Читать книгу English in Elementary Schools - Anja Steinlen - Страница 17

The use of literacy activities in the elementary school FL classroom has been examined by Hempel (2016). Based on interviews with almost 150 English elementary school teachers in Germany, she found that 98% of these teachers used a textbook, usually Playway, Ginger, or Bumblebee. An analysis of these textbooks revealed that the activities in these books are mainly geared towards speaking (55%) and listening (26%); reading and writing activities are rather underrepresented (1% and 9%). This parallels the role of literacy activities in the different curricula of the Federal States of Germany for the subject English, in which reading and particularly writing still play only a minor role.

In her analysis of English textbooks for elementary schools, Burwitz-Melzer (2010: 110) pointed out that textbooks nowadays include a greater number of tasked-based reading and writing activities than older versions. However, in her view, textbooks still do not sufficiently explain how to teach reading and writing; and they neither offer any literacy methodology based on any learning theory, nor any systematic strategies for reading and writing, which may support teaching and learning. Although certain levels of competence should be reached at the end of grade 4 (namely A1), textbooks do not provide sufficient guidelines as to how this goal could be reached, particularly with respect to the heterogeneous FL level in class. According to Burwitz-Melzer (2010) there is still considerable room for improvement regarding literacy instruction in English textbooks and in the respective guidelines for teachers of English as a subject.