2. Topics of special interest in the German research community

In comparison to the review of dissertation research from 2006 to 2009, the present review found a greater diversity of topics, ranging from foreign language (FL) teaching and curricula in historical contexts, to hermeneutics, to considerations of teaching materials. This led to difficulties in classifying the dissertations, since a first analysis resulted in ten different categories. One of the most common categories was rejected due to its focus on the (to some extent bi- or trilingual) acquisition of one language (German) by children with heritage language backgrounds; since the main focus of the review article was to be FL learning and teaching, such bilingual acquisition contexts were excluded from the discussion. Also not included were three thematic areas which were focused on in the 2011 paper: FL teaching in primary schools, autonomous language learning, and the role of digital media in language teaching and learning, none of which garnered as much attention in the four-year period under review here as earlier.

Interestingly, one topic area has remained strong over the course of the past eight years: CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning). This seems to be in line with the maintained interest in bilingual education, especially in light of increased demands for multilingual learning, and follows the implementation of numerous bilingual projects across the country. Six of these dissertations were chosen for review in this article.

Stronger still is a second field pertaining to the Learning and Teaching about Culture(s) in the Language Classroom. The current discussion on inter- and transcultural learning has found active interest in Germany, and a further seven Ph.D. theses were chosen to exemplify this category.

Third, Language Teacher Education and Teacher Training has attracted much attention, possibly due to the increasing demands for more language teachers working in highly diverse environments (primary schools, special needs education, adult education). As with other foci (diagnosis, testing, multilingualism), this area addresses concerns of how well teachers are being trained in modern language pedagogy and in which ways teacher – instead of student – education may be improved. Five dissertations show the breadth and depth of research in this area.

The breadth of research topics and methods has expanded to such an extent in recent years that agreeing on topics to include in this review was, in fact, quite difficult, and a number of topics are not mentioned here because only three or four dissertations fitted them. However, we felt that five topics which are not included in this review did deserve a short mention to illustrate the extent of SLA research in Germany, and we thus include a short discussion of one dissertation for each category to exemplify the type of topics involved.

First, two hot topics from the previous review article still remain popular: Autonomous Language Learning (four dissertations) and Digital Media (four dissertations). In her Ph.D. thesis, Lena Bellingrodt (Reference Bellingrodt2011) combines these two categories in her analysis of the European Language Portfolio and its potential for supporting autonomous learning in language classroom contexts. Basing her research on the ever-increasing use of electronic portfolios in FL learning, she investigates how the use of digital media changes learners’ use of portfolios and how teachers react to the inclusion of portfolios in the classroom. As a teacher of Spanish and German, Bellingrodt investigated the use of electronic portfolios by 52 L2 Spanish learners in Grades 6 and 8 in Germany over the course of a year, using qualitative data elicited from interviews and portfolios as well as quantitative data gathered through questionnaires in a hypothesis-generating approach. In order to interpret these triangulated data, Bellingrodt developed a focused case study technique, which set specific thematic foci in order to facilitate cross-case comparisons. The resulting data allowed different aspects of the communication and learning process to be examined, showing that learners see working with e-portfolios as beneficial for supporting autonomous learning. Furthermore, the documentation of the learning process in the digital dossier helped to discern Spanish proficiency and hence support learners’ self-assurance. However, unsurprisingly, teacher guidance and flexible access to computers and the internet are important when planning and implementing individualized learning activities and objectives; this can be aided by tools to help learners visualize their progress.

Second, the area of Text Competence (comprising four dissertations) has become a major focus point of first language (L1) pedagogy, involving a number of research programmes investigating process-oriented approaches to reading comprehension and writing in school contexts. In the area of SLA research, the topic is also becoming more important, and it can be expected that the next five years will yield a number of investigations into the development of written competencies in second, third and further languages. Of special interest seems to be the interaction or commonality of L1 and FL writing or reading, a focus which Raphaela Porsch (Reference Porsch2010) includes in her investigation of teaching writing competence in lower secondary EFL classes (Grades 8 to 10). In her multi-level study, using data gathered in the large-scale assessment project DESI (Comparative German-English Performance of Schoolchildren in Grade 9, see Beck & Klieme Reference Beck and Klieme2007; for more information, see DIPF 2014), she investigates first an approach for developing writing tasks and grading students’ texts which is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and the German curricular guidelines for the first FL. She then examines relationships between motivation, writing competence and instruction with the aid of extensive questionnaires (over 1,000 students and 121 teachers). Results show that neither learning constellations nor teachers’ beliefs on learning can explain students’ learning motivation satisfactorily. However, students' self-awareness and interest in the FL can be enhanced when their texts are published in some form, when they write more often, and when they are engaged in pre-writing assignments. In a further study, Porsch investigates the commonalities of writing in the L1 and FL, and shows that Grade 8 students found text structure harder than learners one year older did, regardless of the language involved; organizational capabilities thus seem not to be language specific. She concludes with a re-evaluation of explanatory models for writing competencies in school contexts and proposes a new model for factors influencing the writing process.

A further important research area continues to be Language Diagnosis and Testing. In view of the less-than-stellar results of German schoolchildren in international studies such as PISA, much attention has been devoted to this area in German language pedagogy; language diagnosis and testing is a traditionally strong area in SLA research and other fields. Of special consideration are quality criteria in empirical research. Henning Rossa’s (Reference Rossa2012) dissertation is an excellent example of the need to investigate validity of tests in FL assessment situations. He elicited qualitative data from Grade 9 students in English classes in order to evaluate the English listening comprehension test developed for the DESI study. Mental processes of test-takers were the focal point of the study. A purposeful random sample of nine high-scoring and nine low-scoring students (total sample size: 121) was studied in more depth. Students were asked to think aloud while solving the multiple-choice items of a listening comprehension (LC) test and later participated in stimulated recall interviews in order to identify relevant and irrelevant constructs and their relative contribution to correct item responses. Through this method, Rossa shows that the LC tests were generally construct valid, although some test items obtained information about test-taking processes and strategies – especially involving comprehension of the written multiple-choice test items – instead of competency measurements. Moreover, the test appears to be less valid for students performing at the lowest competency levels – a major fault, since a quarter of students tested in the DESI study did not reach the lowest competency level of FL proficiency. Of special interest is Rossa’s detailed reflection of the think-aloud methodology and his criticism regarding its validity when seen as a stand-alone method and not supported, as in his study, by further retrospective data.

A fourth interesting area of investigation involves Cultural Pragmatics. Although only two dissertations fit this category, it offers promise as an area requiring more in-depth perusal, since a central part of FL learning is appropriate language use. Harting (Reference Harting2011), for example, working within a Contrastive Pragmatics tradition, elicited both formal and informal email texts from Japanese students in their L1, Japanese, and in their FL, German, as well as from German students in German to compare the coaching of requests in the two first languages, Japanese and German, and the FL, German. His corpus analysis, based on almost 300 texts chosen from different communicative contexts, shows specific cultural differences between requests in the two languages, as well as the common difficulties experienced by German FL learners. While the existence of transfer is perhaps not as clear as the dissertation wishes to portray and its validity is questionable due to most texts having been elicited in non-authentic communicative situations, this remains a fascinating study of how even minor differences in pragmatics can lead to unclear speech acts by learners.

A final category is one which is often overlooked in discussions of FL learning: Teaching FL Literature, which is studied in three dissertations from 2009 to 2013. Kimes-Link (Reference Kimes-Link2013), for example, focuses on tasks and methods that foster reading comprehension in English classes at high school level. The case study follows a tradition of reader response criticism (e.g. Bredella & Burwitz-Melzer Reference Bredella and Burwitz-Melzer2004), which focuses on the reception of literary works through the reader. Kimes-Link chooses a descriptive research paradigm using discourse and interaction analysis techniques. Her data, derived from video observations, filed notes, learner essays and teacher interviews, shed light on reading comprehension processes. Kimes-Link’s results, which concern the realization of specific methods and tasks (e.g. analytic and production-oriented tasks, intertextual approaches and construction of sequences) may help teachers to enhance their literature lesson planning and offer important background for teacher education.

The three main thematic strands of dissertations mentioned above are discussed in the following three sections of this review.

3. CLIL

CLIL has played a major role in the field of language education in Germany for the past two decades, and the number of schools in Germany which offer one or more subjects in an FL continues to grow. In the recent past, CLIL has undergone a process of ‘coming of age’, while at the same time – in practice as well as in research – interest in CLIL remains both high and controversial (see, for example, the debate between Appel Reference Appel2011 and Wolff Reference Wolff2011; Hallet & Königs 2013). The last review of doctoral dissertations in Germany identified CLIL as one of the major dissertation topics in Germany between 2006 and 2009, and this review for the four subsequent years shows that the trend continues. Six German-language doctoral dissertations fall into this thematic category: Bechler (University of Bremen 2012, published 2014), Grum (Freie Universität Berlin 2010, published 2012), Prüfer (University of Bremen 2013, published under Verriere Reference Verriere2014), Staschen-Dielmann (Freie Universität Berlin 2010, published 2011), Wedel (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin 2010, published online), and Witzigmann (Karlsruhe University of Education 2011).

The content areas which are still most frequently chosen for CLIL instruction in Germany (and which have thus been investigated from a variety of angles) are Geography and History. This trend has continued in CLIL since its post-WWII beginnings in the context of rebuilding French–German relations; other subjects are taught in an FL considerably less. The conceptual work by Heike Wedel (Reference Wedel2010) focuses on one of the least common CLIL subjects, Drama. Wedel’s primarily pedagogical work asks the questions: How could Drama be taught in this context for pupils at state schools aged between 13 and 18? How can the potential value of the combination Drama teaching/CLIL Drama be described? What are its key features? Using the results of her analysis of drama pedagogy in regular and FL classrooms as well as the academic discourse on CLIL, the author develops a broad concept for Drama as a content subject in CLIL settings at German secondary schools, illustrating that it can facilitate experiences of ambiguity and difference and thus lends itself easily to reflective educational processes. The thesis concludes with an illustration of a CLIL drama project (in English) launched with 14-year-olds at a Berlin Gymnasium (grammar school). Its informal brief evaluation is followed by a summary of the results of the thesis and an outlook including further questions as well as implications for the advancement of Drama as a (regular) CLIL subject.

As with much work in the field, this project experienced the clash of interests (pp. 271ff.) of the disciplines involved (mainly Drama pedagogy and FL education). Although it is a purely conceptual work which probably raises more questions than it answers, it is a noteworthy attempt to critically reflect on the necessary integration of various perspectives on CLIL in order to make its application beneficial for the learners and teachers involved.

Wedel’s (implicit) hypothesis that aesthetic subjects offer worthwhile options for CLIL which have yet to be explored is supported by Stéfanie Witzigmann’s (Reference Witzigmann2011) dissertation, which examines Art classes in Grade 5 of a middle school (Realschule) held in the third year of learning French as a first FL. In her research project over the course of one school year, she investigated the potential of this setting in particular with regard to the questions if, how, and why Art classes could provide a successful first access to CLIL (p. 12), while addressing the frequently expressed desire to extend CLIL in subject type as well as school-type (so far, the Gymnasium features as the most prominent CLIL provider in Germany). Her mainly qualitative study, focusing on the learner perspective (n = 25), follows an explorative-interpretative design; during the course of the study, most of the CLIL lessons were videotaped, and these data were complemented by learner questionnaires at the beginning, the middle and the end of the school year. Furthermore, interviews with approximately two-thirds of the students, learner diaries, statements from a group discussion with about half of the group, as well as learner artifacts were analysed and evaluated.

While the study does not reveal any surprising insights, it clarifies ideas about CLIL which have so far been neglected in research; for example, it shows that the learners investigated had an overall positive attitude towards their first L2 learnt at school and towards Art as a school subject. This likely contributed to the fact that they considered Art taught in French a valuable experience which has learning benefits for both subjects. This positive attitude was very high at the beginning of the school year and decreased only slightly towards the end; the learners emphasized in particular the opportunity to experiment with spoken French and their belief that the CLIL setting enhanced their receptive language competence (i.e. listening skills) and motivation with regard to speaking. Since Art inherently encompasses a large variety of concrete, holistic and action-oriented learning experiences which simultaneously constitute key didactic elements of CLIL, this may be one of the main reasons why the course was particularly beneficial for learners experiencing CLIL for the first time. The study also showed that content learning was not hindered by the use of French, and that learners were more than willing to accept the benefits arising from use of the L2, as long as content and competences related to Art remained in the foreground.

The dissertation by Katharina Prüfer (published under Verriere Reference Verriere2014) also deals with a subject which is often marginalized in the CLIL canon: Mathematics. She focuses on the question of how bilingual modules in this subject influence the learners’ motivation for learning in Mathematics. The module format was chosen for its flexibility, offering the opportunity to temporarily integrate the L2 into the teaching of a variety of content within a limited timeframe. Six modules designed by Prüfer on various mathematical themes were conducted by six teachers in different German states.

The study was based on a mixed-methods design with six case studies and focused students’ motivation for learning in Mathematics. The learner perspective on the bilingual modules was investigated via questionnaires (n = 410), while the teacher perspective was investigated with qualitative interviews conducted at the beginning, in the middle and end of the respective module (n = 18). The data were analysed and the results integrated for each module before being combined in the final interpretation. Prüfer shows that the popularity of a subject (Mathematics and English) among learners only partly matches the learner’s subject-specific motivation for learning; in the course of the three modules conducted at the end of the school year, the learning motivation for Mathematics actually decreased; an association between a positive learner attitude towards English and the individual learning motivation for Mathematics during the module could not be verified; and the use of the L2 did not significantly influence subject-specific learning motivation. Contrary to expectations raised by earlier studies, gender did not seem to be a relevant learner characteristic in this context; Mathematics was not preferred by boys, and for a majority of other items covered (e.g. anticipation of the module, perception of module difficulty), girls and boys showed comparable reactions. The teachers’ perspective in many respects confirmed these results with regard to their learners; in total, they supported one of the study’s main hypotheses: that a modular approach can be a feasible way of integrating languages and Mathematics teaching.

Sabrina Bechler’s study (Reference Bechler2014) also investigates the potential and limitations of CLIL organized in a modular setting, focusing on primary school learners, who feature in the German context as a very popular group for immersion research, but not CLIL. Her study is set in Baden-Württemberg, a German state which introduced mandatory L2 instruction (English or French) starting in Grade 1 in 2004. The study takes into account that, despite the state’s focus on integration of L2 and content teaching in the primary school curriculum and the fact that it is the only German state that offers a university education programme for CLIL teachers at undergraduate level (Europalehramt), CLIL remains the exception rather than the rule at the primary school level.

Bechler’s qualitative study sets out to find reasons for this disparity and investigates two bilingual modules taught by primary school teachers who had graduated from the Europalehramt programme. She focuses on whether such modules offer a suitable format for CLIL at the primary school level and how they might be brought to fruition. After showing that, theoretically, modules provide a good option for offering CLIL to a broad number of young learners in a regular school setting, she demonstrates that the MeNuK (Mensch, Natur und Kultur) class, combining elements of music, textile arts, local history and social studies has a variety of conceptual, methodological and linguistic characteristics which can serve as valuable starting points for CLIL. Bechler’s empirical study then monitored two CLIL modules, combining these data with the analysis of learning materials, and teacher/learner interviews. Both positive as well as negative aspects of bilingual CLIL modules in cross-curricular teaching settings were revealed; these include the use of German by teachers and learners, patterns of code-switching, characteristics of implicit and explicit L2 learning and the role of the written word. Bechler formulates principles for the reconceptualization and development of bilingual modules which are included into a three-stage design model and which can be used to design and evaluate modules in comparable scenarios. With this result, Bechler’s study complements the field of CLIL research by showing that CLIL is also a suitable option for young learners, provided a number of requirements (among the most important being CLIL teacher education) are met.

The dissertations by Urška Grum (Reference Grum2012) and Susanne Staschen-Dielmann (Reference Staschen-Dielmann2011) both focus on analysing, differentiating and measuring productive competences in CLIL. Whereas Staschen-Dielmann’s work investigates mental structures and their linguistic representations which CLIL learners need in bilingual (i.e. English/German) History classes, Grum provides an analysis and evaluation of the spontaneous spoken language production of German learners in traditional English as a foreign language (EFL) classes as well as in CLIL classes.

Grum’s dissertation aims to provide an empirically-based description of oral competence of English learners in Berlin at the end of Grade 10. The author applies a mixed-method design for her explorative study. The participants (n = 84) were randomly selected from traditional EFL classes and from CLIL classes at three Berlin grammar schools (Gymnasien) and three middle schools (Realschulen) within the DEZIBEL project (Deutsch-Englische Züge in Berlin – German–English learning in Berlin; for more information, see Zydatiß Reference Zydatiß2007). The oral data, consisting of eight hours of audio- and videotaped materials, were elicited in an interactive game in which the students participated in triads. To analyse oral proficiency, the author identified five influential categories: fluency, lexical scope, syntactic complexity, sociolinguistic/pragmatic characteristics and narrative characteristics, before comparing the results of the four learner groups in focus (CLIL vs. regular classes at Gymnasien vs. Realschulen). The comprehensive data analysis provides partly surprising results with a high relevance for both curriculum design and FL education, while impressively confirming the advantages CLIL provides with regard to the development of learners’ oral competence. The dissertation concludes with a very useful evaluation scale of oral competence, which is far more accurate than the indicators provided by CEFR and puts them into critical perspective with regard to teaching oral competence in EFL. Thus, this study makes a substantial contribution to measuring learners’ competences both in CLIL and in traditional FL classes.

A further study from the same research group, focusing on CLIL History classes and conducted by Staschen-Dielmann, investigates which cognitive patterns learners show when writing and how appropriate scaffolds need to be designed to support learners to accurately assess and advance their narrative competence. In this context, narrative competence is understood as being a bridge between (historical) content and language learning and is seen as the ability to construct images of the past with the demand for both accuracy and critical reflection when confronted with diverse (and often contradictive) images (p. 11). Narrative competence thus contains both strong content and language dimensions, making it an ideal focus for CLIL.

The explorative study considers learners’ narrative competence, and on the basis of this, develops guidelines for exemplary tasks which support the promotion of CLIL learners’ subject-specific literacy. The basis is a six-lesson History module on the Division of Europe 1945–1947 which the author taught herself in two of her classes (Grades 10 and 12). Data involved audiotapes of the lessons, a final (content) test, and student questionnaires to ascertain attitudes towards and perceptions of CLIL. A comprehensive model of indicators of narrative competence (p. 125) was used to analyse oral data and was supplemented by qualitative data analysis to propose didactic modifications (e.g. in the form of tasks). Results show that CLIL students in particular need precise instructions with regard to subject-specific vocabulary and grammatical structures, visual support, a high degree of transparency regarding the requirements they are expected to meet and tasks related to competence-based scales which facilitate the training of content- and language-related skills. This study not only convincingly links CLIL theory and practice but also creates a number of results which can be seen as a major answer to recurrent calls for a distinct CLIL pedagogy.

The dissertations in this field show that CLIL has kept its position as one of the main thematic clusters in FL education, but leaves a number of open and relevant research desiderata. Regarding methodology, the majority are empirical mixed-method designs, but still focus on qualitative methods of data analysis. Regarding thematic scope, the dissertations show a horizontal extension, for example with regard to learner groups (primary, non-grammar and business schools are investigated in addition to grammar schools) and to the spectrum of content subjects (e.g. Drama, English for Special Purposes (ESP), Art, Maths), as well as a vertical differentiation (analysis and evaluation of CLIL-specific competences, e.g. speaking and writing/narrative competence). This indicates that important landmarks in developing a distinct CLIL pedagogy have been reached; at the same time, a substantial amount of research is still needed to better understand the field.

4. Learning and teaching about culture in the language classroom

A fairly new trend within the field of second and FL acquisition is research into the question of fostering and measuring intercultural competence in FL teaching contexts. Cultural as well as inter- and transcultural learning have been major topics of research since the publication of the CEFR (Council of Europe 2001), the German national educational standards for secondary education (Ständige Konferenz 2003) and the federal states’ curricula began to emphasize ‘intercultural competence’ as a main learning objective in FL teaching.

In the past few years, purely declarative knowledge about the target culture – as underlying the traditional concepts of cultural didactics like Cultural Studies, Kulturkunde, Landeskunde (Civilisation) – has been widely criticised. First, attempts at defining ‘the target culture’ have been questioned, and a pluralistic and dynamic vision of cultures, in which culture is performative (e.g. Geertz Reference Geertz1973) and mediated by texts (e.g. Bachmann-Medick Reference Bachmann-Medick1996; Kramsch Reference Kramsch1996) has become an important point of reference in FL teaching. Second, a dichotomous understanding of the learners’ own culture and the target culture as well as approaches to a hermeneutic understanding of otherness have also been questioned. Concepts such as the notion of transculturality (e.g. Welsch Reference Welsch, Darowska, Lüttenberg and Machold2010) or the analysis of hybrid ‘third spaces’ (e.g. Bhabha Reference Bhabha1994) have re-directed interest from dichotomous notions of culture to an interest in the inner heterogeneity of cultures and the question of how cultural identities are verbally constructed and mediated (e.g. Doff & Schulze-Engler Reference Doff and Schulze-Engler2011). Third, competence-oriented definitions of knowledge also accentuate non-declarative components, such as attitudes, emotions and skills. European language policy publications such as the CEFR have established the ‘intercultural speaker’ as a reference (e.g. Kramsch Reference Kramsch, Byram and Fleming1998) that replaces the former ideal of the native speaker as a model for FL learners. The ability to establish relationships and to mediate between languages and cultures (which implies linguistic and cultural knowledge and skills) has become more important than declarative knowledge about the other culture. For this reason, recent studies focus rather on the skills, attitudes and emotions that underlie communicative behaviour (not only) in the FL.

The seven Ph.D. theses on intercultural issues considered in this contribution can be classified in two general domains: first, studies investigating thematic cultural issues (Lehmann Reference Lehmann2010; Staab-Schultes Reference Staab-Schultes2011; Kolb Reference Kolb2013) and second, studies interested in modelling inter- and transcultural competence (Freitag-Hild Reference Freitag-Hild2010; Jäger Reference Jäger2011; Schäfer Reference Schäfer2012; Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013). The methods of investigation vary, involving (mostly qualitative) empirical fieldwork (Freitag-Hild Reference Freitag-Hild2010; Jäger Reference Jäger2011; Schäfer Reference Schäfer2012; Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013) as well as discourse analysis (Kolb Reference Kolb2013) and critique of textbooks and pedagogical material (Lehmann Reference Lehmann2010; Staab-Schultes Reference Staab-Schultes2011). The works cover a wide range of foci regarding the age of the learners and the FL content.

One of the main problems with intercultural competence is its terminological fuzziness: interculturality as a notion cannot refer to one concordant theory, and all the dissertations dedicate important chapters to the historical and terminological discussion of the relevant notions and concepts (for a good overview, see Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013: 2). Most of the studies (Freitag-Hild Reference Freitag-Hild2010; Jäger Reference Jäger2011; Schäfer Reference Schäfer2012; Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013) refer to Byram's model of Intercultural and Communicative Competence (Byram Reference Byram1997), one of the few models of intercultural competence explicitly focusing on the nexus of FL and (inter-) cultural learning. Some of the research considered in this contribution aims to expand Byram’s model (cf. Jäger Reference Jäger2011; Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013) or uses it to develop categories for empirical research that are suitable to describe intercultural learning processes (cf. Schäfer Reference Schäfer2012). A general shift in research foci can be noted from the choice of texts and the problem of cultural representation to the current pertinent question of how students work with texts. If culture is considered as textually constructed and mediated, the ways in which culture is constructed and mediated in reaction to the texts also need to be taken into consideration. Learners are thus no longer considered as recipients of cultural knowledge, but as active participants in constructing cultural content by negotiating various perspectives on the given cultural issues. This is why the question of teaching methods and tasks has become so important and is, indeed, a key focus in all seven Ph.D. studies reported here. These studies combine research questions about the contents (political texts, syllabi, educational material) and those methods of teaching and learning that might foster components of knowledge like attitudes, emotions and skills (cf. Freitag-Hild Reference Freitag-Hild2010; Jäger Reference Jäger2011; Eberhardt Reference Eberhardt2013). In textbook analysis, not only the content and the question of how the foreign culture is represented are taken into account, but also the tasks and activities proposed to the learners (Lehmann Reference Lehmann2010; Staab-Schultes Reference Staab-Schultes2011; Kolb Reference Kolb2013).

Three projects are concerned with the analysis of both curricular frame texts and specific textbooks and pedagogical material. Inspired by the approach of the Cambridge School (e.g. Skinner Reference Skinner1969; Pocock Reference Pocock1981), Elisabeth Kolb’s discourse analysis of EFL curricula and subject didactic texts from Germany, Sweden and France opens a comparative view on European educational politics. She traces the development of the notion of culture and its implementation into political and scientific discourses through a historical perspective from the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century. In addressing the issue of European convergences and national divergences, Kolb relates the Council of Europe political texts from the Threshold Level (van Ek Reference Van Ek1975) to the CEFR and the national curricular and pedagogical texts. Her findings show the historically based and nationally anchored notions of cultural learning in present-day Europe, explaining how cultural issues appear at different moments and with different foci in the analysed texts of Swedish, German and French educational systems. In France, for example, cultural issues had a comparatively late appearance and remain anchored in historical approaches (civilisation, patrimoine), while in contrast to more formative and historical contents in Germany and France, Swedish language teaching focuses on functional and pragmatic language use in the sense of a ‘market-place tradition’. This more modern perspective is set against what has been denoted the ‘monastery tradition’ (McArthur Reference McArthur1983) of mainly formal language learning in a (neo-) humanist tradition, which persists in the foreign language learning curricula of many other European countries.

Focusing on representations of London, Christiane Lehmann (Reference Lehmann2010) offers a comprehensive content analysis of German textbooks for lower secondary students of English. Working with a corpus of over 50 textbooks and covering a period of about ten years as well as a variety of schools (Hauptschulen, Realschulen, Gymnasien, Gesamtschulen), she offers a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how the British capital is represented and what kind of activities are offered to foster younger pupils’ intercultural learning. With respect to methodology, Lehmann’s work is based on frequency analysis and space analysis, combined with a hermeneutical content analysis. The results confirm the findings of other studies previously conducted in the field and might be considered disappointing, since over the last 10 years, the representation of culture in textbooks seems to remain almost unchanged. Highlighting particularly the touristic aspects and offering a quite stereotypical view of what the authors imagine the target culture to be, the texts about London mainly address future tourists to the capital and do not offer a representation of what might be considered typical from its inhabitants’ emic point of view.

One of the few works investigating primary school pupils’ intercultural learning processes is the Ph.D. thesis by Theresa Staab-Schultes (Reference Staab-Schultes2011). Her work represents a critical analysis of a corpus of 19 textbooks, considering festivals, celebrations and holidays in Anglophone countries. She asks how celebrations are represented in the textbooks and how they are integrated within scenarios for activating experience-orientated intercultural learning. Taking into account the demand for target-group orientation, Staab-Schultes proposes three categories of celebrations, progressing from common celebrations to typical target culture festivals and celebrations from other cultures that are observed primarily by minority communities. This progression is explained by the principle of proceeding from the known to the unknown by comparing the pupils’ own experiences to an increasing number of foreign cultures. Paradoxically, this approach is explained by the need for learner orientation (taking into account the pupils’ own cultural experience), but it also assumes a single, clearly defined cultural reference for all of the learners in one group. If learner orientation and individual experience are taken seriously, the underlying definitions of cultural references – from own to target to minority cultures – could produce an effect that is diametrically opposed to the intended learning objective by excluding the cultural experiences of many pupils who themselves are situated in plural cultural environments. Staab-Schultes thus calls for a better integration of learners’ cultural identities than presently available.

In addition to historical and terminological discussions on the relevant notions and concepts of interculturality, one of the crucial points in research is that of evaluation or assessment. Intercultural competence is notoriously difficult to assess, and every approach inevitably depends on the underlying model of intercultural competence involved (see Byram & Hu Reference Byram and Hu2009). Some approaches focus on self-assessment, such as in the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters (Byram et al. Reference Byram, Barrett, Ipgrave, Jackson and García2009), while others, such as the large-scale DESI study (Beck & Klieme Reference Beck and Klieme2007), is based on the field of psychometric assessment and Bennett’s model of intercultural sensitivity (Bennett Reference Bennett and Paige1993). In addition to the importance of the question of how intercultural competence can be assessed, one might also go as far as to ask if it should be assessed at all. Assessing personal attitudes, for example, raises ethical issues by making attitudes a basis for assessment and grading – and thus selection – in the educational system.

Models of intercultural and communicative competence are the basis for further studies in this area. Jan-Oliver Eberhardt (Reference Eberhardt2013), for example, aims to further develop Byram’s model by describing the knowledge, skills and attitudes in intercultural communication that learners should have acquired by the end of their lower secondary education according to German educational standards (Ständige Konferenz 2003). Investigating a sample (n = 106) of French FL learners in both grammar and comprehensive schools, Eberhardt combines the results of quantitative, category-driven content analysis gathered through questionnaires and in-depth interpretive interviews (n = 15) in which students commented on culturally charged photos as well as ‘critical incidents’ in intercultural settings, describing intercultural encounters in their own biography. The results of Eberhardt’s analysis permit a vertical and horizontal adaptation of Byram’s main categories of intercultural competence. The study’s theoretical impact follows not just from the analysis per se, but also because of its focus on developmental phases and their relevance to the consideration of how the vertical dimension of intercultural competence (i.e. in terms of stages or progression) may be modelled. Eberhardt’s study is thus highly pertinent to the recent discussion on linking educational standards and assessment models in the realm of intercultural competence.

Following the tradition of cultural learning with literary texts, Britta Freitag-Hild (Reference Freitag-Hild2010) proposes an empirical approach to the question of how inter- and transcultural competence can be fostered by working with texts that focus on cultural hybridity, as can be seen in British migration fiction. Freitag-Hild’s work contributes to a wider theoretical and terminological discussion of the notion of ‘Culture’, transferring new concepts in cultural and postcolonial studies (e.g. the notion of the ‘Transcultural’ (Welsch Reference Welsch and Drechsel1999) or Bhabha's ‘Third Space’ (Bhabha Reference Bhabha1994)) to FL teaching contexts. Using an ethnographic design, Freitag-Hild analyses two case studies focusing on how young adult readers perceive fictional characters and on how their perception is negotiated in classroom discourse. By triangulating audio- and video-recorded lesson observations and analysing the learners’ language production, she aims to produce a full description of the teaching and learning situation. A further data set (retrospective interviews) is collected with the aim of elucidating the emic view of learners and teachers. Freitag-Hild works on two novels with high school pupils, aiming to understand the development of inter- and transcultural awareness. Her analyses show that interpreting the fictional characters’ cultural perspectives inevitably depends on the readers’ own culturally structured understanding. By developing and evaluating a specific typology of tasks that foster the capacity to adopt other perspectives, Freitag-Hild offers insights into the construction processes of cultural multiperspectivity.

Another Ph.D. thesis that addresses the link between a specific task design and the development of intercultural competence while working with literary texts is presented by Anja Jäger (Reference Jäger2011). She investigates English classes at high school level, working with young adult literature. Using action research and triangulating observation notes, audio and video recordings, retrospective interviews, questionnaires and learners’ language production, Jäger is interested in arriving at an understanding of how reading young adult literature fosters intercultural communicative competence (Byram Reference Byram1997) when the reading process is guided by creative performance tasks in which students act out roles and scenes and which aim to change learner perspectives. Jäger is able to show that role plays and productive (creative) tasks can help to identify the gap between the reader’s own cultural identity and the perspective offered by the text, but do not necessarily foster comprehension or empathy. It appears that declarative knowledge about cultural issues is necessary to take on the perspective of the fictional characters. In this sense, Jäger’s and Freitag-Hild’s studies offer illustrative empirical evidence in response to the question of the interdependence of different components in models of intercultural competence and the tasks that are suitable for developing these components.

Although teaching and learning languages in educational contexts has a certain impact on the development of intercultural competence, the importance of out-of-school encounters with students who speak the target language is emphasized in many curriculum documents and by many researchers (for an overview see Schäfer Reference Schäfer2012). The study carried out by Nicole Schäfer (Reference Schäfer2012) relates to research into learning experiences in encounters outside the classroom (Austauschforschung/Begegnungsdidaktik). Since studies on non-school contexts and exchange programmes have shown that encounter situations per se do not necessarily lead to a critical reflection of stereotypes or to an increased interest in the target culture, research on exchange programmes has increasingly begun to investigate the precise conditions under which participants are actually able to benefit from such programmes. Schäfer focuses on one of the currently most important German-American exchange programmes (German-American Partnership Program, GAPP), concentrating on how classroom learning, fieldwork and independent learning (cf. Byram Reference Byram1997: 68) interact to foster the intercultural communicative competence of a sample of 18 pupils in Grades 10 and 11. By triangulating data from an action research project, a teacher survey and participant interviews, Schäfer is able to establish a complex and multilayered image of cultural experiences and, at the same time, shows that participants’ development of intercultural communicative competence can, under specific conditions, confirm the efficacy of the exchange programme.

In conclusion, it becomes evident that the seven studies reported here are strongly anchored in typical European and, more precisely, German educational traditions. They refer to the Council of Europe’s language policy texts and to hermeneutic approaches accentuating the dialogical understanding of otherness (e.g. Bredella & Christ Reference Bredella and Christ1995), particularly by working on stereotypes or with literature (Freitag-Hild Reference Freitag-Hild2010; Jäger Reference Jäger2011). In addition, Byram’s model is the major point of reference in German Ph.D. theses on intercultural issues. Research can contribute to the enhancement and expansion of the model as well as to its empirical validation; however, the focus on a very restricted corpus of reference texts and models might appear quite a narrow benchmark for research that claims to be internationally pertinent. Further research should rely on a broader theoretical base of models and assessment methods to connect German research to a larger field of international investigation.

The interdependence of research on teaching and learning on the one hand and curricular texts and pedagogical material on the other is evident in all seven studies. As there is no immediate transfer and application from theoretical models to policy and curricula but rather a complex mixture of interests, educational traditions and adaptation of theories, more research will be necessary to understand the status quo in different national educational systems. Kolb’s comparative discourse analysis is in this sense a contribution of inestimable value because she shows diachronic and synchronic discourse threads which contribute to understanding why references to similar texts (such as the CEFR or Byram’s model) are not the same everywhere, but rather, are highly dependent on national decisions in the field of educational policy. For this reason, more comparative studies like Kolb’s analysis should be carried out in the future.

In general, despite an extensive discourse on underlying notions of culture and new approaches to cultural learning in the theoretical discourse of cultural didactics, dissertation research continues to work with rather traditional approaches of cultural and intercultural learning. Only Freitag-Hild (Reference Freitag-Hild2010) offers a broader discussion of new concepts in cultural studies which are questioned regarding their impact on FL and culture teaching and learning. Future research should take into account recent theoretical work from the field of cultural studies or social sciences and critically reflect its relevance for FL teaching and learning contexts.

5. Language teacher education and teacher training

As the above discussion in Section 4 shows, German FL research has evolved significantly and has aligned itself with language teaching research (Sprachlehrforschung) (cf. Königs Reference Königs, Byram and Hu2013), characterized by empirical approaches. While much research aims to optimize language teaching, a sizable amount now investigates the role of the language teacher, and recent findings regarding FL teaching and learning show that the results of research should be systematically considered for teacher training purposes. In order to understand teacher training research specifically, it is important to know that Germany has a unique, two-phase system (see Kuhfuß Reference Kuhfuß, Hallet and Königs2013), consisting of a (minimum) five-year university degree involving two subjects and a school phase, in which the non-university-run Studienseminare undertake the training role of prospective teachers for between 18 and 24 months during the Referendariat. Both phases end with a mandatory state examination. Outside the school context, teacher training is highly diverse, ranging from no training at all to various post-secondary degrees. Against this background, it is clear that research on teacher training can refer to very different aspects. This is also illustrated in the five studies that were chosen for this overview, which represent only a small portion of the field.

Eva M. Hirzinger-Unterrainer (Reference Hirzinger-Unterrainer2013) examines a teacher training concept developed and implemented at the Austrian University of Innsbruck. The concept aims to link professional knowledge, subject-related didactical and pedagogical knowledge and skills as well as practical instruction. Students complete, inter alia, two so-called umbrella courses in which they familiarize themselves with FL didactics and assessment. These two courses are held in English for all students, regardless of which language(s) they will teach later. Further instructional training then takes place in specific courses in the target language. Hirzinger-Unterrainer carried out written (n = 85) and oral (n = 15) interviews of FL students to investigate to what extent the above mentioned umbrella courses are responsible for the subjective theories of the interviewees about the teaching and learning of FLs. While the evaluation of the questionnaires follows more quantitative criteria, the reconstruction of subjective theories of students via semi-structured interviews is qualitative in nature. The author interprets the individual subjective theories of the 15 respondents as supporting the Innsbruck programme design. While this analysis is interesting, it sometimes gives the impression that purported support shown for the teacher training concept is not based on a comparison with other parts of the FL training programme; positive evaluation results may also arise from the experience of team teaching and from the integration of theory (attributed to the umbrella courses) and practice (attributed to the language-specific main subject courses). Overall, however, the study shows that differentiated insights into subjective theories can be gained with research instruments for social sciences.

Studies such as the above aim to determine which subjective theories FL education students develop and what influence training exerts on these theories. However, before these future teachers complete the training, each student must also clarify for themselves whether they want to become a FL teacher. In her study, Senem Özkul (Reference Özkul2011) focuses on the career motives of English teachers. Her examination of intrinsic and extrinsic career choice motives as well as intrinsic and extrinsic motives for the choice of study involved a questionnaire distributed amongst more than 1,700 students of English and American Studies at German universities. Based on 20 proposed hypotheses, the data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. Results indicate that the choice of profession is more strongly influenced by friends than family members, and that for both sexes, an orientation towards teacher role models of their own school career plays a more important role than previously assumed. Overall, intrinsic motives play an important role in the choice of career, whereas the ‘pedagogical mission’ among prospective female teachers is much more pronounced than among their male counterparts. More important than the data gathered are the conclusions regarding teacher training and its reform. It is recommended, for example, that teacher training programmes provide more opportunity for students to develop a professional awareness of their own professional and academic choice, since this could help to diminish the risk of making poor career decisions and, later, burnout. Thus, these types of studies can illustrate how instructional and academic choices can be understood and interpreted, and how diagnostic competences must be developed against the background of teachers’ own processes of professional and academic choice.

These competences – regarding task-oriented work in language-teaching – are the subject of Thomas Raith’s dissertation (Reference Raith2011). He examines which competences FL teachers need for planning, implementation and evaluation of task-based work, to which degree these competencies can be developed and promoted, and how they may affect the design of effective teacher training and further professional development. It is his goal to generate a ‘model of competence development for the promotion of task-oriented teaching skills’ (Raith Reference Raith2011: 131). Here, competence is understood as subject-related and development-oriented, but also as the ability to use a wide repertoire of instructional courses of action along with self-reflection. In this context, Raith presents the reflective cycle, in which teachers plan and conduct their classes, detect and know how to assess deviations from the original plan, and then implement changes resulting from this analysis. In order to test the extent to which teachers are able to meet the complex requirements involved in task-based learning (TBL), Raith examines eight prospective secondary school teachers trained in TBL. Their teaching is video-recorded in the task-based situations and the teachers themselves are asked to reflect on their teaching on the basis of video stimuli and focused interviews. In addition, he draws on learning diaries to develop a comprehensive picture of competence development with respect to the use of FL learning tasks. His resulting model aims to identify task-based competences and, in particular, results in a graded catalogue of task-based reflective questions covering different ability levels. The study clearly shows that the development of teaching competences is bound to the training of reflective practice; competent teaching includes as much critical self-examination as the observation of instructional interaction between other members of the learning group and the observation of how the learning task has been accomplished. The prospective teachers in Raith's study show a high degree of critical reflection regarding choice of content, scheduling or the appropriateness of the chosen social forms; however, they have undeniable weaknesses in formal linguistic aspects such as the embedding and application of linguistic form in functional classroom discourse. The author explains the necessity for further comparative studies, including studies on teachers who had no intensive contact with the concept of task orientation in the first phase of their training. The study clearly shows that continuous reflection should constitute an important element of modern FL teacher training both during and after that training.

Johanna Hochstetter (Reference Hochstetter2011) also deals with the importance of professional reflection. The author is interested in the beliefs of FL teachers and examines the role that they play in the development of diagnostic competence, performance evaluation and student observation. In addition to the extensive theoretical grounding, various qualitative data were collected, including videography of lessons, and individual and group interviews with primary school teachers. Hochstetter shows that an introduction to observation methods alone is not sufficient to promote diagnostic competence; rather, teachers’ attitudes and beliefs play a major role, in that they tie observation almost exclusively to performance evaluation and not to the actual pedagogical function for diagnostic purposes – especially at primary school level. It is also noteworthy that the self-assessments of the interviewed and observed teachers only partially conform to reality; the teachers surveyed were rarely aware of the limits of their own teaching activity and tend to overestimate the extent of their observational capacities, especially in assessment situations. This leads to a strong tendency towards stereotypical ratings rather than objective observations – hardly a comforting conclusion. Finally, Hochstetter shows that the five teachers more intensively studied were often sceptical of the use of observation protocols and tend to conceal observation results to students out of a belief that these are too subjective. They thus unwillingly infringe on the need for transparency in performance evaluation: ‘If teachers conceal that students are being observed, they miss the chance to give them feedback that is detailed and based on their strengths, weaknesses and further work. Thus, a key requirement for pedagogical performance evaluation cannot be met.’ (Hochstetter Reference Hochstetter2011: 214)

The need for tools for self-reflection and systematic classroom observation, and for training teachers to use these tools, also becomes evident in the final study in this category, which investigated how professionalization can be achieved through reflective practices (Roters Reference Roters2012). In contrast to the aforementioned studies, Bianca Roters turns to institutional and societal frameworks in which teacher training has developed in Germany and the USA. Starting with a conceptual review of questions that deal with profession, professionalism and professionalization, she analyses and then classifies different conceptual approaches to teacher training. Her data analysis, based on expert interviews with five university instructors (three at German and two at American universities), seeks to clarify how learning and reflection opportunities of prospective FL teachers develop, and links these to trainers’ expectations. She also evaluates the written reflections of nine German and twelve American students of Education using the same qualitative content analysis as for the expert interviews. Of further interest is the typology that Roters develops to describe different self-reflection, distinguishing between a descriptive-generalizing, self-focused, instrumental-reflexive, dialogue-reflexive, transformative-reflexive and reflexive research-based categories (Roters Reference Roters2012: 264 ff.), although not all were observed in her data. The study concludes that the German students are able to report didactic and general pedagogical theories and information, but rarely use them in their own lessons. This was quite different in the case of the American students, where teacher trainers more often take the role of learning companions and guides, and encourage reflective discourse characterized by different perspectives. Overall, American students tend to see themselves more as members of a professional community that accompanies and supports them on their way to obtaining professional instructional competence (Roters Reference Roters2012: 254), and training focuses more on the connection between theoretical concepts and instructional activity. On the basis of her analysis, Roters formulates various recommendations for German teacher training, such as increasing reflection by including logbooks and portfolios, and supporting the concept of teacher training as a collaborative task.

While the studies cited here do not include all facets of research in the effort to improve teacher training, they do show some general tendencies. First, reflection and the training of reflective competencies are dominant themes. There is a direct link between the well-founded, guided and scientifically based ‘thinking’ and the development of a goal-oriented instructional decision-making competence. The studies show how diverse this reflection is, but also how important it is for reflection to be a systematic and ongoing subject within teacher training – and in FL research (cf. exemplary work on the didactics of multilingualism, portfolio work or bilingual teaching as well as examples in the corresponding contributions in the handbooks of Hallet & Königs Reference Hallet and Königs2013a; Reference Hallet and Königs2013b).

Second, it is striking that the orientation of empirical work on FL teacher training is based more on school pedagogy (Schulpädagogik) as well as educational and social sciences and less on linguistics, as it was in the past. The cooperation of individual subject didactics with school pedagogy is more successful than ever. This could be attributable to the fact that the idea of professionalization has gained importance in the field of FL research (cf. Trautmann Reference Trautmann, Hallet and Königs2013).

Third, in addition to considerations of reflective practices, the concept of competence currently plays an important role in the research of teaching and learning FLs. Although the jury is still out on how fruitful this concept is for SLA research, for many papers – including the aforementioned – it remains a key element.

Finally, curricular as well as normative guidelines shaping FL teacher training currently are less present in empirical studies, although these often form the basis for curricular decision-making. Since there are considerable doubts as to whether curricula prescribed by education policy really are supported by present scientific findings, investigating teacher training is imperative. The work mentioned here is typical of FL teacher education, which tends to see itself as having been developed from the bottom upwards and therefore well-grounded. Which direction German FL teacher training will take in coming years is difficult to forecast; more than any other area of SLA research, its development is subject to political influences. Presently, such influence is primarily evident in the development of state-wide school-leaving examinations, the introduction of B.A. and M.A. models in teacher training, the changes in the Referendariat, and in the fight for state funding of research. In general, however, it seems that research examines existing initiatives for teaching and learning FLs in order to gain perspectives on their significance for possible future curricular reforms. It is in our best interests to follow this path of status quo investigations, rather than looking at exemplary innovative concepts, since these lack the necessary link back to research in FL teaching and learning. Seen from that point of view, the dissertations presented here give more reason for hope than worry with regard to the development of teacher education.