Early reading and writing in the foreign language classroom – maybe not as controversial as one might think

Jutta Rymarczyk | Heidelberg

Es gibt offenbar keinen Grund, warum man Erstklässler (6-7-Jährige) nicht im Schreiben in der Fremdsprache, insbesondere in Rechtschreibung, unterrichten sollte. Tatsächlich kann ein Fokus auf orthographische Strukturen und das einfache Bewusstsein der Idee, dass die deutsche und die englische/französische Rechtschreibung sich unterscheiden, Lernen vereinfachen und Grundkenntnisse zu einem Zeitpunkt vermitteln, zu dem Lernende extrem motiviert sind. Der Artikel berichtet über Forschungsergebnisse aus Deutschland und ermutigt Lehrkräfte mit dem Schreiben und der Rechtschreibung direkt zu Anfang des Fremdsprachenunterrichts zu beginnen.

When early literacy acquisition in the foreign language classroom was discussed in Germany about ten years ago, one usually heard opposing voices. At the beginning there were mostly those (parents and teachers alike) who believed that the children would be asked too much of, that it was hard enough for many children to learn German orthography, and that, consequently, the young learners would end up overtaxed and confused. This opinion was especially held in those federal states (e.g. Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate) where English and French classes started right at the beginning, in grade 1. However, you also found some voices, researchers mainly, who took a rather sceptical stance towards two years of oral instruction only which was the educational policy in those states. These researchers were convinced that the children would want to read and even to write in the foreign language, too, as soon as they started their literacy classes in the language of schooling in the first grade (cf. Rymarczyk, 2008).