Transfer Project T1: English Language Varieties in the EFL Classroom of Secondary Schools in Germany

Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Peter Siemund

Carried out in cooperation with the Hamburg teacher training institute (Landesinstitut für Lehrerbildung und Schulentwicklung), the transfer project T1 aims at compiling and producing a teaching material for EFL teachers at German secondary schools. The content of the material relates to English as a world language, different varieties of English as well as their global expansion and distribution. The teaching material will be tested on EFL students in the course of pilot studies and will subsequently be refined. The project implements research findings, among various other sources, from a research project on Hiberno-English located at the Research Centre 538 Multilingualism (SFB 538 Mehrsprachigkeit). The use of the teaching material designed and produced in the project is expected to enhance and facilitate the learning process of EFL students, and to widen and improve their knowledge and skills, including their teachers’. In particular, EFL students are expected to recognize and classify the ever expanding varieties of English. Put in a nutshell, the project is concerned with raising the awareness of linguistic diversity in the EFL classroom. Given today’s regional and social differentiation of the English language around the world, the teaching material produced in the project can be expected to become a significant component of foreign language teaching, especially in view of the fact that teaching material of this kind does not as yet exist.