The ancient Tamil poetic corpus of the Cankam is at the same time a national treasure and a common battle ground for linguists and historians alike. Going back to oral predecessors from about the early first millennium, it became part of a canon, slowly fell into near oblivion and was finally rediscovered and printed in the 19th century. The present study follows up the complex historical process of its transmission through 2000 years.
V. Rajesh, Manuscripts, Memory and History: Classical Tamil Literature in Colonial India, New Delhi: Foundation Books, Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 294.
This study investigates teachers' first language (L1, German) and second language (L2, English) use in the primary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in two federal German states. It particularly focuses on the question of whether a more frequent, (self-reported) use of the L2 is positively correlated to teachers' professional qualification as well as (self-assessed) L2 proficiency. To this end, data was collected in 2017 through an online survey among German primary teachers teaching EFL in year 4 (N = 844). L2 use was assessed through a 4-point Likert scale comprising 16 items on various classroom situations. L1 use was surveyed with an open question on situations of L1 use in the L2 classroom. Moreover, teachers self-assessed their L2 proficiency with a 4-point Likert scale and adapted CEFR descriptors for speaking. Findings indicate that teachers claim to use the L2 more in L2-related situations and the L1 more in classroom management situations. The study shows that teachers with a higher formal qualification tend to assess their L2 proficiency higher and claim to use the L2 more often in the primary EFL classroom. In contrast, teachers with a lower formal qualification tend to assess their L2 proficiency lower and claim to use the L1 more frequently in the L2 classroom.
Dieser Beitrag berichtet vom ABC's Online-Projekt (Wilden, 2006), einer Studie zur Selbst- und Fremdwahrnehmung in einem interkulturellen englisch-deutschen Onlineaustausch. Die Studie ist in der Fremdsprachenlehr- und -lernforschung angesiedelt und untersucht mit Hilfe der inhaltlich-strukturierenden qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse die im Onlineaustauschprozess erhobenen Daten. Der Beitrag skizziert das inhaltsanalytische Vorgehen in der Studie und diskutiert insbesondere diesbezügliche offene Fragen: (a) Wie kann die Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse in einer Längsschnittstudie eingesetzt werden? (b) Wie kann mit der Qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse die Wechselseitigkeit und Dynamik von diskursiven Daten (aus dem Onlineaustausch) erfasst werden? In der Diskussion dieser Fragen werden verschiedene mögliche Lösungsvorschläge dargelegt. Da die Studie zum ABC's Online-Projekt noch nicht abgeschlossen ist, sind die Ausführungen zum inhaltsanalytischen Vorgehen als vorläufig zu verstehen.
