Task-Based Teaching of German as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The aim of this research was to find out the students’ attitudes on taskbased teaching of German as a foreign language, that is, on tasks that might positively influence the acquisition of new lexical items, enhance pronunciation, and improve grammatical accuracy. Also, the research aimed at addressing the importance of rethinking the existing teaching methods, especially in the context of higher education teaching. Twentythree graduate students of German studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Split, Croatia, participated in this research. During the course Development of Speech Fluency, the students were introduced to the concept of task-based teaching and performed various tasks – role plays, argumentation and writing tasks, as well as story retelling and problem-solving tasks. Upon completion of the course, the students completed a questionnaire, stating their level of agreement with each statement. A significantly greater degree of agreement was recorded for the statement that more complex grammatical structures, such as the word order in German dependent clauses, should be taught through writing, rather than translation tasks, due to the possibility to plan and self-monitor. The obtained preference of the students in this study for the implementation of writing tasks has been documented by numerous studies that have confirmed the positive effects of writing on the development of grammatical accuracy in the context of teaching English as L2. The conclusions of this study, despite the relatively small sample of respondents, might be used to design more contemporary tasks with the ultimate goal of developing the learner’s interlanguage.