Department of Modern Foreign Languages

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Browsing Department of Modern Foreign Languages by Author "Becker, Theresa"

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    Was soll womit erklärt werden – und wie?“ (Koreik 1995:56): Geschichtsvermittlung in DaF/DaZ. Bestandsauf-nahme, Perspektiven und Lehrwerkanalyse
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Becker, Theresa; Von Maltzan, Carlotta; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Modern Foreign Languages
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT : The thesis investigates the methodological implementation of historical topics within teaching materials for German as a Foreign Language. Firstly the theoretical discussion of the field is presented with special regard to Culture Studies (Landeskunde) and historical Studies in the foreign language classroom. Based on the hypotheses formulated within the introductory chapter the following chapters evaluate the representation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in four textbooks by different German publishers using the method of Topical Discourse Analysis (Thematische Diskursanalyse). The analysis focusses on nine different aspects: Links to the present (Koreik 2010), encouragement of critical thinking (Chudak 2015), presentation of multiple perspectives (Grabe 2003), reference to contrasting perspectives (Fischer/Fischer 1990), support of cultural learning processes (Altmayer 2004), focus on the interpretive character of history (Meyer 2015), conveyance of historical facts (Kramsch 2015) and links to the demands of the theoretical discussion (Koreik 2010). The thesis comes to the conclusion that the materials use very different approaches to history while most of them promote the GDR in a way that legitimizes its abolition in favour of the current German political system. While the scientific discourse disagrees on the relevance of the different aspects as well as how to implement them there is a consensus that history is conveyed as a construct that is always subject to perspective and interpretation. The analysis however reveals a rather limited impact of these demands on the presentation of historical matters within these textbooks.