The current debate on the professionalization of teachers has moved an old question to center stage: What do foreign/second language teachers need to know, how well do they need to know it and for what purpose? This paper seeks to explore the subject-specific components of foreign/second language teachers' professional knowledge from three perspectives. The first one focuses on the development of foreign language learning and teaching (Fremdsprachendidaktik) as an academic discipline starting from the Language Reform Movement in Germany in the late 19th century. The second perspective takes the dynamics of the language classroom as a starting point to elucidate in what way the underlying philosophy of classroom learning and teaching shapes the conceptualization of professional knowledge. Finally, the paper concentrates on the academic phase of knowledge development by pointing to the crucial relationship between subject-specific features of professional knowledge and the nature and quality of academic teaching. The underlying assumption of the paper is that it is essential to keep a balance between theoretical knowledge and its relationship with practical experience, that knowledge and situated practice must not be separated.
Aufsätze
The aim of this article is to identify current developments and necessary future initiatives in foreign language teacher research in Germany. This not only includes reflecting on professional development processes and the complex demands of foreign language teaching for (prospective) teachers, but also discussing possibilities to empirically capture and examine this complexity. Constructs such as language teacher identity from international discourse, or teacher habitus and professional knowledge from German pedagogical discourse could be useful here, but require further development. This article will consider what additional conceptual and empirical approaches are necessary in order to better understand the complex construct of the "foreign language teacher", and how their professionalisation, habitus, and identity inform what they know and do.
This paper is about concepts of knowledge about foreign language teaching and learning in situations of practice in teacher education. It discusses normative orientations regarding subject specific knowledge on the basis of the knowledge that already determines the practice situations in question. First, an overview of recent empirical studies is presented, which have in common that they assume knowledge in practice as situationally transformed and describe this knowledge empirically via qualitative and reconstructive methods. Findings across studies show some stable characteristics of subject knowledge. Objects such as the work on grammar and vocabulary or the use of curricula, but also higher education principles such as reflexivity and methods connected with these such as case analyses or lesson planning can be generalized from practice. Finally, the article discusses how this knowledge can be made fruitful in higher education contexts and research.
Language teaching has a very long history, but formal language teacher education in Germany only dates back to the 19th century, when the core structures and patterns were established. Some of these are still in place today. The current debate on the knowledge base, skill set and professional identity of language teachers and their professional communication has its roots in the lively discourse on these questions which was started by the teachers more than 150 years ago. They discussed what linguistic, literary, cultural and practical language knowledge was deemed necessary and founded journals and professional associations for the exchange of ideas. Their reflections on language teaching practice demonstrate an awareness for the central issues of language teaching.
In order to determine basic pedagogical content knowledge, a questionnaire survey was conducted among teachers of "Introduction to Foreign Language Education" courses in German-speaking countries. The article describes how the questionnaire was designed and presents the most important results based on 169 responses. Findings indicate that there is an unexpectedly high consensus regarding the central teaching content in pedagogical content introductory courses. This result calls into question the previously attested low degree of canonisation and codification of pedagogical content knowledge.
Subject-specific content and language cannot be separated from one another, as terms and concepts are always integrated into a network of subject-specific contexts and are in an ongoing process of negotiation. Subject-specific content and language must therefore be taught and learned simultaneously. However, to date, there has been a lack of reflection on specialist communication in foreign language teacher training. So it is not surprising if students have difficulties in subject-related reception and communication. The article deals primarily with the relationship between subject-specific knowledge and subject-specific communication in the field of modern foreign language didactics and, based on a questionnaire study, discusses how subject-related language training can be conceptualized in the training of foreign language teachers in order to foster the required language skills.