SiLC - Sign Language in the foreign Language Classroom
What is necessary for bimodal-bilingual students to learn a foreign language successfully?
Mastering a foreign language, e.g. English, opens up global opportunities for participation and education and is of high social relevance. Even for bimodal-bilingual students, i.e. students who communicate in spoken or written and sign language, learning a foreign language is obligatory in order to obtain a school leaving certificate. In most cases, this is the foreign language English. For bimodal-bilingual students and their teachers, however, the teaching of foreign languages is associated with enormous challenges, since existing didactic approaches from the field of spoken language cannot be easily transferred to the situation of bimodal-bilingual learners. It requires a special consideration of communicative, social and also cultural needs.
Throughout Germany there is a lack of special training for teachers who will teach bimodal-bilingual students in a foreign language. Existing reports from the field indicate a great diversity with regard to the implementation of foreign language teaching, but there are no extensive research results so far that provide an empirical basis for didactic decisions in practice as well as impulses for the training of teachers.
The SiLC research group addresses this research gap with the following foci:
(1) Survey of the current state of foreign language teaching nationwide.
(2) Survey of learner and teacher experiences in foreign language teaching (motivation, needs)
(3) Investigation of cross-linguistic activation and processing of ASL and English in DGS- and German-competent learners
(4) Analysis of code-switching in foreign language teaching
(5) English language teaching in inclusion
(6) Collection of best practice examples
(7) Preparation of teaching materials
(8) Networking with stakeholders from academia and practice.
The SiLC Network Meeting
Twice a year we organize the network meeting "Foreign language teaching with sign language oriented students" for stakeholders from academia and school practice. The meeting always includes a topic-related keynote speech followed by room for discussions and a lively exchange of ideas.
An overview of previous network meetings conferences and the topics of the keynote presentations:
09.03.2021 - Field report on learning ASL and English in the high school year (Fabian Pufhan).
15.09.2021 - Insights into the results of the master thesis on the topic: Teaching English with ASL signs in the special focus HK (Ines Fister, Henriette Juche)
16.03.2022 (nationwide) - Unfortunately, the keynote speech had to be cancelled at short notice due to illness. However, there was an intensive exchange in topic-specific small groups.
17th/ 18th September 2022 - 1st SiLC-Conference in Münster (Germany).
28.02.2023 - Experiences of DHH students in the foreign language classroom.
Please contact us by mail at: silc-forschungsgruppe@uni-koeln.de
Members of the research group
H3 Kontakt zum Thema
Frau Dr. Urbann arbeitet seit dem 1.10.2021
an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
➢ Zur Homepage von Katharina Urbann
H3 Kontakt zum Thema
Melanie Kellner