The Reconstruction of Sense in the Foreign Language Classroom

This book is an introduction to reconstructive foreign language research using the documentary method. It contains an intensive reflection on social practices and the role of language awareness within the context of the instructional interaction in the foreign language classroom. The narrative interview can independently be used for research on language and professional biographies as well as professional dispositions, and attitudes of foreign language teachers provide valuable insights into biographical formations. Similarly, it can be deployed for research on the foreign language learner, too. The working steps of the documentary method are being illustrated on the basis of concrete examples so that the book can be used by researchers as well as by students as a methodological introduction.

Bernd Michael Tesch is professor of foreign language teaching and learning research centred on the didactics of French and Spanish at the university of Kassel (Germany). He has worked as a teacher at state schools at home and abroad and at the Institute for Educational Quality Improvement (IQB) in Berlin.