Stationenlernen: A Student-Centered Approach to Working with Foreign Language Texts

Abstract

For years, foreign educators at the postsecondary level have acknowledged a prob lematic gap in many foreign curricula be tween lower-level courses and upper-level courses (see Hoffmann and James, Barnett, Rice, and McCarthy). The communicative methods and pedagogical goals of language courses usually have little in common with those of advanced courses, and it is often very difficult for students to make a successful transition between the two (see Mittman, Eigler). The root of this curricular problem, Richard Kern argues, lies in the fact that the lower-level lan guage sequence is pragmatic in its focus, aimed at developing students' communication skills in per sonal and professional contexts, whereas the more scholarly upper-level content courses seek to sharpen students' analytic skills, their cultural sen sibilities, and their ability to express themselves formally (Reconciling 20). With these divergent goals come very different pedagogies. Language courses usually focus on social interaction in a warm, supportive, collaborative environment. Topics addressed there tend not to challenge stu dents' thinking, and students are encouraged to offer their personal opinions. In upper-level con tent courses, by contrast, students are expected to analyze and synthesize material, orally and in writ ing, using formal discourse and citing textual evi dence. The atmosphere tends not to be collabora tive or supportive (or fun, as many classes are)1; instead, individual students are ex pected to listen to lectures and contribute to discus sions led by the instructor. Given the different na ture of and courses, then, it is hardly surprising many foreign programs suffer from poor retention of students from the lower-level to the upper-level sequence. In response to this situation, a number of re searchers and educators have begun to rethink the structure and goals of the traditional foreign lan guage curriculum and to propose ways in which the and halves of the curriculum might be integrated (see, for example, articles in Scott and Tucker). One possibility lies in the con cept of foreign literacy as a new organiz ing principle for foreign education (Kern, Literacy 40). As Richard Kern explains, in a literacy-oriented foreign curriculum, work with texts becomes the central enterprise at every level: