation between speaking German and ‘belonging’ in a German-speaking country.

    This Handbook will primarily appeal to teachers and instructors of German, as well as those training to become German language instructors. Moreover, the book will appeal to researchers interested in the linguistic and theoretical aspects of German language teaching.

    Preface

    List of Contributors

    Part i: Overview (Ruth Whittle)

    1.      Contexts of Teaching German

    2.      Linguistic and Cultural Competency in Context

    3.      Communicating across a Transcultural World: the place(s) of critical terminology

    4.      Aboli Patwhardan: The Question of Linguistic Identity in India

    Part ii: Opening the German-language World to the Learner through Working with Literature and Theatre

    1. Tobias Akira Schickhaus, transl Ruth Whittle: Interculturality and Mediation – Literature as an Object of Learning in DaZ/DaF
    2. Martina Kofer & Cornelia Zierau, transl Devorah Karp: Language-Sensitive Literature Teaching
    3. Cornelia Zierau, transl Devorah Karp: Intercultural Literature in Germany since the 1960s from a DaF perspective
    4. Ulrike Garde: Multilingual Theatre in the German Language and Culture Class: inviting learners to explore fluid identities

    Part iii: Opening the German-language World to the Learner through Working with Film and Song

    1. Daniil Danilets, transl Devorah Karp: Language Learning through Music in a Super-diverse Culture
    2. Aboli Patwardhan, transl Devorah Karp: The Role of Short Films in Cultural Studies in DaF

    Part iv: A Critical Evaluation of Language Learning – some teachers’ perspectives

    1. Jennifer Evans & Miriam Neigert: Distance not Distant: Enriched, Enlivened Online-Learning
    2. Gabriela Marques-Schäfer: A Critical Evaluation of the Digital Media Revolution in 2020/21
    3. Simone Schroth, Ruth Whittle & Daisy Savage: Inside the Classroom: Translating from and into German
    4. Sandra Reisenleutner & Oranna Speicher: Developing Communication Skills through Collaborative Learning in the German Language Classroom
    5. Miriam Neigert: A Voice and a Choice – introducing portfolio assessment to German courses at an Australian university

    Part v: Difficult Histories in the German-language Classroom

    1. Sara Jones: Exploring the Transnational in Teaching on the GDR in UK Higher Education
    2. Katharina Karcher & Ellen Pilsworth: Teaching Germany’s ‘1968’: New Questions and Directions

    Part vi: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation in the Transcultural Classroom

    1. Ruth Whittle: The Changing Space of Germany in Turkey
      based on an interview with Kerstin Reichardt, conducted by Silke Henkele:
    2. Ruth Whittle: What Integration? Refugees and their Teachers Battle with ‘Integration’
      based on an interview with Christiane Rösinger conducted by Silke Henkele, and with Claudia Hübner-Pitsela
    3. Vera Ahamer, transl Matthew Hines: Learning German as a Migrant in Austria: a Discussion of the Gap between Research and Practice
    4. Livia Schanze, Myriam Steinbock & Edgar Meier: Bridging the Gap. Fusing language and content whilst addressing student heterogeneity in Erasmus courses at Potsdam University
    5. Ruth Whittle: The ‘Native Speaker’ Teacher: A languages professional in a transcultural world

     

    Index

    Biography

    Ruth Whittle is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham (UK)

    Angela Kalt was a lecturer in Anglistik and Amerikanistik at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

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