Читать книгу English in Elementary Schools - Anja Steinlen - Страница 14

In the school year 2019/20, over 2.9 million students attended one of the 15,431 (private or public) elementary schools in Germany (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2020b). Since 2004 foreign language (FL) teaching has been compulsory in elementary schools in Germany; however, there are differences across the Federal States in terms of the beginning year and the number of weekly lessons in the foreign language (e.g., Fleckenstein, Möller & Baumert, 2020; Hempel, Kötter & Rymarczyk, 2018). For example, the first foreign language is introduced in Baden-Württemberg in Year 1 (until 2019) but in Berlin-Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein in Year 3. In most schools, the FL is taught between one and two hours a week (e.g., Börner, Böttger, Kierepka & Lohmann, 2017; Fleckenstein et al., 2020; Hempel et al., 2018). In the following, elementary schools in which a FL (such as English) is taught as a separate subject are referred to as schools with a regular / mainstream / traditional / conventional FL program.

Traditional FL teaching at school is characterized by a course-oriented approach, in which the foreign language itself is the subject of study. The primary goal of FL lessons is to master the new language as faultlessly as possible. Foreign language skills (including vocabulary and grammar) are usually taught and practiced with the help of textbooks and other materials, which present selected subject matters (Wolff, 1997). Thus, the acquisition of the FL does not happen naturally but through prefabricated and systematized foreign language input (e.g., Burmeister, 2006; Möller, Hohenstein, Fleckenstein, Köller & Baumert, 2017b).

According to Kolb (2012: 32), there are five objectives of EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching at elementary schools. These include attitudes towards language learning (to develop a “positive mind-set” (Schmid-Schönbein 2008: 37) for foreign language learning in general); intercultural learning (to promote an open and tolerant attitude towards other languages and cultures and prepare the children for intercultural encounters); language and cultural awareness (to raise children’s sensitivity for differences among languages and cultures); language learning competence (regarding, for example, learning strategies and techniques); and language competencies, i.e., basic communicative competence in the foreign language (relating to the five skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and mediation). The language competencies acquired at elementary level correspond to the level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe, 2001, 2018) with a focus on listening and speaking (see Chapter 2.2.2). They are assessed in familiar communicative situations of language use in order to increase children’s self-confidence, employing assessment tools such as pen and paper tests as well as observation sheets and language portfolios (e.g., Kolb, 2012).