Welcome to
English is the undisputed number one foreign language at German schools. This is not surprising in light of the increasing importance of this language as a global lingua franca . However, the proportion of students who learn at least one other (foreign) language in addition to English at lower secondary level does not even reach 40%, whereas in Luxembourg, Finland or Italy, for example, it is almost 100% (see Eurostat press release from February 1, 2016). We are therefore a long way from the European goal of graduated multilingualism (mother tongue plus two foreign languages). Nevertheless, other modern foreign languages such as French, Spanish and Russian are coming under increasing pressure to be legitimized in this country.
Is the communicative and therefore also the economic argument losing its persuasive power? To what extent does the European Union's recommendation that every EU citizen should learn at least two foreign languages still apply? Both large and small L3 foreign languages at school must offer good answers to these questions if they do not want to be put up for discussion in the subject canon very soon.
The aim of the conference was to discuss the topics outlined above. Here you can find the flyer with the detailed program.
You can listen to a Deutschlandfunk interview with Jochen Plikat on the occasion of the conference here.
A conference report published in the Dresdner Universitätsjournal of 30.4.2019 on p. 6 can be accessed here.
An anthology of the conference will be published in 2022:
Bergmann, Anka; Mayer, Christoph Oliver; Plikat, Jochen (eds.) (2022): Perspektiven der Schulfremdsprachen in Zeiten von "Global English" und Digitalisierung: Welche Zielsetzungen sind für Französisch, Spanisch, Russisch & Co. (noch) zeitgemäß? Berlin: Peter Lang (Kolloquium Fremdsprachenunterricht Bd. 68).(Link to the publisher's website)
Organisation:
- Prof. Dr. Anka Bergmann (Humboldt University of Berlin)
- Prof. Dr. Christoph Mayer (TUD Dresden University of Technology/Humboldt University of Berlin)
- Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jochen Plikat (TUD Dresden University of Technology)
The conference has been included in the SMK's online training catalog under the event number EXT04504. Further information: https: //www.schulportal.sachsen.de/fortbildungen/detail/EXT04504