Structural approaches to adult literacy from the perspective of teachers

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Anke Grotlüschen; Professorin Dr. Astrid Müller
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2020 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 451381071

Teachers in integration courses run by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) have been confronted with a changed population of participants since 2015. In particular, the proportion of participants who are not alphabetized in a writing system based on the Latin alphabet (so-called "second language learners", e.g. Syrian refugees) is increasing. This also increases the proportion of courses in which the German writing system is taught in addition to the German language (general integration course) (integration course with literacy and a course for learners of the second language). Teachers are trained in accordance with BAMF specifications with the help of the "Additional Literacy Qualification". In the process, they acquire knowledge of approaches to adult literacy in the teaching of written language, for example in accordance with the curriculum for integration courses with literacy (2015). The reception of German didactic findings in the curriculum lasts until 2012; more recent findings could not yet be integrated into adult literacy curricula. In recent years, the didactics of writing language acquisition has been strongly oriented towards research results in grammar mathematics. In DFG-funded intervention studies for the beginning of lower secondary school, for example, it has been shown that a structure-based approach that makes the special features of the German writing system effective for learning is particularly successful with slower students. Furthermore, clear correlations between the learning success of pupils and the subject-specific knowledge of their teachers can be seen. For the planned project, the question therefore arises as to whether a written structure-based approach can be transferred to adult literacy.For such a transfer, teachers are to be regarded as gatekeepers. For an initial exploratory study, integration course leaders who attend the "Additional Literacy Qualification" should therefore become familiar with the structure-based concept. After the course, they will be interviewed as experts and asked what opportunities and limits they see for transferring the model to the literacy of new immigrants. The arguments will be systematized and used to approach the question of whether, and if so, with what adjustments, this approach can be used in integration courses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants