International Conference, German Programme SMLC HKU

Abstracts

Keynote Lectures

Opportunities and Challenges for Promoting German as a Foreign Language in Hong Kong
Dr. Li Chong (The University of Hong Kong)

The lecture gives an overview of the current outlook and the unique challenges of German as a foreign language in the historical and multi-cultural contexts of the distinct region of Hong Kong. Analysis of a pilot scheme in implementing German Programme in a Hong Kong local school demonstrates how German as a subject can infiltrate the local school environment in Hong Kong. This pilot scheme became the blueprint for a pioneer German Knowledge Exchange Project spanning three consecutive years from 2014-2017, involving university teaching staff, university students as teaching assistants and secondary students. The key findings of this initiative illustrate that such outreach, research and knowledge exchange projects present opportunities for and benefits in promoting German as a foreign language at secondary school level, university level and the wider community of Hong Kong.

German as a Foreign Language Studies in Germany - Recent Developments and Social-political Challenges
Professor Kathrin Siebold (University of Marburg)

Since the beginning of the "Flüchtlingskrise" (refugee crisis) in 2015, the issue of German as a Foreign Language at German universities has been in a state of upheaval. The need to integrate as quickly as possible - linguistically and culturally - over one million refugees implies numerous challenges for state and society.

In this context, special importance is attached to the educational institutions in which teaching staff is trained, as there are very special and urgent needs in training competent German teachers to cater to the new immigrants without any German language capability at kindergartens, schools, universities and adult education centres. This situation has led to an increasing differentiation between the traditional area of "DaF" (German as a Foreign Language) and the newer field of "DaZ" (German as a Second Language).

While the traditional DaF studies offer teacher-training programmes for teaching contexts in foreign countries, the DaZ sector is becoming increasingly important, both in research and teaching. This is reflected in new study-programmes and research projects at the universities as well as at other institutions, which are concerned with the teaching of German (e.g. the Goethe-Institut) or the academic exchange within and outside Germany (e.g. the DAAD).

The lecture offers a brief survey of the current situation of German as a Foreign Language Studies, with a special focus on the latest social and political challenges in this aspect and on the promotion of further networking with Asian institutions.

German as a Foreign Language in Mainland China - Current Situation, Challenges and Prospect
Professor Jin Zhao (Tongji University)

The lecture addresses the growing demand for German as a foreign language in Mainland China and focuses on German learning in German Studies major, in study-accompanying DaF (German as a Foreign Language) courses and in secondary schools. It should be noted that the rapid expansion of German as a foreign language leads to an increasing demand for German teachers, who are not adequately trained due to a lack of DaF studies. As part of the effort to set up a DaF Master's degree program, the first step will be to qualify the Master's students at Tongji University as German teachers through a double degree program in Germany.

Seminars

Promoting German Speaking Skills and Techniques of Cooperative Learning in the German Language Classroom
Professor Kathrin Siebold (University of Marburg)

The aim of the seminar is to identify the potentials of Cooperative Learning in the teaching of German as a foreign language and to present and partially try out cooperative working techniques for the promotion of communicative competence (especially speaking skills) by means of various practical teaching examples.

In a short theoretical introduction, the five basic elements of the Cooperative Learning method (Face-to-face-Interaction, Individual Accountability, Positive Interdependence, Social Skills, Group Processing) will be presented. On the other hand, the three-step "Think-Pair-Share", which underlies the learning process and accordingly divides all cooperative learning units into three main phases, will be explained and carried out in the group sessions with some practical examples.

The focus of the seminar is clearly practice-oriented. We will try and discuss critically the efficacy of some concrete cooperative techniques for improving reading and speaking skills. Special attention will be paid to various cooperative procedures for the activation of prior knowledge, for the assurance of comprehension on the lexical and content level and for different ways of text interpretation.

Business German: Subject Matter, Specialized Language and Interculturality - Using the Example of a Newly Designed Textbook for Chinese Students
Professor Jin Zhao (Tongji University)

This seminar addresses the creation of a didactic concept for the business German course. Based on the linguistic definition of business German, the seminar examines the linguistic and the communicative characteristics with regards to economic communication, taking into consideration the expressed objective of learning German through the business German course in an operational way. On the basis of the above-mentioned concept, this seminar offers suggestions regarding the organisation of the business German course and the development of a business German textbook for Chinese students.