“Jetzt machen wir hier mal Multikulti”: Fostering Critical Engagement with Multiculturalism through Peer‐Assisted Language Learning

Abstract

In this article we present an integrated curricular model for addressing the transition from the intermediate to the advanced language level through peer‐assisted learning activities in the post‐secondary German classroom. In a series of group projects between students in second‐ and third‐year conversation courses, we employed a learner‐centered approach that encouraged reciprocal peer mentoring. Both the contemporary focus on multiculturalism and the format involving collaborative work between students in two different language courses were critical components of our project. Engaging with contemporary political and cultural discourses in a peer‐assisted learning environment, course participants obtained important skill sets, which served to enrich their linguistic, cultural, cognitive, and interpersonal competencies.

Using Flipped Learning to Facilitate Cross‐Cultural Critical Thinking in the L2 Classroom

“…The author appreciated the students’ curiosity about German culture, and comments in the author's end‐of‐semester teaching evaluations in turn conveyed the students’ appreciation of such flexibility and cultural focus (Chavez, ), but the spontaneous class interruptions needed to be managed better. In addition, the students’ questions and beliefs about German culture usually revealed numerous stereotypes, biases, and generalizations, both positive and negative, spurring the instructor/author to seek ways to incorporate more culturally‐oriented activities into a textbook‐driven curriculum (Windham, ) that emphasizes the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary (Boovy, ; Euler, ; Schallié & Thorson, ). The author's growing interest in active learning and honing learners’ critical thinking skills ultimately led to the adoption of the flipped learning approach in 2014, which had been implemented successfully over the course of seven semesters in the fourth‐semester Beginning German course, but not yet in the third‐semester course described here.…”

“…The summative assessments used in this class were take‐home worksheets with four sections: a critical response to the chapter's cultural topic; a set of culturally contextualized applications of grammar and vocabulary; a self‐assessment of the learner's contribution to the group project (as manager, secretary, set designer, technician, illustrator, etc.) as well as an assessment of his or her group mates’ efforts (see Johnson, Cagle, Jackson, & Lee, ; Schallié & Thorson, ); and finally a reflection on what the student deemed the most important insight gained during the unit. A fifth assessment was instructor‐generated when the final team projects were shared on “testing” day as video clips or – later in the semester – performed live in class.…”

… but you are not German.” – Afro‐German culture and literature in the German language classroom

“…Even though representations of racial and ethnic diversity have increased in secondary and postsecondary German textbooks over the last two decades (Ilett, ) and suggestions at teaching multicultural Germany have been made (Henderson, ; Schallié & Thorson, ), attempts at a more thorough incorporation of minority literature and culture into the German Studies curriculum are still, to a large degree, limited to a small selection of literary texts or films (Göktürk & Wolbert, ) and have often focused primarily on Turkish minorities in Germany (Kahnke & Stehle, ; Lee, ; Veteto‐Conrad, ; Warner, ; Weis & Wolsing, ).…”

“…Afro‐German culture has received much less attention by instructors and in spite of several suggestions to include works by Afro‐German authors (Schallié & Thorson, ; Veteto‐Conrad, ; Willeke, ), most curricula are lacking a systematic incorporation of texts by Afro‐Germans, despite their long presence in Germany. One reason for this may stem from a lack of awareness of texts that could be used at different levels, a problem that will be addressed and rectified in this article.…”

Greening the German Classroom: Starting Points for a Cultural Lesson

“…This reference to introductory German learners provides an opportunity to remember that content‐based instruction should begin early. A recent article in this journal by Schallié and Thorson () describes a unit on multiculturalism used by the authors with 2 nd ‐ and 3 rd ‐year students, and although the focus of that article is on the value of peer‐assisted learning, the authors make helpful statements about, for example, the value of “rich content” and “critical engagement with a set of controversial issues” in development of conversational and writing skills. A unit on the environment could do the same for students at any level. …”