Aktuelle Gestaltungsspielräume gymnasialer Literaturvermittlung. Lesen fürs Leben?

Abstract

Is Teaching Literature and particularly classics in current language classes feasible and worth the effort?

The present article is concerned with teaching Spanish as a tertiary language in secondary schools in Baden-Württemberg and focuses firstly on the formal framework in which the lessons have to be seen. Therefore, it presents and analyzes the guidelines of educational policy, various ways of their organizational implementation at schools and the current range of books in catalogues of four big schoolbook publishers. The latter promote the benefits of lifelong reading and promise that using their products is going to arouse students’ enthusiasm for reading. Thereafter, the text negotiates how the described scope, defined by the formal specifications, can be filled in practice regarding both the competences that have to be conveyed and problems and challenges they entail. Finally, the article summarizes several aspects that have to be considered during thorough preparation of literature lessons and it concludes with the assessment that literature should and can be part of language classes, regarding its benefits such as for example knowledge enhancement, improvement of language skills or the contribution to the development of personality and, ideally, the above-mentioned enthusiasm for life-long reading.