Wolfgang Butzkamm

Wolfgang Butzkamm (born November 11, 1938 in Hagen ) is a professor emeritus for the English language and its didactics at RWTH Aachen University .

Life

After studying in Marburg , Münster , Dortmund and Appleton , he initially taught German as a foreign language as a “German assistant” at a school in London. After his clerkship, he was teacher at the high school Gevelsberg and later at the School Kamen. In 1974 he was offered a position at the Päd. Hochschule Rheinland, Aachen department, and has been at RWTH Aachen University since 1989. He has been retired since 2003.

Enlightened monolingualism model

Butzkamm is the founder of enlightened monolingualism (or functional foreign language), on which he has published research articles and monographs since 1973 (most recently in a book published with Caldwell in 2009; see also list of the most important publications).

Basic principles

The model implies that the foreign language should be enforced as the lingua franca of teaching, while the help of the mother tongue is indispensable. Since languages ​​are primarily acquired through use, the foreign language itself is considered to be the most important means of acquiring it. It is the goal and also the way to the goal. However, the mother tongue and the abilities and skills developed with it always play a role without being asked , and they should also be used methodically and explicitly, for example by means of the " sandwich technique " when introducing foreign language speeches and constructions following pattern: (1) new foreign language element - (2) idiomatic, customary language translation (quieter, for example in the manner of speaking aside) - (3) repeated mention of the foreign language element:

English teacher in front of German learners: How did you make out? - How did you get on? - How did you make out?

In addition, the interplay of idiomatic and literal translation, for which Butzkamm uses the expression mother tongue mirroring , can solve grammatical problems straight away.

Examples

Anglophones can be made clear in German constructions (if they do not immediately understand them based on previous knowledge or the linguistic relationship) as follows, in principle without further grammatical explanations:

• We must buy bread = We must buy bread = * We must buy bread
• ... because we have to buy bread = ... because we must buy bread = * because we must buy bread
• If it must be = * If it be must

Chinese structures can be taught to German learners as follows:

• Nǐ hǎo = Hello / Good day = * You well.
• měigèrén dōu dǒng yīngyǔ = Everyone understands English = * everyone understands English.
• Shànghǎi bǐ Běijīng dà = Shanghai is bigger than Beijing. = * Shanghai bǐ (= as / comparison) Beijing large.

In contrast to Krashen's “comprehensible input”, for Butzkamm this double understanding is the basic condition of every language acquisition: the learner has to understand what is meant ( functional understanding / decoding ), but also understand how it is said ( structural understanding / codebreaking ). Only in this way can the learners form their own sentences according to a found, understood pattern (generative principle). You can now risk sentences in Chinese like “Rome is older than Berlin” or “Mozart is better known than Schumann” by following the pattern above: * Compare Rome old Berlin / * Compare Mozart Schumann known . The role of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching must therefore be rethought. Used correctly, it is the language learner's greatest asset and a trailblazer for all other languages.

Theoretical background

The maturing and developing linguistic ability of people in their first language forms the basis for all further language learning:

• In our mother tongue and through it we brought the world to the concept and learned to think.
• We have learned to communicate in and through our mother tongue. The school child brings with them a communicative competence practiced practically from birth and an associated cosmopolitanism. First and foremost, the foreign language expressions would have to be learned so that the existing competence can come into action, not this itself.
• We have learned to intuitively grasp a basic grammatical order in our mother tongue and through it. The mother tongue opens the door to all grammars, insofar as we understand foreign language constructions and can represent them in our mother tongue.
• At the same time, speaking and writing motor skills are trained based on the mother tongue and we can read.

Basically, according to Butzkamm, we only learn language once, as a child.

Enlightened monolingualism means taking advantage of these mother tongue preliminary work through various bilingual teaching techniques (in addition to the monolingual). According to Butzkamm, this does not jeopardize the enforcement of the foreign language in its function as the working language that supports teaching, but on the contrary even facilitates it. The mother tongue must also be skilfully introduced into bilingual subject teaching .

The theory of the enlightened monolingualism emerged as a reaction to the more uneconomical, more ineffective and too far-driven principle of monolingualism or the direct method, according to Butzkamm. According to Butzkamm, the reassessment of the mother tongue would turn the theory and practice of foreign language methodology upside down again. Hall & Cook share this opinion in their research review on the role of one's own language in foreign language teaching: "The way is open for a major paradigm shift in language teaching and learning."

Publications

• 1973: Enlightened monolingualism: To de-dogmatize the method in foreign language teaching . Quelle & Meyer, Heidelberg (2nd edition 1978)
• 1989: Psycholinguistics of foreign language teaching: from mother tongue to foreign language . Francke, Tübingen / Basel (3rd, revised edition 2002)
• 1998: Code-Switching in a Bilingual History Lesson: the Mother tongue as a Conversational lubricant . In: International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism , 1.2, pp. 81-99.
• 1999 (with Jürgen Butzkamm): How children learn to speak: Child development and human language . Francke, Tübingen / Basel (2nd, completely revised edition 2004)
• 2000: Generative principle . In: Michael Byram (Ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning . Routledge, London / New York, pp. 232-234.
• 2003: We only learn language once: The role of the mother tongue in FL classrooms - death of a dogma . In: Language Learning Journal , 28, pp. 29-39.
• 2004: The desire to teach, the desire to learn: A new methodology for foreign language teaching . Francke, Tübingen / Basel (2nd, improved edition 2007)
• 2005: The teacher is our chance . Geisler, food.
• 2009 (with John AW Caldwell): The Bilingual Reform: A Paradigm Shift in Foreign Language Teaching . Fool, Tübingen.
• 2011: Why make them crawl if they can walk. Teaching with mother tongue support . In: RELC Journal , 42.3, pp. 379-391.

Web links

• Wolfgang Butzkamm's homepage
• Wikibiblia

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2012, p. 299
2. ^ Graham Hall, Guy Cook: Own-language use in language teaching and learning . In: Language Teaching , 45.3, 2012, pp. 271–308.