Cultivating Critical Listening: Hörspiele in the German Classroom

Abstract

This article examines how the radio drama, or Hörspiel, might be successfully implemented in the German classroom to train students’ ability to listen for context. Hörspiele can help students reduce their dependency on visual stimuli, develop critical and discerning listening skills, and acquire familiarity with a lesser‐known literary genre and its historical and cultural context. Offering a sample five‐day unit modeled on Heinrich Böll's radio play, Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen, this article outlines three ways that this Hörspiel can be used in the German language classroom with intermediate‐ to advanced‐level language learners: (1) to develop students’ ability to listen for context through an acoustic literary genre, (2) to reinforce and contextualize grammar concepts such as case and noun declension, and (3) to introduce postwar German culture and the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung. The unit's overall aim is to teach students to think critically about how contextual clues such as the quality of voices, background noises, and other acoustic elements help convey meaning. At the conclusion of the unit, students demonstrate their knowledge of the genre and its acoustic markers by creating their own original Hörspiel or radio play adaptation of a short story.