Abstract
This article analyzed doubts that are regularly expressed by German teachers concerning whether textbooks for teaching German as a Foreign Language (GFL) edited in Germany sufficiently represent the linguistic and cultural diversity of the entire German-speaking world. As a first step, the fundamental principles of textbook evaluation and cultural didactics in the field of GFL are discussed in this article, followed by the analysis of nine textbooks being used in German undergraduate courses of Brazilian universities in 2019 that were examined in view of an adequate representation of German speaking countries. The results suggest that the difficulties in dealing with cultural issues while teaching German are not predominantly related to the lack of suitable materials, but rather to uncertainties in handling cultural mediation. Therefore, the authors conclude with the plea for an even more conscious engagement with culture in teacher training, especially in German undergraduate courses in Brazil.
Keywords:
Textbook Analysis; German as a Foreign Language (GFL); Cultural Didactics; Brazilian Universities