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.
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, […]
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It is a sad truth that the world is full of stories and testimonies of Holocaust experiences. Many of them, like Judith Kerr’s novels, are survivor stories that bear witness to the possibility of standing up for the victims, of protecting those who were persecuted and of giving children a new family. The didactic finding, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The success of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is reflected both in the growing demand for bilingual education and in the results of empirical studies. Bilingual learners achieve a significantly higher level of foreign language competence while, at the same time, they acquire subject-specific concepts. In addition, they are provided with excellent opportunities for […]
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For quite a while it has been generally acknowledged in foreign language pedagogy that the vast majority of communicative acts is no longer solely verbal; rather, most of our communication and most cultural discourses are characterized by multimodality, using a broad range of semiotic modes, and visual languages in particular. In his book on multimodality […]
Read MoreCopyright © 2018 Wolfgang Hallet