Didactics of Literature and Foreign Languages: the Role of Drama in the Teaching of German as a Foreign Language in Burkina Faso

Abstract

The use of literature in the teaching of foreign languages can contribute to the acquisition of linguistic and cultural skills. As the oral expression is one of the six fundamental objectives in the teaching of German as a foreign language, its mastery is a basic and necessary task in a class of German as a foreign language in Germany as well as elsewhere. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore the potential of drama as a means to develop these basic skills in people learning German in Burkina Faso. This discussion aims at showing that the teaching of excerpts of drama as a course material can contribute to improving the acquisition of the German language skills by pupils in Burkina Faso. In addition, a didactic performance of an excerpt of drama in a lower sixth form class (US: 11^th grade class) in Burkina Faso will be sketched. The theories and methods of the didactics of drama and those of the aesthetics of reception of the didactics of literature will therefore be used.

Keywords:
didactics of literature - didactics of drama - foreign language teaching - oral expression - German as a foreign language