Resumen de Language awareness of German pupils

Peter S. Green, Karlheinz Hecht

• Something akin to language awareness has been a curricular aim in German schools for some time. After a discussion of terminology, the aims, content and methods of this area of the curriculum in the Gymnasium are presented in broad outline and compared with other — principally English — models. An empirical section of the article considers first of all the standing of Sprachbetrachtung — looking at language — with teachers and pupils. Pupils’ command of metalanguage is also investigated. The central section describes the design and results of a test to assess the level of pupils’ awareness of language and investigates whether there is any correlation between their test results and their linguistic competence. Both teachers and pupils regard looking at language as very important. However, pupils have only a shaky command of metalanguage, and their awareness of language, as measured by the test, is not well developed. It was not possible to establish any relationship between their level of awareness and their linguistic competence. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed, together with their implications for teaching.