Landeskundeunterricht mit Kriminalromanen

Abstract

Participants in German-as-a- foreign-language classes often want to improve especially their communicative language skills. Though the GER does not demand teaching geography, culture or society in GfL-classes the students have to comprehend written and spoken texts but comprehension is more than understanding words – it also means to understand the non-verbal information which is always transmitted by partners in various communicative situations. Reading literature in general can support students in acquiring language and culture knowledge as reading is an interactive process making the reader think about her or his own opinions and ideas relevant to her or him. Besides this general aspect detective stories written by Swiss authors are a good choice if not only language but also culture awareness is the learning target because the author of a detective story is combining universal topics with a plot set in Switzerland. So by connecting their personal experiences to the story and reflecting observations in their old and new surroundings students can realize what is wrong or true about stereotypes existing about life in Switzerland. Reading and discussing supports students in acquiring both knowledge about the Swiss society and competences in speaking and understanding; moreover these competences can be transferred to life outside the classroom. Because of these transferable competences it is worth to commit time to reading detective stories during GfL-classes.