We are currently experiencing a period of cultural and societal change in which foreign languages are more important than ever.
This language learning log observes and comments on everything that is relevant for foreign language learning.
The current debate about factual and counter-factual assertions and news suggests that there is a distinguishable boundary between fact and fiction. However, things are more complicated than this, despite all the need to adhere to facts and to insist on the value of truthfulness. Societies are always also built on cultural imaginations, which to a […]
Read More
When we consider the proliferation and influence of English-language media, culture, business and politics we can see that English is a global language. In terms of numbers, Mandarin varieties likely outweigh English users, but the sheer global expanse of English is undeniable. And, increasingly, the global population is migrating. Currently, we are seeing levels of […]
Read More
The considerable number of learners with a family language other than German poses a big challenge for all of those who are involved. Once again it must be suspected that, at the political level, their integration is regarded as being successfully completed once they have joined the educational system.
Read More
In Germany, future teachers of foreign languages do not only develop their language proficiency, but they also study linguistics, literary studies and foreign language pedagogy (didactics, as it is termed in Germany). Since, at most German universities, all of these are autonomous disciplines, this raises questions of interdisciplinary correspondences, coordination and interrelatedness between all of […]
Read More
That’s a happenstance, as George R.R. Martin terms it: On almost the same day on which our special issue on fantasy fiction of the renowned German Teaching English as a Foreign Language Journal (Der fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch) came out, George R.R. Martin, world-famous author of The Song of Fire and Ice novels (on which the […]
Read More
German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka invited actors and cooperating partners of the national research cluster “Excellence in School Education“ („Leistung macht Schule“, LemaS) to the kick-off event in Berlin on 30th January 2018. The research of LemaS is aimed at identifying and developing often latent excellency of potentially high-achieving students in […]
Read More
‘Digitalization’ is a term and concept that foregrounds the transformation of formerly analogue, physical signs into discrete digital signals and electronic bits whenever content is presented, represented, communicated or ‘shared’ – one of the standard practices of digital communication. Since in the domain of teaching and learning languages, communicating content between interlocutors in given situations […]
Read More
In didactics there are many terms (concepts!) that are so established and in long-term use that no one asks anymore what they are actually supposed to designate. Characteristics displaying a kind of pedagogical naturalization can be seen in the unreflected use of these terms in every sort of pedagogical context, as well as in scientific […]
Read MoreCopyright © 2018 Wolfgang Hallet