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ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1694-8616

Access Type

Open Access Thesis

Document Type

thesis

Degree Program

Germanic Languages & Literatures

Degree Type

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Year Degree Awarded

2020

Month Degree Awarded

May

Abstract

Elementary German language textbooks today lack diverse representations of gender, social class, race, and ability. This thesis argues that the exclusion of those categories of diversity impedes the objectives of the communicative learning approach for students in first-year German courses. It examines research on diversity in textbooks with a focus on the concept of the “third space”, and shows how these findings apply to German students. An analysis of chapters from three German textbooks published between 2018 and 2020: Netzwerk neu A1, Impuls Deutsch 1, and Grenzenlos Deutsch provides specific examples of how images, texts, dialogs, grammar, and vocabulary exercises could be designed or redesigned to make the German language classroom a space in which all students are able to communicate and express themselves.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/17603540

First Advisor

Kerstin Mueller Dembling

Second Advisor

Sara Jackson

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