Routledge Handbook of German Language Teaching

The Routledge Handbook of German Language Teaching evaluates and addresses multifaceted, multilevel needs of students and teachers within teaching German as a foreign, as well as a second, language through taking a transcultural approach.

Each contribution starts with the author situating themselves in the geographical and institutional context in which they teach as well as the way in which they teach, for example, in person or online. This acknowledges the Handbook’s internationally widespread contributors, from countries with different histories in terms of cultural, linguistic and educational diversity more generally and the teaching of German in particular. The chapters reflect their voices and consider language learners as people who have their own identities.

Material such as plays, poems, short literary texts, rap, singing and drawing are discussed in this book as being influential for language learners from beginner level and beyond. This book proposes that ‘learning’ happens by both the teachers and the learners going on a journey and both changing the outlook on each other and themselves along that journey. Alongside this, questions are asked with respect to curricula and the relation between speaking German and ‘belonging’ in a German-speaking country.

This Handbook will primarily appeal to teachers and instructors of German, as well as those training to become German language instructors. Moreover, the book will appeal to researchers interested in the linguistic and theoretical aspects of German language teaching.

Ruth Whittle is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Languages, University of Birmingham, UK.

Angela Kalt was a lecturer in Anglistik and Amerikanistik at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Germany.