*** ELLEN TICHY, VIKTORIA ILSE (Editors.): Deutsch in Mittelosteuropa nach 1989. 25 Jahre Germanistikstudiengänge, Deutschlehrerausbildung, DaF-Lehrwerke und DaF-Unterricht. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, P.O Box 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). 2014, 276 pp, €49-95. ISBN 978-3-631-65080-6.
This collection of articles examines the evolving situation regarding the teaching of German in central and eastern Europe since 1989. The editors of the publication have struck the right balance in the sensitive exercise of working out a specific focus on each of the treaty countries, apart from the Czech Republic. This country was strategically crucial because of its contribution to literature and research in the German language and is the subject, unlike the others, of just a single article. The point of view of the other researchers, particularly the Czechs, regarding the learning of German in their country, is of a certain interest. Nonetheless, Ingeborg Fiala-Fürst, director of human and social sciences in German, a course recently set up at Palacky University in Olomouc, provides a very good insight into the situation regarding German in the country and attempts, in a precise and subtle way, to explain the causes of the collapse in the learning of this language since the end of the 1990s, a phenomenon that is all the more surprising given the fact that German had always benefited from a privileged position in Czech speaking countries. After shedding light on the serious problems created by the insufficient knowledge of German over recent years (Czechs are unable to understand their own archives that were written in German until the beginning of the 20th century, as was modern Czech philosophy, for example), the author subsequently provides a presentation of the new course that she has set up and emphasises the importance of it for Czechs, notwithstanding the fact that it is in German and it ultimately enables them to make full use of the resources provided in their cultural heritage. This article is written by a real expert on Czech speaking countries; it sparkles with clarity and is a very important contribution.
With regard to the general organisation of the collection, it is also appropriate to point out that not all the articles tackle the subject mentioned in the title. This is the case with the contribution by Anna Nieroda-Kowal, who provides a picture of the teaching of German in Poland, before the fall of the Iron Curtain. It is a well structured article (robust definition of the concepts used and analyses specific East German vocabulary in certain school texts) but will not a priori interest the readers of this collection, except in its conclusion, which contains important information that is not exclusively of interest to the specific case of Poland. The following article by Sebastian Chudak on the image of Germany in German as a foreign language school text books post-1989 also tends to overly focus on the pre-1989 period, even though it highlights the shortcomings in the school text books currently used in Poland, in terms of information about German culture and civilisation. On the other hand, the article by Ewa Turkowska on the problems currently encountered in training German language teachers in Poland is perfectly in tune with a theme covered in the collection: it highlights the budgetary problems caused by the Polish authorities failure to recognise the importance of teaching German language and theory as a foreign language, on a par with science, despite the fact that since 2009, teaching a second language has been compulsory in secondary schools.
The title of this collection incorporates an extremely broad area (German language, German culture and thought, teacher training, school text books and teaching German as a foreign language) and some of the authors have provided a general insight and statistics regarding the situation of the German language. This is the case with Merje Miliste and Maive Meister in their article on Estonian schools, which is based on clearly annotated statistics. Others focus on more specific aspects such as the learning and teaching of German, with articles on German in Bulgaria, in which Ivan Merdzhanov examines the methods, stages and teaching objectives in learning German for medical purposes, while Annegret Middeke discusses the teaching aids used in German for mechanical construction, computer science and tourism.
The three articles on German in Romania include their own respective specificities: the article by Sunhild Galter on German cultural courses, underlines the declining number of these courses compared to those on teaching German as a foreign language, whilst touching on the reasons for learning German in the context of the Bologna agreements and Romania's increasing Europeanization. The article by Liana Iunesch looks at the problems involved in training German language teachers since 1989, particularly owning to the decline in jobs in this field. Thomas Schares's analysis focuses more specifically on German culture and history. These different articles, however, all reveal a number of similarities, such as the inability of learning German being able to compensate for the effects of the almost total disappearance of Romania's German minority in 1989-1990, the general decline in the level of teaching and the inappropriateness of related courses. Despite the fact that they are of a certain interest, these articles lack general statistics on the teaching of languages in Romania, which would have helped assess the situation regarding the situation of German in relation to other languages, a comparison with French would have been very instructive, for example. This lack of statistics is also perceptible in the articles on Moldova, in which the general message regarding the reasons why Moldovans learn German is not always very clear. On the other hand, the impact of political and ethno-linguistic issues affecting the Moldovan education system and that for training teachers is written very well. Michela Kovacova provides an account of all the textbooks used in Slovakia to teach German, together with the interruption in 2000 that occurred due to the legislative changes in the teaching of languages and its subsequent impact on theory in this area. Katarina Fedakova and Ingrid Puchalova retrace the place that German has had in the Slovak education system in the context of the Bologna agreements.
In the article on teaching German in Hungary, Ilona Feld-Knapp looks at the Hungarian teacher training system in the context of foreign language theory. Victoria Ilse tackles the challenges involved in German for economics in Hungary since 1989 (changing market needs, the necessity of working on negotiating skills) but sees development potential in this area. In the article on German as a foreign language, Katalin Petneki and Anna Szablyar provide a clear depiction of the changing choices regarding the learning of foreign languages at different levels in the education system and also look at the question of research into theory and the reliability of the Hungarian exams system. Ellen Tichy provides an insight into the school textbooks used in Hungary and makes a distinction between those published abroad and which have an “international” thrust and those specifically published for Hungarian speakers. She observes that since 1989, there has been a wide spread preference among teachers and learners for the former, despite the persistence of the latter in the Hungarian pedagogical landscape, whereby this persistence relates to the need (also expressed by students) to emphasise the importance of grammar. The author also appears to regret the fact that this situation could have a negative impact on developing foreign language learning that is both communicative and dynamic. The cause for this emphasis on grammar in teaching German in Hungary is possibly due to the fact that Hungarian is not an Indo-European language (unlike the vast majority of other languages in Europe) and the fact that its grammatical structures are very specific and far removed from those in the languages of neighbouring countries, which compels Hungarian speakers to undertake substantial efforts in learning grammar. This Hungarian specificity and the specific situation regarding Hungarian speakers of languages with Indo-European roots, is only skirted over in the first part of the article.
Despite the small-scale faults and a few improvements that could be made (perhaps it would have been appropriate to provide more comparisons with the teaching of German in other countries), this collection is a very high-level reference document on a question that all German speakers and supporters of Europe's rich cultural heritage should look at closely over the next few years.
Guillaume Lelorain
*** SABINE EHRHART (Ed.): Europäische Mehrsprachigkeit in Bewegun: Treffpunkt Luxemburg / Des plurilinguismes en dialogue: rencontres luxembourgeoises. Peter Lang (see above). 2014, 341 pp, €75-80. ISBN 978-3-0343-1400-8.
This publication brings together articles written in French, German and English about the learning and use, meaning and perception of different languages in a multilingual environment. Luxembourg and its outlying areas obviously provide an appropriate window for observing and examining such phenomena: several contributions look at the teaching and use of different languages and dialects in Luxembourg, as well as in the neighbouring French Moselle region. The Swiss “laboratory” is also used in this connection on a number of different occasions. There is also an exotic article on the linguistic situation in Madagascar. Its author provides a meticulous analysis of the perception of the different languages (Malagasy / French / English) by the different social actors on the basis of the different objectives these languages serve. Other more general questions are also covered in detail, such as theory, learning processes, language related identity issues, either in the article on the country in question or in the articles focusing entirely on these issues.
(GLe)
*** DANIELA WAWRA: European Studies - Europäische Kulturwissenschaft. Peter Lang (see above). 2013, 262 pp, €49-95. ISBN 978-3-631-63945-0.
This collection of articles focuses on the cultural sciences in Europe and in its general thrust adopts an interdisciplinary philosophy in an effort to grasp the meaning of European culture on the basis of different social sciences and disciplines (philosophy, history, geography, linguistics, etc.). The publication is divided into three parts: the first part looks at European cultural theory, particularly the science of culture, the effects of different languages on philosophy in Europe and the question of freedom in Europe, based on Lord Acton's theory. The second part focuses on European identity, particularly the question of Europe's cultural and spiritual identity, identities in the context of globalisation and the significance and implications in Europe of protecting Europe's cultural heritage, as undertaken by UNESCO. An article on perceptions and interpretations of the battles of Tannenberg in Germany between 1914 and 1945 is somewhat outside the scope of this chapter but is, nonetheless, interesting, given the originality of the subject. The final part tackles the issues of psychological constructions of Europe or relating to Europe (multilingualism, European political culture). Communication and the political relationship between the European institutions and citizens are also amongst the questions tackled.
(GLe)
*** STEFFEN HÖHNE (Ed.): Kulturwissenschaft(en) im europäischen Kontext. Peter Lang (see above). "Kulturwissenschaft(en) als interdisziplinäres Projekt" series. 2013, 190 pp, €39-95. ISBN 978-3-631-62674-0.
The cultural sciences have recently been introduced as an autonomous discipline in Europe and it now appears appropriate to provide a comparative analysis of the development of this discipline in different countries (France, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Poland), as this collection effectively does. Following two introductory articles that seek to locate the concept of the cultural sciences, the position this discipline currently has in the university systems of each of the countries is examined, whilst taking into account the international university exchange programmes that exist in this area. One of these articles also looks at student employability after completing studies in this area and includes the example of the course provided by the Viadrina University of Frankfurt on the Oder.
(GLe)
*** Futuribles. L'anticipation au service de l'action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 - Fax: 42226554 - Email: revue@futuribles.com - Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). July-August 2014, No. 401, 144 pp, €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-414-7.
In this issue of this well-known perspectives journal, different specialists provide a rather circumspect view of the practical repercussions of major sporting events, whilst the experience of “the European capitals of culture” appears to be given a more positive interpretation.
(MT)
*** Dokumente / Documents. Zeitschrift für den deutsch-französischen Dialog / Revue du dialogue franco-allemand. Verlag Dokumente (86 Dottendorfer Strasse, D-53129 Bonn. Tel: (49-228) 92129365 - Fax: 690385 - Email: aboservice@dokumente-documents.info - Internet: http://www.dokumente-documents.info ). 2014, No. 2, 112 pp, €7. Subscription: €19-90.
This issue of a Franco-German review founded in 1945 by French resistance fighter Father Jean du Rivau, contains a wealth of information in a special report on Charlemagne, who died 1,200 years ago, and people and bodies who continued or still continue to refer to him, such as the international Charlemagne Prize that was awarded this year to the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who is nearing the end of his term of office.
(MT)
*** Commission en direct. European Commission européenne (Communications Unit, DG HR D.3, CE-SC11, 01/18. Fax: (32-2) 2999285). 2014, 62 pp.
This issue of this internal Commission publication includes a special report on the common roots found in European cultural heritage.
(MT)