SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Language Didactics

This report describes the opportunities, challenges and limits of evidence-based quality improvement in university language teaching. Using treffpunkt sprachen – Centre for Language, Plurilingualism and Didactics at the University of Graz as an example, it provides a brief explanation of the centre and then presents the prioritization of content in teaching and research.

Good linguistic skills are the basis of a high-quality education and a good quality life. However, according to data of the International Reading Literacy Study PIRLS (2006, 2011), language achievements of Lithuanian primary school pupils deteriorated in all areas during the last decade. Integrated education when language skills are developed in Lithuanian language classes as well as in classes of other subject areas is considered one of the most forward-looking ways of developing language skills. Switzerland has implemented a highly progressive language development practice.

Didactics of Czech as a mother tongue is a hands-on discipline with a direct relationship to actual practice as it explores real-life issues of language teaching and provides trainee teachers with inspiration and input relating to not only organization and planning of teaching sessions but also to methods, organizational forms and other aspects of the teaching process. Although it incorporates trainee teachers’ classroom observation and teaching practice at partnership schools, the range of opportunities for practicing teaching remains limited – from the viewpoints of both trainee teachers and didactics specialists. Video recordings of microteaching sessions in seminars on didactics of Czech as a mother tongue thus play an important role in the self-reflection of trainee teachers.

The present dissertation focuses on two questions: Firstly, it tries to define 'translation oriented writing competence' and discusses to what extent this specific competence can be considered part of 'general' writing competence; and secondly, it asks what translation orientated writing competences students should have acquired at the end of their BA study programme and how these competences can be efficiently furthered specifically in Arabic- German modules. The insights arising from this research are both of a theoretical, and of a practical and empirical nature. At a theoretical level, the insights which this research offers to translation studies and to language didactics will be found in the presentation of an innovative model of translation-orientated writing competence and its sub-competences.

In the didactics of the foreign language, the notion of text is very important as it favors success in language teaching. All the linguistic-communicative contents are based on a wide array of texts that will have to respond to the needs of the students. Our work presents the importance of choosing the texts in the didactic of the Italian language, focusing on the concept of the text, the presentation of the various types of text also analyzing the various criterians of textuality. Analyzing the characteristics of the texts in the didactic field our contribution underlines the analysis of the learners' needs which leads us to consider the various texts to be used in a language course.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the opinions of experts and practitioners in the field of two-way immersion (TWI) programs on key factors and determine pedagogical strategies that support the successful transition of TWI students from elementary to middle and high school. This study used the normative Delphi technique, where the researcher synthesized the knowledge and experience of a panel of experts and practitioners in dual language programs to identify and describe key factors and determine pedagogical strategies that support the successful transition of TWI students from elementary to middle and high school.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between personality types and second language acquisition. The study addressed a problem that is inadequately investigated in foreign language acquisition research; specifically, personality traits as predictors of language learning in college students studying Spanish as a foreign language. The researcher conducted one sample t-tests to assess statistically significant differences between mean personality type score and the test value, as well as, a multiple linear regression analysis.