German through English eyes: German language and culture(s) in language textbooks for British learners (1680-2000)

This project will investigate the construction of German language and culture in British language teaching since 1680 by examining textbooks used, as well as archives of exams, syllabi and examination reports, and interviews with former teachers, learners and textbook authors . The first study of its kind, drawing on the methods and insights from textbook history, oral history, work on the construction of memory and identity, linguistic theory, grammar-writing, and linguistic historiography, it will produce the first detailed documentation and analysis of how the language and culture(s) of Germany - Britain's most important trading partner - have been portrayed to learners in British schools since 1680.

Modern languages and their cultures have been taught in British schools for over 150 years. The twentieth century witnessed dramatic changes in the relationship of the UK to Germany and the rest of Europe - two World Wars, the birth of the EC and then EU, the fall of the Iron Curtain and German reunification. Now, when globalization and Britain's place in Europe is a national priority, modern languages remain strategically important but are vulnerable. For example, there was a drop of a third in the number of GCSE pupils of German between 2004 and 2007 (cf. www.hesa.ac.uk), and languages are perhaps in danger of becoming once again the preserve of the privately educated elite - only 11% of Languages university entrants come from 'lower socio-economic groups' (UCAS 2007). Against this backdrop, my book will take stock of the history of German language education in Britain. One of its primary sources - textbooks of German, a mass-produced text-type - may itself come to be seen as a genre of the 19th and 20th centuries, as teaching resources are now increasingly being delivered online.

My book will investigate the changes in how both the German language and its culture(s) have been represented to British learners since 1680. I examine by what steps the representation of German and its speakers in language textbooks has moved from hailing our fellow-Germanic imperialists in the 19th century, to chapters on the Hitler Youth and the SS in the 1930s, to the later 20th century with programmatic titles that deliberately make a break with the past, like Unsere Freunde 'Our Friends' and Deutschland hier und jetzt 'Germany here and now'. I shall also trace how and why perceptions of the importance of German as a subject have changed: from the Oxford Modern Language professor Max Müller's pronouncement in 1864 that one should teach German just like the classical languages, to syllabi that valued the spoken language, for which textbook titles like Sprich mal Deutsch 'Speak German!' (1968) are symptomatic. What changes are there in the language to which learners are exposed in textbooks, and to the explicit grammatical accounts of it? How do these compare with what native speakers of German were learning about their language in the same era?

The results of the project will contribute to our understanding of British and German social history; educational theory, history of education, and teacher training; sociolinguistics and history of linguistics. Its documentation and analysis of the history of German textbooks will contribute both to current policy debates in the UK about the role of MFL in the curriculum, and to debates in German Studies in Germany and beyond; in cultural studies (cultures of memory); and in linguistics (the nature of standard languages; the extent to which language theory can or should inform language teaching), and beyond.

[Note that this application is for research much of which is included in a current AHRC Standard Research Grant bid submitted in February 2010. If that application is successful, I will withdraw this application.]

The book will provide insights into how changing British views of German language and culture(s) have been represented in school textbooks since 1680, with particular emphasis on the mid-nineteenth century onwards, once German became an established school subject. The critical analysis of language-learning textbooks will help modern foreign language educationalists in the UK and Europe better understand how teaching materials reflect and shape cultural values.
Both nationally and in the international field of teaching German as a Second Language, my study will provide a useful basis for future curriculum design and policy, by providing a critical examination of past teaching curricula and the resources used to support them. It will add a historical perspective to current research questions about what language learners find difficult (cf. DFG/AHRC-funded project What's Hard in German? http://www.bangor.ac.uk/creative_industries/whig.php.en). It will also help make explicit the assumptions that are often implicit in the 'standards' debate about secondary education qualifications. When we say that pupils learnt 'German', what exactly were they learning? After completion of the monograph, I will work to disseminate my findings to interested practitioners and to the wider community as follows:
- teacher trainers
- practising language teachers in the UK
- curriculum and syllabus designers, in particular GCSE/A-level/Diploma Examining Boards
- current and future commercial language textbook authors and their publishers
- Lay audience in Germany interested in the German language.
- wider community through radio appearances, especially those who have learnt or taught German themselves.
For further details of how I will reach these groups, see the Pathways to Impact document.