Cosmopolitan Language Education

In the multipolar world of the 21st century, successful communication is key, and language education, with its focus on languages, cultures and texts is uniquely positioned to support learners in becoming active agents of change. For global challenges require globally concerted efforts to face and, ultimately, solve these issues. For various reasons discussed in this edited volume, the dominant frameworks of inter- and transcultural learning in English language education have not succeeded in disrupting the perpetuation of systems of categorisation, stereotypisation, and colonial power hierarchies. Thus, the search for more comprehensive notions of cultural learning continues. It is in this context that this volume seeks to reposition cultural learning by exploring cosmopolitan perspectives on language education from a wide range of angles: The contributions in the first part draw on disciplines as diverse as educational philosophy, citizenship education, international law, and human rights education to provide an in-depth discussion, contextualisation, and orientation of cosmopolitan citizenship approaches to English language education. Based on this theoretical foundation, the second part gives an overview of fundamental concepts, principles, and approaches related to a cosmopolitan orientation of cultural learning in English language education. It encompasses a broad spectrum of subjects relevant to the language classroom, from cultural and literary learning to peace education, to fake news, and language variation to sustainability education. In doing so, it offers suggestions for classroom practices to successfully implement cosmopolitan citizenship-informed language education.

Organisers of the Symposium Fostering and Assessing Oracy in Foreign Language Education: Perspectives from Practice-Oriented and Design-Based Research

This one-day symposium will bring together researchers who follow a practice-oriented and/or design-based approach to researching oracy in foreign language learning. The aim of this symposium is to connect the two fields of oracy and practice-led research in order to create synergies for and find innovative approaches to researching oracy in foreign language education. Educational design research and other forms of field-based and practice-led research can make an important contribution to generating theory on the teaching and learning of foreign languages while simultaneously inspiring innovations in practice. This symposium seeks to promote a broad understanding of oracy that includes traditional approaches of receptive and productive foreign language competences, but also embraces digital communication, language varieties, and the fostering and assessing of oracy in heterogeneous foreign language classrooms.

Find more information on our Symposium website.

Mündliche Prüfungen

Dieses Projekt findet in Verbindung mit dem Projekt "QLB Teilprojekt Videobasierte Lehrmodule als Mittel der Theorie-Praxis-Integration" statt.

Publications

Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Rumlich, Dominik (2018): “Mündliche Prüfungen – Themenheft.“ Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch (153).

• Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Rumlich, Dominik: “What Makes a Good Speaker of English? – Sprechkompetenzen mit mündlichen Prüfungen erfassen.“ In: Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch (153), 2-7.
• Matz, Frauke/Rumlich, Dominik : A National Day of Healing – eine mündliche Prüfung als radio discussion gestalten. In: Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch (153), 26-32.
• Siepmann, Philipp (2018): “Why I live a zero waste life. Im monologischen Teil einer mündlichen Prüfung eine Rede halten”. In: Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch (153), 40-46.

Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Rumlich, Dominik (im Druck): "Die mündliche Prüfung in der Sekundarstufe II: Herausforderung und Chance für die Fremdsprachendidaktik." In: Drackert,Anastasia/Mainzer-Murrenhoff, Mirka/Soltyska, Anna/Timukova, Anna (Hrsg.): Testen bildungssprachlicher Kompetenzen und akademischer Sprachkompetenzen – Synergien zwischen Schule und Hochschule erkennen und nutzen. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.

Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Rumlich, Dominik (in Vorbereitung): Die Mündliche Prüfung - eine Einführung. Narr Starter. Tübingen: Narr.

Matz, Frauke/Rogge, Michael/Rumlich, Dominik (in Vorbereitung): Die Mündliche Prüfung - Vorbereitung, Durchführung und Bewertung. Narr Studienbuch. Tübingen: Narr.

Forschungsprojekt Hörverstehen

Das ELE-Projekt zum Thema Hörverstehen ist ausgelegt auf die empirische Erforschung des Testens von Hörverstehen, insbesondere im Kontext von high stakes exams. Im Februar 2021 hat Jens Folkerts als abgeordnete Lehrkraft die Arbeit an dem Projekt aufgenommen. Erste Angebote, die im Rahmen des Projektes entstanden sind, waren ein Spotlight bzw. Workshop im Rahmen des Nachmittags der Fremdsprachen mit dem Titel “Hörverstehen im Zentralabitur” sowie ein Impulsvortrag mit zwei sich anschließenden Workshops zu Hörverstehen in der Sekundarstufe I bzw. Sekundarstufe II auf dem Fortbildungstag der Qualitätsgruppe des Regierungsbezirks Münster. Eine Präsentation erster Forschungsergebnisse findet während des Symposions “Fostering and Assessing Oracy in Foreign Language Education: Perspectives from Practice-Oriented and Design-Based Research”, das am 11.06.2021 digital von der WWU veranstaltet wird, statt.

WIR SUCHEN NOCH KOOPERATIONSPARTNER

Das Forschungsprojekt Hörverstehen ist an der Schnittstelle von Forschung, Theorie und Praxis angesiedelt und soll das Testen von Hörverstehenskompetenzen im Fach Englisch empirisch untersuchen und theoretisch-konzeptionell weiterentwickeln. Aus diesem Grund suchen wir noch interessierte Partnerschulen.

Bei Interesse wenden Sie sich bitte an jens.folkerts[at]uni-muenster.de

Reading Websites Critically

How can websites be critically analyzed in the EFL classroom to meet the needs of global digital citizenship education?

Online resources, such as websites, have consistently been gaining significance as primary information resources for adolescents. While modern eco-documentary productions, for instance, have reacted by extensively increasing their online presence, according meaning-constructing processes of those websites have not yet been sufficiently researched in academic contexts.
Thus, it seems necessary to develop those literacies required to successfully and critically use websites as information sources at school, especially since large parts of discourses on global issues take place online. Therefore, websites such as www.beforetheflood.com are prime objects of investigation in pursuit of such central educational goals as democratic participation (demokrative Handlungskompetenz) and discourse competence (fremdsprachliche Diskursfähigkeit).
To make informed decisions as democratic citizens, students need to be able to participate in and critically reflect on these discourses. Before the flood calls on students to take action against climate change using different methods to appeal to the audience. Our model demonstrates how this appeal is designed and provides a guide for teachers to enable students to take a critical stance towards it. Since eco-documentaries bear enormous potential for transcultural learning, their respective online presence offers the opportunity to connect film literacy, transcultural learning, global education and digital literacies.

Nigeria - Cultural Learning, Global & Human Rights Education

Publication Projects:

Gut, U. & Matz, F. (eds.) (forthcoming): Teaching Nigeria - Culture and Language. Tübingen: Narr.

Matz, F. / Stein, M. & Stierstorfer, K. (eds.) (forthcoming): Reading Nigeria. Tübingen: Narr.

Marxl, A. (2020): „Getting to Know Nigeria. Creating an Infographic.“ In: Englisch betrifft uns, 2/2020, 1-6.

Römhild, R. (2020): „Just Food: Coping with the Crisis. Exploring Nigeria through a 360° i-Documentary.“ In: Englisch betrifft uns, 2/2020, 21-25.

Siepmann, P. (2020): „‚Between need and life there must be hope.‘ Exploring Nigeria’s megacity through Rashidah Ismaili’s poem ‚Lagos‘.“ In: Englisch betrifft uns, 2/2020, 7-13.

Matz, F. & Rogge, M. (2020): "Widening the Horizon – The Challenges of Teaching Nigeria in the German EFL Classroom." In: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik. 2020, 45/2, 47-65. https://elibrary.narr.digital/article/10.2357/AAA-2020-0018

Matz, F. & Rogge, M. (2020): "'They say water is life’. Das Recht auf Wasser als Menschenrecht begreifen lernen und ein schulisches Wasserprojekt begründen". In: Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch: West Afrika – Ghana & Nigeria (166/2020), 20-27.

Siepmann, P. & Matz, F. (eds.). (2020): Abi-Box Englisch: Voices from the African Continent: Focus on Nigeria. Schülerarbeitsbuch (mit digitaler Lehrermappe). Hannover: Brinkmann.Meyhöfer.

Siepmann, P. & Matz, F. (eds.). (2020): Abi-Box Englisch. Olumide Popoola: When We Speak of Nothing. Schülerarbeitsbuch. Hannover: Brinkmann.Meyhöfer.

Matz, F. (2020): "Thriving on Hybridity: Naija Beats im Englischunterricht. Kulturelles Lernen durch Musik". In: Bartosch, Roman / Bosenius, Petra / Gilbert, Elisabeth & Schönbauer, Daniel (eds.): Interkulturelles Lernen im Englischunterricht: Fokus Nigeria. Themen, Texte und Aufgaben. Stuttgart: Kallmeier / Klett, 2020, 124-142.

Workshop for teachers

In this school year, the North-Rhine Westphalian Ministry of Education has introduced Nigeria as a country of reference into its school curriculum. It is a challenge, though, for teachers and teacher trainees to find their way into the vastness of this new topic area as part of the Abitur.

This training event serves as a practical introduction to the complex field of learning with and about Nigerian literature, film and music in the secondary EFL classroom and will generate a range of fresh perspectives on Nigeria for teachers.

The workshops will be:

• Nigerianische Lyrik unterrichten: (Wie) geht das?
  Daniel Becker, WWU Münster.
• Kulturelles Lernen durch digitale Medien.
  Frauke Matz, WWU Münster & Michael Rogge, ZfsL Gelsenkirchen.
• Teaching Nigerian Diaspora Literatures and Cultures: Olumide Popoola’s When We Speak of Nothing.
  Philipp Siepmann, WWU Münster.
• Blindfolds of history: Reflecting on Education with Burna Boy's Music Video 'Another Story’.
  Julian Wacker, WWU Münster.
• Nigeria on Screen - Exploring Nigeria through Documentaries.
  Ricardo Römhild, WWU Münster.

The next training event will take place on 4th February, 2020.

Organiser of the international conference Designing Hybrid Learning Spaces

In today’s language learning and teaching contexts the discourses of digitalization, individual instruction, differentiation and inclusive education are often discussed separately. Also, teaching in diverse, inclusive classrooms and fostering digital media competences are challenges which are highly relevant in language education. Yet, the digital age requires hybrid learning spaces, meaning spaces in which these different discourses come together. This is why this conference aims at bringing these discourses together and explore concepts for the transformation of foreign language classrooms into hybrid learning spaces.

A special focus is the support of individual learners through the use of technology in the context of diverse, inclusive language education. However, it will also explore the

challenges of helping students (and teachers) develop information and filter competences in light of the flood of information available in the digital world;
the special role of English as lingua franca of digital spaces;

issues of incorporating new digital genres and multimodal formats;
(trans-)cultural and global (language) education in these hybrid spaces.

We are especially interested in the adaptation of the Multiliteracies-Pedagogy for diverse foreign language classrooms and welcome contributions that discuss and critically reflect on the use of digital media in foreign language education in theory and practice from an international perspective.

This international conference brings together experts in the field of primary and secondary school education and provides insight into how these fields can complement/supplement one another, thereby creating new/further opportunities for language learning, and how learning processes, media competences and their underlying educational concepts can be considered together. It offers a forum for disseminating and discussing new findings and observations.

Video Games and Foreign Language Teaching

The Symposium Video Games and Foreign Language Learning will take place on February 12th, 2020.
Please contact Daniel Becker for further information.

KEYNOTE: TextCraft – Using Gamification to Teach Literary Texts

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Domsch, Universität Greifswald

The aim of TextCraft (a three-year project in game-based learning funded by the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is to create a game – or a series of game-like challenges and a system of game-like score-keeping – that enables students to approach complex literary texts in novel ways and to make their different aspects and layers accessible. One of the core structural ideas is indeed to transpose the idea of layers of meaning of a text that can be found in literary criticism to the common game feature of progressively unlockable levels. These layers range from the language and vocabulary that a text employs through the use of particular imagery to its structure and contexts, such as plot developments or character constellations, as well as historical backgrounds or spatial and geographic configurations, but also the notion of conflict. This keynote will talk about the possibilities and limitations in creating game challenges that through their game mechanics convey knowledge about literary texts that are unavailable in other formats.

PRESENTATIONS

Complex, Not Interested and Too Personal? The Delicate Art of Critical Game Literacy in the EFL Classroom.

Dr. Roger Dale Jones, Technische Universität Braunschweig

EFL classrooms are faced with the challenge of remaining relevant in the digital age where learners have access to massive amounts of English via complex media which allow new forms of interaction and learning. Linking to this learning in the EFL classroom brings opportunities, like by providing motivating and relevant topics and materials for learners that can be embedded in (language) learning strategies to, in turn, be used in the everyday, informal digital lives of learners. However, this linking also brings serious challenges, like the fact that learners have to be willing and able to share their out-of-school, English language and media learning experiences in the classroom, and also to open those experiences up to educational development. Digital commercial games serve as a good case in point: On the one hand, they represent one of the most complex interactive, English language medial forms relevant for young learners, offering opportunities for the development of media and intercultural communicative competences, as well as multiliteracies. On the other hand, many learners (and teachers) lack the language and concepts to engage in informed game discourse, they are suspicious of the intentions behind critical classroom engagement, and they are uncertain of the cultural meaning of a massively successful medium that is often categorized as ‘only’ pop-culture. In my talk, I will address this conflict by providing data from three classroom projects which focused on linking to learners English language game experiences. Specifically, I will address some of the implications of game complexity, how learners navigate their interests in a school context, and why games are personally meaningful for many learners. Finally, I will present suggestions these findings imply for developing the delicate art of critical, EFL game literacy.

Narrating and Narrativizing Agency in Choice-Heavy Video Games

Dr. Stefan Schubert, Universität Leipzig

Video games fuse the potentials of agency and interaction with the intricacies of telling a story, a combination that has both contributed to making the medium increasingly popular in recent decades and has caused a lot of scholarly debate about the alleged opposition of narrative and ludic elements. In this presentation, I want to (implicitly) address this question from a different angle, discussing ‘choice-heavy’ video games—games like Heavy Rain (2010) or Detroit: Become Human (2018) that focus on featuring a high number of narrative choices that can potentially affect the outcome of the overall story. More specifically, I will argue that they both narrate and narrativize agency: They feature questions of agency and choice as part of their content and their form, constituting a narration of agency. Moreover, they also narrativize agency, i.e., they become stories of and about the importance and impact of individually and autonomously making significant choices.

In select analyses of the two games, I will point out how they are centrally concerned with agency not only in terms of narrative and gameplay but also on an ideological level, investigating how they advocate for the potency of agency and unearthing tensions and complications inherent in that project. This close reading of the two games will thus focus on specific narrative characteristics (such as Heavy Rain’s use of unreliability) just as much as on the ‘political’ context in which they frame questions of agency (e.g. Detroit: Become Human’s historical parallels to the US Civil Rights Movement).

Empathy and identity in short-form digital games: A consideration of new textualities for the EFL classroom

Michelle Stannard, LMU München

Although a relatively young medium, digital games have permeated social discourse and have become established as both an economic force and a pressing cultural influence (see Castendyk et al. 2017; Wardrip-Fruin et al. 2004). This has subsequently led to a growing conversation as to how this medium relates to the educational context. Within language education and the field of digital games-based language learning (DGBLL), digital games have commonly been positioned as language tutors (e.g. language games for drilling grammar/vocabulary) and as learning environments (e.g. virtual worlds for virtual encounters) (Cornillie et al. 2012; Thomas 2012). Alternatively, this presentation is concerned with the positioning of digital games as cultural texts in the language classroom (Stannard & von Blanckenburg 2018). This perspective leans into a dramatic shift concerning the production and dissemination of digital game-based content, not least due to the development of Web 2.0 communities alongside advances in game editing that have significantly opened up the field to amateur and independent game creators.
In particular, this presentation tackles the phenomenon of short-form digital games that are typically browser-based or available through online digital platforms – A large number of which intensively tackle issues of identity and empathy in contemporary society. This presentation is therefore concerned with thematic, emotional and aesthetic aspects of digital game texts and how these aspects can be translated into interventions for cultural learning in the EFL classroom.

New Games in Old Schools? On the Practicality of Video Games in the EFL Classroom

Daniel Becker, Universität Münster

In recent years, commercial video games have not only become an indispensable part of contemporary youth culture (cf. JIM 2018), but have also gained increasing traction in foreign language education research, where they are perceived as a new and innovative form of text to effectively foster learners’ language abilities. Thus for example, following the approach of digital game-based language learning and teaching (DGBLLT), studies in this area highlight the positive effects of video games and their use of avatars on students’ willingness to actively communicate (cf. Reinders & Wattana 2012; Biebighäuser 2016), show their potential for learning new vocabulary (Sundqvist & Sylvén 2012) and address digital games’ contribution to cultural learning (cf. Thorne 2008). Furthermore, other studies are concerned with video games assisting learners in developing new language-related literacies needed in the digital age (cf. Apperley & Beavis 2013).
However, while these numerous studies build a strong argument for what can be achieved with video games in foreign language education, they rarely address the question of how games can be used concretely in the language classroom, thus generating a significant gap between the theoretical potential of games and their practical implementations in specific language learning scenarios. As a result, the actual use of video games in the language classroom is still rather limited (cf. Sykes 2018), as teachers and practitioners have to confront technical and pragmatic challenges of using video games on their own (ranging from how to get games to run to where and how to find appropriate examples), without any concrete didactic and methodological concepts or approaches to assist them. The present paper is an attempt to bridge this gap between theory and practice by complementing the research mentioned above with an analysis of the more practical side of using video games in the language classroom. More specifically, using the EFL classroom as an example, the paper will suggest a multi-dimensional categorisation of the challenges facing teachers (e.g. technical, pedagogical etc.) and, on that basis, will consider concrete didactic and methodological ways of embedding video games in a foreign language educational setting. These different ways will be exemplified with the help of recent commercial games.