Right at the beginning of the corona virus-induced shutdown of schools, ‘homeschooling’ has established itself as a term for home learning in Germany in no time at all. However, In the cultural context of open education systems such as the one in USA, homeschooling is a concept in which parents, the family or other caretakers […]
Read More
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary action”. Just like Christina Lagarde describes the economic difficulties ahead of us, the challenges to cope with the situation in terms of e-learning for German schools in the next weeks and months are similar. It seems unlikely to assume that schools will be running on a regular basis throughout Germany in […]
Read More
In the Federal Republic of Germany, the principal educational goals have always included the values of human dignity, equality and self-determination as layed down in the Constitution. In particular, the ban on discrimination based on origin, religion, gender or political convictions applies. Cultural communication as a general goal This also describes the key objectives of […]
Read More
If we want to counter forms of racism, exclusion and discrimination in the foreign language classroom, the mere commitment to noble guiding principles does not suffice. What is to be done? Of course, it is essential that all foreign language teachers, in their individual attitudes, actually feel committed to the goals of preserving human dignity, […]
Read More
Almost twenty years after the publication of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the so-called Companion Volume is now available. It rewrites some central concepts (e.g. mediation) or introduces whole new domains of competence, e.g. pluricultural and plurilingual competences. A Conference on the new Companion Volume For this reason, the Research Network Educational […]
Read More
The advent of online dictionaries has banished the classic reference book in its printed paper form to the substitute bench. At first glance, the advantages of Internet dictionaries are overwhelming: you always have all languages in one app on your smartphone. Whole sentences or idioms can be googled. Complete declinations, conjugations and directories are just a […]
Read More
The educational standards for foreign languages in the upper secondary stage decreed by the German Conference of Ministers of Culture in 2012, have only just been implemented in the Abitur examinations. Now the educational standards for the lower secondary level, which came into force in 2003, are under revision. If this is to be a […]
Read More
Exciting ways of learning with the competence task Task-based learning has long been established in the field of foreign language learning – in a sense. However, it still competes with textbook-based instruction and, above all, with the curricular specifications and frameworks: comparative tests, official exam tasks, and the limitations of skills-orientation. The competence task shows […]
Read MoreCopyright © 2018 Wolfgang Hallet