Foreign language proficiency in the Hauptschule - a didactic reconstruction of the path and goal of English lessons in the Hauptschule grade 10 (working title) "...if you want to, then you can learn it, if not, then you just can't..." (Original text from a pupil interview in the pilot study)

1. question

What does it mean for tenth-grade Hauptschule students to master English as a foreign language? What do English as a foreign language and the foreign language learning process look like from the perspective of pupils who are presumably at the end of their general school socialisation and whose previous learning experiences are judged by society to be at a lower performance level due to their assignment to Hauptschule? Which learning strategies and learning techniques can be explicated by the pupils and to what extent can we speak of language awareness in relation to English as a foreign language? What do the pupils think about innovative concepts, such as bilingual learning, which are successfully used in other types of school and are not available to lower secondary school pupils due to school-related implementation obstacles? The research project "Foreign language proficiency in the Hauptschule - A didactic reconstruction of the path and goal in year 10 English lessons" aims to answer these questions.
The aim of the work is to systematically relate the students' ideas to the corresponding subject-related ideas in order to develop a didactic structure that is both subject- and learner-orientated. The students' conceptions are not viewed as deficient, but rather as a fruitful starting point for their learning process. I would like to understand learning as an individual, multidimensional construction process that is based on prior knowledge and is influenced by conscious and unconscious, direct and indirect strategies, attitudes and behaviours and can be indirectly manipulated by external interventions. For this reason, recording existing ideas, attitudes, strategies and mindsets is a necessary basis for designing a didactic structure that specifically supports the individual construction processes.

2 Framework concept: Didactic reconstruction

The research project presented here is part of the doctoral programme "Didactic Teaching and Learning Research - Didactic Reconstruction" and is funded by a Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Scholarship. "By didactic reconstruction, the participants understand a theoretical framework for the planning, implementation and evaluation of subject-specific didactic teaching and learning research that is characterised by a changed research paradigm."[1] This changed research paradigm is characterised above all by an equal weighting of empiricism and subject-specific theory. Learner conceptions and subject-specific conceptions are ascribed structural parallelism. Consequently, the didactic structure is derived from the systematic comparison of both conceptual worlds. This approach also characterises my research project. A modification in the application of the model is made at the level of the subject area. "Didactic reconstruction is concerned with the question of how a topic can be taught in a meaningful and fruitful way"[2]. The project presented here is not about a specific topic, but about the path and goal in English lessons. Language learning models are compared from the point of view of students and specialised subjects. An expansion takes place in the area of reference sources. In addition to subject-specific and didactic literature, curricular teaching guidelines and similar documents, which can be regarded as manifestations of social theorising and the attribution of meaning, are also included in the analysis. This expansion of the sources is already laid out in the Didactic Reconstruction model: "The selection is to be made in such a way that significant historical and currently prevailing views are represented by outstanding texts."[3]. In this context, a discussion of the currently applicable standards and competency benchmarks[4] for English lessons in the Hauptschule will also form part of the work discussed here. On a descriptive level, the result of the work is a language learning model from the pupils' perspective. In addition - typical for a work of didactic reconstruction - a didactic structuring is the main objective of the work. The relationship between the sources used and the intended results is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Sources and results of the research project

3. research design

In terms of methodology, this research project is based on the Subjective Theories research programme[5]. The data collection instruments are semi-standardised guided interviews and a structure reading method based on the Heidelberg structure reading technique[6]. The Subjective Theories research programme appears particularly suitable for implementing the research questions, as basic epistemological assumptions and in particular the assumption of structural parallelism between subject-specific and subjective ideas correspond to the basic assumptions in the Didactic Reconstruction model. In addition, the Subjective Theories research programme has already been tested as a research approach in foreign language research and has also proven itself discursively[7].
The sample consists of 15 10th grade secondary school students from a total of four different English learner groups. The survey took place at two different schools in two different Federal States. Both schools are described by their representatives (headteachers and teachers) as hotspot schools, but differ significantly from each other in their environment. Qualitative content analysis according to Mayring[8] was used as the main method of analysis. Categories are formed inductively; the structuring part of the content analysis largely leads to typifications as a systematisation of the subject area.
Classroom observations and interviews with the teachers involved were used as supplementary contextual information. All interview situations and contacts with people from the field of investigation were recorded retrospectively immediately afterwards.

4 Educational relevance of the work

Competences in mother tongue and foreign language(s) are increasingly becoming a negative selection criterion when crossing the first threshold from general schooling to vocational training. Pupils with a lack of language skills have a limited selection of careers available to them, if at all. Even the formal permeability to higher school levels often fails due to knowledge and skills in (foreign) languages.
It can be stated that "the quantity of foreign language teaching on offer is in direct correlation to the level of school-leaving qualification"[9]. A mediation-oriented convergence of pupils' internal language learning models and externally generated models of language teaching research would therefore benefit above all those pupils who are taught in the Hauptschule due to poor school grades or unpredictable allocation behaviour on the part of teachers. In this sense, improving the educational and career opportunities of lower secondary school pupils is an implicit goal of this research project.

5. state of research

The student perceptions surveyed can be compared with four research areas of language teaching research, whose specialist reference points and theories are briefly outlined below.

5.1 Cognitive and affective influencing factors in the foreign language learning process

Affective influencing factors in the foreign language learning process include attitudes, behaviour and value attributions in relation to the foreign language. In particular, the theory of the affective filter[10] and the results of motivation research[11] are reference values in this area. Cognitive influencing factors include, for example, the influence of the mother tongue[12] and other foreign languages[13] on the foreign language learning process in relation to English.
Meta-level concepts, which contain both affective and cognitive components, are also affected. These include, in particular, the concept of language awareness[14]. In addition, external influencing factors such as the social structure of the class, opportunities for language contact and the organisation of lessons are also relevant.

5.2 Learning strategies

Learner strategies should refer to all implicit and explicit decisions made by the learner that follow a certain pattern of action and/or thought and specifically promote or hinder his/her foreign language learning process - i.e. also learning avoidance strategies and inefficient strategies and learning styles[15].
This area includes both concretely realised or realisable learning techniques[16], as well as indirect, metacognitive strategies such as directed attention and selected attention[17].

5.3 Competence models

The reference variables in the area of competence models include both models with normative claims, such as the model on which the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages[18] is based, as well as models that attempt to depict the fundamental interplay of the individual competences of linguistic structural areas[19]. Furthermore, additional aspects result from the comparison with communication models[20].

5.4 Bilingual teaching and learning

Bilingual teaching and learning is also referred to as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)[21] and refers to foreign language teaching and learning in a non-language subject.
The fact that the possibilities and limitations of bilingual learning in the school context were included in the research questions does not replace the acquisition of the didactic structure on the basis of the data collected. The purpose of extending the research question in this direction is to ascertain pupils' attitudes towards the concept of bilingual teaching and to identify possible obstacles in this area. The background to this is the fact that "bilingual education and bilingual teaching are regarded as a successful form of second language acquisition and are now internationally recognised"[22].

6 Timing

I began work on my project in December 2001. The survey of pupils' perspectives was completed in December 2002. The project is currently in the evaluation phase, in which the inductively formed category system is being dynamically developed and the subject-specific ideas are being systematically incorporated. It is planned to complete the work in spring 2004.

7. literature

BIlingual teaching of economics, Oldenburger VorDrucke 440, 2001