La literatura en la enseñanza del alemán como segunda lengua extranjera

Abstract

This work proposes a new methodology for the use of German Literature within the universitary teaching of German as a foreign language. Consequently, the practical usage which this methodology is based upon, has been centred on groups of students who show these particular circumstances; it does not just mean to consider the natural restrictions of adults instruction, but to accurately observe the psychological constrictions of universitary students (previous foreign language learning experiences, expectations, authonomy...). On the other hand, this practical usage of German Literature is to be put into practice in a systematic way, and not as a mere didactic resource, viewed as a dinamization strategy.This study is based upon the previous methodological model of acquisition of German for Spanish Universitary Students, given by Dr. A. Haidl in his Aportaciones a la teoria de la adquisicion del aleman para universitarios espanoles (1990), although the advances in the Relevance Theory (Sperber & Wilson, 1986) substitute here some theoretical aspects of that work connected to the field of Discourse Analysis.Specific didactic units for the use of German Literature in our lessons, their detailed description and analysis, are given in the second part of this work. They try to offer an answer for the very basic questions on contents-sequences, as well as their relative main goals: contextualization, understanding, analysis and interpretation.The last three attached documents show empirically the possibilities of this model. The first one presents the literary texts and fragments we found most appropriate to our didactic units---the selection criteria are conveniently exposed along the first part of this work. The second document is a literally transcription of the didactic practice with such texts, a detailled view of our lessons during the period of experimentation. The third and last document recovers our students' own literary creations, produced along the three phases of this study, from 1996 to 1998. Together with the expressive abilities of these students, this document mirrors their main worries, as well as their very personal literary adventures just initiated with poetry or other forms of German Literature.