Language Mediation: What are the practical consequences of the Companion Volume? A curriculum-analytical investigation and theoretical-conceptual modeling for foreign language teaching

Abstract

The paper aims to introduce the modelling of mediation in the Companion Volume (EUROPARAT 2018), an additional publication to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages/CEFR (EUROPARAT 2001) and to explore its potential for foreign language teaching practice. In its curriculum-analytical part, the article deals with the conception of mediation in the CEFR and its revision in the Companion Volume. It examines this - with a focus on the innovations in the Companion Volume - against the backdrop of the construct of language mediation that has been developed in German educational policy and foreign language didactics over the last two decades. The article then examines which suggestions for the further development of mediation in foreign language teaching emerge from the Companion Volume and identifies three categories for this. Finally, prototypical examples for foreign language teaching and two concrete practical examples for the teaching of German as a foreign language in Brazil are given, especially for the first category, “activities that were or are common practice in foreign language teaching, but could now be reflected upon anew under the sign of “mediation””.

Keywords:
(Cross-) linguistic mediation; Companion Volume; Curriculum analysis; Typology; Examples of good practice