The Thematic Content Short Course Model for Accelerating Language Proficiency Among Learners of German and Mandarin Language and Literature: An Experimental Study

It is known that many innovative studies have been carried out on materials, approaches and methods in Foreign Language Teaching thanks to recent technological advances and the update in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, learning, teaching, Assessment in recent years. However, there are other important factors that affect the process of language teaching and learning. These factors can be listed as readiness, awareness, motivation and anxiety. In particular, the fact that motivation and anxiety manifest themselves in a dinstinct fashion in all four skills can cause learning problems. The study attempts to explore speaking anxiety in general, and the effect of grammar on this kind of anxiety in particular. The test group of the study consists of students who learn German as a Foreign Language, and study in a German Language and Literature program. In conclusion, the effect of the knowledge of the mother tongue as well as the knowledge of the German language on the anxiety involved in speaking a foreign language is explained, and the importance of the mother tongue especially in the foreign language learning process is emphasized. In the light of all these clarifications, it can be said that grammar is very effective in speaking skills, and that the lack of grammar is a factor that increases speaking anxiety.

Abstract: Over past several decades, listening comprehension has not received a great deal of focus in foreign/second language acquisition (SLA) research compared to other skills and competencies. Although there is growing research on instructional techniques and strategies to enhance those skills in earlier stages of second language (L2) learning, there is little investigation of text-related factors, as well as individual learner factors, that may contribute to advanced-level listening skills. This paper reports on a pilot study on both textual and individual factors for advanced-level listening comprehension. Twenty-seven advanced learners of L2 German served as participants, along with 10 native speaker controls, for multiple-choice listening items including both short and extended listening texts. In addition, a background survey assessed language-contact factors to look for significant influence on advanced-level listening comprehension. T test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) tests show that nonnative speakers do not differ significantly from native speaker controls for these tasks, but that confidence in interpreting meaning was significant for certain item types. Correlational analyses point to several language contact factors that indicate both quantity and quality of L2 experience were significant for overall listening comprehension accuracy, as well as for confidence. Based on these preliminary findings, more research is recommended to explore experiential variables that may predict advanced attainment in listening. Key words: adults, German as a second language, learner factors, listening, second language (L2) learning Language: German Introduction Canale and Swain's (1980) description of communicative competence was groundbreaking in its description of second language (L2) competencies beyond mere grammatical accuracy. Discourse, strategic, and sociolinguistic know-how were cited as distinct, though interconnected, competencies. As a result, ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines have spelled out clear recommendations for advanced-level abilities in communicative realm, including ability to initiate, sustain and bring to closure a wide variety of communicative tasks (Buck, Brynes, & Thompson, 1989). All such communicative skills rely not only on lexical, grammatical, topical, and cultural knowledge-their foundation is comprehension. While is arguably cornerstone of interpersonal communication, and several foreign language methods have stressed its significance for overall fluency, listening skills have traditionally been labeled as passive or receptive, even though listening comprehension is active, complex process-in some ways, independent from other skills (see Hirai, 1999; Lund, 1991; Wong, 2001). In early discussions of communicative competence, little direct attention was paid to listening as a distinct skill set. The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (1989) described advanced learners as able to comprehend standard dialect at a normal rate, and able to glean main idea and most supporting details for everyday topics. While most current textbooks do emphasize importance of listening skills, there is still no solid consensus on how to best teach listening. Some have contended that field of foreign language teaching has viewed listening less as a set of skills and more as an activity to be used in foreign language instruction (Feyten, 1991, p. 175 [italics added]). Cook, in fact, suggested that listening may not be directly teachable, and that the best teacher can do is to devise amusing activities during which natural listening abilities can be automatically activated (1991, p. 61). Ultimately, field may have placed too much emphasis on speaking, in hope that other skill areas will more or less fall in line behind it (James, 1985, p. 5). As teachers, we may tend toward assumption that listening develops naturally where focus is on comprehensible input (see Krashen, 1981, 1996). …

ABSTRACTThe aim of the current study is to investigate motion event cognition in second language learners in a higher education context. Based on recent findings that speakers of grammatical aspect languages like English attend less to the endpoint (goal) of events than do speakers of nonaspect languages like Swedish in a nonverbal categorization task involving working memory (Athanasopoulos & Bylund, 2013; Bylund & Athanasopoulos, 2015), the current study asks whether native speakers of an aspect language start paying more attention to event endpoints when learning a nonaspect language. Native English and German (a nonaspect language) speakers, and English learners of L2 German, who were pursuing studies in German language and literature at an English university, were asked to match a target scene with intermediate degree of endpoint orientation with two alternate scenes with low and high degree of endpoint orientation, respectively. Results showed that, compared to the native English speakers, the learners of German were more prone to base their similarity judgements on endpoint saliency, rather than ongoingness, primarily as a function of increasing L2 proficiency and year of university study. Further analyses revealed a nonlinear relationship between length of L2 exposure and categorization patterns, subserved by a progressive strengthening of the relationship between L2 proficiency and categorization as length of exposure increased. These findings present evidence that cognitive restructuring may occur through increasing experience with an L2, but also suggest that this relationship may be complex and unfold over a long period of time.

Formulation of the problem . The article considers various approaches and methods for teaching German as the second foreign language offered by domestic and foreign scientists testifying to the need for additional comprehension and refinement of the main principles for teaching German as the second foreign language after learning English. The linguistic characteristics of English and German are analyzed at the phonetic, grammatical and lexical levels. Results . The theoretical analysis of the factors for teaching and learning German as the second language is given. It allowed us to reveal the following principles as fundamental ones: the principle of support and comparative connection with the first foreign and native languages, the principle of individualization of teaching, as well as the cognitive principle. It was found out how to approach the organization of the content of teaching, forms and methods of teaching so that students acquire explicit and implicit experience in the formation and improvement of teaching strategies. The study proved that parallel learning of the English and German languages has special advantages for learners based on the linguistic similarity of these two languages. Conclusions . The theoretical and practical analysis of the factors for teaching and learning German as the second language allowed us to reveal the following principles as fundamental ones: the principle of support and comparative connection with the first foreign and native languages, the principle of individualization of teaching, as well as the cognitive principle. The analysis allowed us to understand how to approach the organization of the content of training, forms and methods of teaching, so that students acquired explicit and implicit experience in the formation and improvement of teaching strategies. The study also clearly demonstrated that the parallel learning of the English and German languages had special advantages for learners, based on the linguistic similarity of these two languages.

The use of machine translation is becoming increasingly popular among language learners. Artificial intelligence tools, such as the online service Google Tranlate and the chatbot ChatGPT have the potencial to transform language teaching and learning. This paper examines how students use machine translation and their attitudes towards the application of these tools in the teaching and learning of German language. The participants of this study were students from the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš who are learning German as a foreign language at levels A2.1 and B1.1. The objectives of this research are to gain fundamental insights into the use of machine translation in teaching German at the tertiary level, to provide guidelines for further research and discussion, and to offer practical advice for German language instruction. The results confirm the assumptions that students use machine translation and have positive attitudes towards its application. Respondents mainly use these tools as dictionaries, but also for checking and correcting independently written texts and for writing assignments. Almost all students believe that these tools aid in learning German, and the majority of students state that they should be used in German language teaching and learning.

BackgroundGlobally, at least, more than 2 billion people are either blind or visually impaired, the majority of whom live in low-income settings. Visually impaired people experience limitations in their daily activities in addition to the negative psychological impact. Ophthalmology is not a major focus in medical curricula, including in Sudan. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a short course in improving eye healthcare knowledge and skills among final-year medical students in a public university in Khartoum State, Sudan.MethodsA mixed-methods interventional study was conducted among 25 final-year medical students in Sudan. A short ophthalmology course was designed and conducted aiming to strengthen the knowledge and ability of the medical students to deal with common eye disorders, eye emergencies, prevention of blindness, and promotion for eye health. Data were collected using a closed-ended questionnaire at the start and 1 month after completion of the course. The quantitative data were analyzed using Excel, and the Fisher exact test was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 21.0) to examine any association between variables of interest. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The quantitative data was supplemented by one focus group discussion that was conducted at the end of the course.ResultsThe average ophthalmology knowledge of participants improved from 52.6 to 86.6% (p < 0.001). Diagnostic skills improved from 57.3 to 93.6% (p < 0.001), and knowledge regarding the needed interventional actions improved from 58.6% to 94% (p < 0.001). Participants both enjoyed and learnt from this short course. Participants felt more confident and able to distinguish between simple, complicated, and urgent conditions. The majority of course content was new to them, but they suggested replacing some content with actual clinical work.ConclusionA well-designed short ophthalmology course significantly improves the levels of medical students’ knowledge and skills towards eye health. Implementing such a course as a standard component in the national medical curriculum has the potential to contribute towards the reduction of blindness in the long term.

At Makerere University, foreign language courses in French, German and Arabic are attended by a variety of students at beginner, advanced and voluntary levels. Language students either learn foreign languages as service courses within the framework of academic programmes such as Tourism and Secretarial Studies, or as fully-fledged subjects at undergraduate level. In spite of the emphasis on language skills in job advertisements in the Ugandan press, the teaching of foreign languages tends to be oriented more towards theoretical requirements of academic (language) programmes and numbers of students, rather than toward the intensity of language contact, quality of language courses and students as well as standardised language course evaluations. The criteria for the selection of potential language students and the language learning policy are problematic and partly the cause of the unpopularity of language courses. On the basis of the evaluation of the course "German for Secretarial Studies", the current paper outlines challenges of teaching and learning German as a foreign language. There seems to be a discrepancy between the language skills that job markets require from university graduates and the skills which graduates are likely, at present, to acquire upon completion of their foreign language courses. The paper also focuses on factors that constitute barriers to foreign language learning and recommends ways in which foreign language students and teachers can exploit the potential of the budding Ugandan language industry.

In this paper we report the results of a questionnaire survey conducted with 1777 Hungarian primary school children aged between 13 and 14 studying English and German. In our research we investigated the differences in the motivational and intercultural contact measures as well as determinants of motivated behaviour between learners of English and German. Our results indicate that students of English have a more positive attitude towards the native speakers of the language they study than learners of German, and children who study English have higher levels of linguistic self-confidence, invest more energy into language learning and receive more support from their environment than students of German. Our findings also reveal that learners of English experience more frequent direct written contact and contact through media products than learners of German. For both groups of language learners the results indicate that students with high levels of motivational intensity engage in various types of intercultural contact more frequently than students who invest less energy into language learning. Our findings seem to suggest that it is motivational intensity rather than the language being studied that affects what factors predict how much energy students are willing to invest in language learning.

The comparison of parental involvement for German language learning and the academic success of the students

ABSTRACTThis study examines a task that can be applied in a uniform fashion across different languages to compare levels of vocabulary development in foreign language learning. Experiment I tested native speakers of Russian and German and demonstrated the basic comparability of the subjects' judgments for both words and nonwords. The results for Russian showed an influence of word length, which can be understood in terms of the Orthographical Depth Hypothesis. Experiment 2 applied the same task to learners of Russian and German and found that learners of Russian had achieved a lower level of vocabulary control than learners of German at comparable language exposure levels. This disadvantage for Russian can be attributed to the novelty of the Cyrillic graphemic system, which restricts the accessibility of written language input at early stages. There was a nonlinear increase over time in word sensitivity, which can be attributed to the increasing contribution of lexical plausibility factors at later stages of learning. Moreover, the lexical decision task appeared to be sensitive to inhibitory effects of concurrently studied languages, as well as to decay due to the lack of regular exposure. Together, these results indicate that the lexical decision task can be a useful tool for the assessment and crosslinguistic comparison of lexical development in foreign language learning.

In recent years, the demand for the acquisition of Mandarin Chinese language is in full swing globally based on the recognition of the economic and social importance of China. As a proactive response, the Ministry of General Education in Zambia included Mandarin Chinese as a second additional language in the secondary school Curriculum. However, there is a lack of exploring the epistemological beliefs and conceptions about Mandarin Chinese language teaching and learning in Zambia. A mixed research design is employed to study the epistemological beliefs and conceptions about Mandarin Chinese language teaching and learning in Zambia. A belief questionnaire was administered to 100 secondary school students learning Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). Semi-structured interviews were adopted to seek deep insights from 10 secondary school teachers on their epistemological beliefs and conceptions about Chinese language teaching and learning. The result shows that the students’ epistemological beliefs about the introduction of Mandarin Chinese language learning in secondary schools is key to enhance mutual understanding and friendship between the People’s Republic of China and Zambia. Also, the study results indicate that most of the students perceive learning Mandarin Chinese language as a window of opportunity for a good job and learning a new language. Nevertheless, the study results show that some teachers perceived the introduction of Mandarin Chinese language as a new form of Neo-colonization. This paper concludes that it’s fundamental for teachers in secondary schools in Zambia to review their epistemological beliefs and conceptions about Mandarin Chinese language teaching and learning and try to incorporate a SAL orientation using both literacy artifacts and cultural artifacts in teaching Mandarin Chinese language in secondary schools.

This study aims to investigate the foreign language anxiety (FLA) level among learners of German as a foreign language and discover the relationship between FLA and students’ variables that are gender, year of study, achievement in German classes, experience staying in Germany for more than six months, weekly contact hours, and course load of the term. The study used a quantitative research method using a survey approach. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), developed by Horwitz (1986), was administered to 246 German language learners in Jordan. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Squared, and univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis were used to analyse the collected data then fitted on a regression model. The results suggest that the participants’ level of FLA was on a moderate level, with the anxiety of the German Class as the most dominant aspect and Text Anxiety as the least aspect. The gender of the participants and their weekly contact hours of the German language did not determine their level of anxiety in learning German as a foreign language. The variables that significantly affected the participants’ language anxiety, whether high or low anxiety, were the year of study, the German-language assessment score, staying for more than six months in Germany studying or field training, and the total number of credit hours registered for the term. It is recommended that language instructors create a positive and friendly attitude towards students to reduce language anxiety in the classroom.

The Bridge 21 learning model emphasizes teamwork and technology mediation in the process of activity implementations. With the introduction of Chinese as a Leaving Certificate specification in the Irish secondary education system in 2020, there is a growing interest in Chinese language among schools, parents, as well as students. There are three types of Chinese language courses run through Irish secondary school settings: Junior Cycle (JC) Chinese Short Course, Transition Year (TY) Chinese and Leaving Certificate Mandarin Chinese. However, compared to other Anglosphere countries (e.g., UK, Australia), Ireland is in the early development stages of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learning (Osborne et al., 2019). Despite this, the open and flexible principle of Chinese course syllabi in JC and TY not only provides Chinese language teachers with the freedom of selecting contents, but also makes it possible to adapt Bridge 21 model into teaching practice. However, Chinese as a curriculum specification at JC in Ireland has not been explored in depth or been combined with the Bridge 21 model. Therefore, this paper aims to elaborate on the design and implementation of an eBook activity which aligns to the Bridge 21 model in a JC Chinese course. The preliminary findings of participants’ reflections suggest that the majority of participants had a positive experience in this activity and identified language development, especially recognition and production of Chinese characters, while one group of participants highlighted that they felt challenged working as a team. This may suggest there is a need for training of both technological tools as well as teamwork prior to conducting Bridge 21 learning activities in the future.

Learning the German language holds great significance in today’s world, as it opens up vast opportunities for education, professional growth, and cultural development. In a globalized society, knowledge of foreign languages is a hallmark of an educated person. English plays a crucial role in all areas of life – science, technology, economics, culture, and beyond. At the same time, proficiency in an additional foreign language significantly broadens the prospects for future professionals. German-speaking countries are distinguished by a high level of economic development and require qualified specialists with a deep knowledge of the language. Many Ukrainian universities offer students the opportunity to study two or more foreign languages, with English typically being the first.This article examines the key aspects of learning German as a second foreign language after English, using qualitative research methods and, in particular, comparative analysis. Since English is usually studied earlier and for a longer period, proficiency in English provides a strong foundation for successfully mastering German. The task of a German language lecturer is to leverage students’ existing knowledge of English to facilitate the learning process, as German is easier to acquire when there is already a solid foundation in English. Although teaching German as a second foreign language presents certain challenges, they can be overcome through effective methodological approaches.The content of learning German as a second language includes a range of interconnected and interdependent components. The learning process is structured based on a concentric approach, which involves revisiting topics at each stage of learning with gradual deepening and expansion of thematic content. Instructors should consider the systemic organization of both languages, as well as the fact that the fundamental forms and methods of teaching a foreign language remain unchanged. The core principles of teaching German after English help structure the learning process in a way that enables students to acquire the language more quickly and effectively.Practical importance of the research lies in the fact that the principles, described in the article, can be used by German lecturers while teaching German as a second language after English. The article also describes the techniques of minimizing the negative interference of English when learning German, that holds practical value for the lecturers in the process of planning German language lessons in higher education institutions where German is taught as a second language after English.

This article focuses on the professional activity of medical students in the study of foreign languages. Modernization of foreign language teaching in the medical education system, continuous development of competence in language learning, increase of knowledge, skills and competencies in foreign languages in the areas of medical education. development issues. Training of medical specialists with in-depth knowledge of foreign languages on the basis of international standards, modernization of foreign language teaching in the medical education system; In the process of global integration, it is necessary to develop the socio-linguistic knowledge, skills and abilities offuture medical staff, as well as to develop a theoretical basis for continuous improvement of their language skills.Improving the speaking skills of medical students, reviewing the content of foreign language curricula, developing new models of teaching, as well as information retrieval for medical students to acquire sufficient knowledge and skills, systematize their knowledge for professional communication in foreign languages and apply innovative teaching methods creates a need.