How Well Can a Computer Program Teach German Culture? Some Preliminary Findings from EthnoDeutsch

Abstract

In 1993, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages completed a new set of content standards for language teaching in the United States. Enhancing earlier proficiency guidelines in the four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, ACTFEs 5 Cs, as outlined in the Executive Summary of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparingfor the 21st Century, are comprised of Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. These aim to move beyond performance on discretepoint language tasks by preparing students to participate appropriately within multilingual communities by knowing how, when and why to say what to whom, thus positing language per UNESCO recommendations as tangibly linked to a situation demonstrating usage (Kearney 161). Based on ACTFL guidelines, the 1993 report Professional Standards of German: Recommendations of the AATG Task Force on Professional Standards (Schulz et al.) outlines competencies in each of the five above-mentioned areas for both teachers and learners of L2 German. These recommendations specify that qualified teachers of German know the German language and the cultures [our italics] of the German speaking-world (Schulz et. al. 85) and that they furthermore know how to teach the cultures of the German-speaking world (Schulz et al. 87), reach[ing] out to populations that may, traditionally, not have been served by German programs in the past (Schulz et. al. 82). Technology-mediated German instruction is one way in which this last mandate can be and is being carried out by the profession. However, the interface between culture instruction and technology is one which has received minimal research attention.