Inclusive language education
Inclusive language education has been a key research focus of the Department of classics pedagogy at the HU for many years. Based on the Pons Latinus project, which was developed, implemented and empirically evaluated with the Ernst-Abbe-Gymnasium in Berlin-Neukölln, we have not only published a large number of publications and firmly integrated the topic into university teaching and teacher training, but are also continuously advancing it: for example, we are currently supporting the multi-year school pilot project "Classical language course with French as the first foreign language" at the Diesterweg-Gymnasium in Berlin-Wedding, which focuses on promoting inclusive language education. The concept we developed can be explained as follows:
"The cultural and linguistic heterogeneity of our students has long been a daily reality in Latin lessons and calls for new didactic concepts: Latin lessons must be able to provide all its students, regardless of their a first language and origin, with an educational offer that is as customised and perspective-rich as possible. A promising and scientifically evaluated concept that can make Latin lessons effective in this sense is so-called Inclusive language education. In many federal states of Germany, it has now become a cross-cutting task for all subjects and refers to the systematic promotion of language development processes for all pupils. If Latin lessons make their specific contribution to this [...], they have a great opportunity to demonstrate their social significance in a comprehensible way. Through the targeted promotion of standard language skills in German, it can actively contribute to the academic and professional success of its pupils and their active participation in society. [...]
In order to be able to have a language-building effect, Latin lessons must react sensitively to the different linguistic preconditions of the pupils. It is therefore necessary to be aware of the typical linguistic difficulties that arise in Latin lessons when using German as a first and second language, e.g. when dealing with articles and adjectives, prepositions, passive and future tenses as well as relative clauses and participial constructions.
Latin lessons with a focus on inclusive language education always have a dual objective: pupils should not only develop standard language skills in German. Rather, Latin language competence must also always be promoted. Language-educating Latin lessons therefore also serve to better achieve the specific goals of Latin lessons. It should therefore not be limited to simplifying the German texts that appear in Latin teaching materials. Rather, lessons only have a language-educating effect if language learning in German is systematically promoted in a subject-integrated way, i.e. through intensive engagement with the Latin language.
Up to three languages can be productively related to each other in a inclusive language-educationally orientated Latin lesson, with their differences and similarities: the relevant language of origin, German as a first or second language and Latin. The aim is not to facilitate learning solely through the use of linguistic analogies. Rather, the proximity and differences between the relevant languages should be utilised in such a way that linguistic skills in German are promoted with the help of Latin, which can be described as neutral because it is nobody's first language. Latin is thus comparable to a bridge that leads pupils from everyday language to standard language. It does not matter whether German is the pupil's first or second language."
(Source: Stefan Kipf (Hrsg.) (2024): Adeamus! 2, Ausgabe N, Sprachbildend unterrichten. Berlin: Cornelsen, 5f.)