Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English - Pedagogy, Didactics, Literature Studies, grade: 1,0, University of Education Freiburg im Breisgau, 22 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Project work, cross-curricular or interdisciplinary teaching and learning, openplanned lessons, experiential learning - these are only a few of the whole range of existing terms expressing a trend of educational methodology postulated by theorists throughout many past decades. Related to each other by the similar notion of 'learning by doing' they intended to reform the antiquated style of traditional teaching and replace it by a methodology characterised by learner orientation and learner autonomy. Due to the rapidly changing world and its demands the fact-based education system had to move to a skilled-based conception characterised by process- rather than content-orientation. The lack of practical translation of constructivist ideas in (foreign language) teaching, decisive findings in cognitive psychology, constructivist philosophies as well as many students' and teachers' experiences have proved the positive impact of project work and openplanned teaching on effective and successful (language) learning. One of them, the Storyline concept, is the central subject of this work - a more general theoretical reflection - which is followed by a concrete design of a Storyline unit for the primary English classroom.

From plays to poetry, Le Petit Nicolas to the Association for Language Learning (ALL) Literature wiki, this book shows trainee teachers of MFL, teachers in schools, teacher educators, how literature can be an essential tool for developing students' cultural awareness as well as language skills. With contributions from Ruth Heilbronn, Jane Jones and other leading scholars, it covers a wide range of approaches including looking at how to support students to develop the skills they need to read and discuss texts, and how to use stories as a pedagogic tool, rather than just a way to develop reading skills. Examples of teaching French, German, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish are used throughout, but the book draws together resources and strategies for use in teaching all modern foreign languages. Supporting students to develop into creative, reflective teachers, this book offers support for readers to develop their own tasks for their pupils and questions throughout to keep them engaged and encouraging them to critically engage with the content. Seemingly daunting articles are made much more approachable for readers with windows on research which provide a summary of relevant research papers, with full reference details for follow up.

This book aims to meet the demands on teaching and learning in the twenty-first century, and in specific, how teacher education may transform pedagogical approaches and didactic methods to support future teachers in enhancing needful skills. In particular, it focuses on the pedagogical approach of Storyline, and how a Storyline can be applied in teacher education. It argues that teacher education benefits from the potency of various disciplines while applying an interdisciplinary methodology. Storyline is a problem-based, cross-curricular approach, based on learning through an evolving narrative, created in collaboration between teacher and students. It includes a variety of didactic tools, and inclusiveness towards different learners. Using Storyline in teacher education arranges for teacher educators to integrate alternative structures, that enable interdisciplinary cooperation and topic-based teaching. The authors have incorporated Storyline in many different ways, which contextualizes throughout the book. The book provides an overview of Storyline and introduces improved and new theoretical perspectives on this approach, including many practical examples.

Current applied linguistic research generally supports the adoption of interdisciplinary approaches in education with the objective of enhancing learners’ progress and teachers’ practices. In this spirit, this edited volume explores the issue of cross-curricular learning and teaching from a wider perspective. The twenty-three papers collected here are categorised in four thematic units, all of which, however, share a common feature: they focus on interdisciplinary learning and promote the integration of knowledge and skills from various subject areas. As such, all the papers brought together in this volume, thus, emphasise the interconnectedness of knowledge and ideas in primary, secondary and tertiary education. The theme of Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning is related in this volume to Intercultural Education, to Content and Language Integrated Learning, and to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The book will be of interest to scholars who are interested in relevant research-based data and results, and to educators who wish to update their knowledge about cross-curricular teaching and improve their language teaching practices.

This volume discusses a variety of aspects of cross-curricularity in language learning and teaching. It highlights the multidimensional character of language classes conducted at different educational levels, from pre-school to the university level, and discusses several important issues from a theoretical perspective, providing certain practical solutions and implications to the enumerated problems. The material of the book is divided into four parts, essentially reflecting the main areas of interest here. These parts deal with such notions as language learning and teaching; media in foreign language didactics; art and literature in language education; and (inter-)culturality and cross-curricularity in language learning and teaching. The book will be particularly useful to teacher-practitioners and scholars interested in various forms of integrating the content of different school subjects in language education.

In Project-Based Learning Applied to the Language Classroom, the authors propose a way to develop PBL in the language classrooms taking into account all of the obstacles and specifics involved in teaching a foreign language. It is about teaching English as a second or foreign language using Project-Based Learning (PBL). We approach this combination because many people seem to think about implementing PBL in their language classes and ask questions about how to do it, but feel that there aren’t enough materials based on this methodology. In fact, most researchers and writers we have come across discuss the applications of PBL in the students’ mother tongue to subjects such as Math, History, Literature,Social Studies, and Science. However, there are few published works about the specifics of PBL in foreign language classes. Besides, it seems obvious to us that the main difficulty in developing projects in a second or foreign language lies exactly on the fact that communication may be hindered when students do not have enough knowledge in the target language.

This volume focuses on a variety of aspects of foreign language learning and teaching. From a theoretical perspective, it explores the multidimensional character of language classes and delineates ways of developing students’ knowledge and skills, according to current educational conceptions and postulates. The book is divided into four parts, dealing with such notions as foreign language teaching and learning, ICT in foreign language didactics, intercultural components of language education, and CLIL in the contemporary language class. It will be useful to individuals who find the issue of foreign language teaching and learning, and its cross-curricular character, interesting.