competency teaching in Germany
1. Introduction
We live in a new age of computers and the Internet where more information than ever before is being shared around the world. Teaching and learning methods, as well as the qualities of competencies, can be more easily evaluated and compared. This process has led the European Union and its individual countries, such as Germany, to look more closely at their education successes and failures. One of the hopes for Europe is to integrate its countries closer together in order to stabilise the region and secure a long lasting peace. The learning of the European languages by its members is quintessential to the realisation of this ambition. Europe has spent much money and effort testing its pupils ' foreign language abilities and comparing teaching methods from successful language programs. Another focus has been the appraisal of language competencies that are important for second language speakers living in Europe. This research has led to the creation of the Common European Framework for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF), which is a document written by the Council of Europe. This document not only standardises language abilities, it also outlines teaching methods that facilitate second language learning. The European Union has recommended that its member states adopt the CEF in order to improve language learning and construct language level conformity, which will allow language certificates to be easily recognised European wide. Until recently Germany had kept its educational programmes diverse by permitting each federal state to have its own educational goals and standards. Recently it has followed the European trend and has started to adopt educational standards nationwide. In the field of second language education, Germany has adopted nationwide standards for French and English based upon the CEF. One of the main emphases of the CEF is to establish the competencies that foster communication. Language education has been often criticised
We live in a new age of computers and the Internet where more information than ever before is being shared around the world. Teaching and learning methods, as well as the qualities of competencies, can be more easily evaluated and compared. This process has led the European Union and its individual countries, such as Germany, to look more closely at their education successes and failures. One of the hopes for Europe is to integrate its countries closer together in order to stabilise the region and secure a long lasting peace. The learning of the European languages by its members is quintessential to the realisation of this ambition. Europe has spent much money and effort testing its pupils ' foreign language abilities and comparing teaching methods from successful language programs. Another focus has been the appraisal of language competencies that are important for second language speakers living in Europe. This research has led to the creation of the Common European Framework for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEF), which is a document written by the Council of Europe. This document not only standardises language abilities, it also outlines teaching methods that facilitate second language learning. The European Union has recommended that its member states adopt the CEF in order to improve language learning and construct language level conformity, which will allow language certificates to be easily recognised European wide. Until recently Germany had kept its educational programmes diverse by permitting each federal state to have its own educational goals and standards. Recently it has followed the European trend and has started to adopt educational standards nationwide. In the field of second language education, Germany has adopted nationwide standards for French and English based upon the CEF. One of the main emphases of the CEF is to establish the competencies that foster communication. Language education has been often criticised
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