Language teaching and language learning - Methods in a course book for German learners of English

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 2,7, University of Siegen, course: Teaching English: Methods And Approaches, language: English, abstract: In my term paper I will try to investigate a unit of an English course book for German learners of English as their second language. For this aim I will use the “English G2000 B1 for the fifth grade Realschule”. I decided for the “Realschule” version as I’m studying on teaching profession for this type of school. Considering the extent of this paper I will not be able to investigate this course book completely. Instead of this I will concentrate on a small unit – topic 4 in the end of unit four, which deals with money and shopping. In G2000 every unit closes with such a short topic-unit and it has – just like the larger units – a focus on a language skill. In case of topic 4 it is speaking. In order not to write too much I will put emphasize on the methodological and theoretical background of the exercises and tasks of this unit: Which methods are used? What about the role of the learner/teacher? Which competences are demanded and supported? Is it sufficient to teach English only with the help of a course book? Therefore I will give a short glimpse on the historical background of language teaching and learning at first, so that the reader deserves basic information about methods and their theoretical background. For a better entrance to my topic I will also involve the teacher’s manual. It includes information about new vocabulary, materials and methods. Furthermore it offers the teacher instructions for the exercises in the student’s course book. Therefore it is in a way essential, because it is in fact a manual for the student’s book. Topic 4 consists of four main exercises. Some of them are slightly complemented by parallel tasks from the pupil’s workbook, which is also available as additional support to the course book. Furthermore there is a Vocabulary Action Sheet in the end of the teacher’s manual including some vocabulary exercises for each unit.