German Teaching and Learning in Early Years and Primary Schools in the UK

Abstract

German is traditionally less popular in UK primary schools than French or Spanish, perhaps because of a lack of qualified teachers or training opportunities. In this chapter, issues are discussed regarding the quality and consistency of language teaching, where England and Scotland are the only component countries which have policies. These are vague and lack coherence, nor do they specify language(s) children should learn. The Goethe Institut and other organisations’ work providing materials and resources for learning German and training opportunities are acknowledged, but these are on a small scale, compared to, for example, the coverage afforded by the Confucius Institute network. The chapter discusses the situation regarding German teaching and learning and concludes that a coherent programme of teacher training, including curriculum, methodology, materials and evaluation goals, underpinned by a clear funding commitment, must be in place to support teachers and primary learners for German to flourish.