Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

Additional Value – Intercultural Competence and…While many politicians and linguists are interested in the additional time students getfor language acquisition, from a geography-didactical perspective the motivation touse a foreign language as a medium of instruction is another one. According to mostscientists engaged in geography didactics the most important motivation for the useof a foreign language when teaching geography (and economics) is the learning targetintercultural competence. (for example, Müller 2000, Hallet 1999, Weber 1993, Ernst1992). In order to achieve this aim of intercultural competence and – in addition – theability to communicate internationally about specific geographic topics Hallet (1999)claims that three different thematic fields have to be dealt with in “bilingual” classes.These are firstly, phenomena and issues of the students’ mother-tongue culture andsociety, secondly, phenomena and issues of the target language cultures and societiesand thirdly, cross-cultural, culture-comparing, global, and universal phenomenaand issues. This field also implies general geographic themes and from an Austrianperspective economic topics, too. Besides the use of terminology and the verbalisationof geographic concepts, reading specialized texts for gist is aimed at.Getting ideas of everyday lives in other cultures and societies is a current demandin geography didactics (e.g. Schmidt-Wulffen 1999, Uhlenwinkel 2000). Using aforeign language in this context is almost a necessity as finding real authentic materialin the students’ own language is impossible in most cases. Also in the context ofa multi-perspective approach a variety of authentic materials is essential. Within theframework of thematic teaching in geography there is a great number of case studiesthat regionally belong to a ‘target languagecountry’. Thus really authentic work isonly possible using original material (seefor example the cartoon on immigration inFigure 1). In this context using the internetis important for the teacher when preparingmaterials for the classes and for the studentswhen they are supposed to explore certaintopics independently. Of course even independentstudent work needs some guidingon the part of the teacher. The amount ofguiding that should be given by the teacherdepends on the student’s age and on theirexperience with that kind of work.ConclusionOne might argue that it is strange andunnatural for many students to speak aforeign language in a setting in which allparticipants speak the same mother-tongue,an experience which the author partiallyshares. A remedy for this awkward situation, Figure 1. „Authentic“ (Aunkhofer, Vossen 2003, p. 38)249