Students' Accuracy in Written English Under the Impression of the new "G8" System - a Case Study

Staatsexamensarbeit von Johanna Schroeder

Introduction:

In Germany, education matters lie within the scope of each of the 16 German federal states. Consequently, there is no unique educational system which is valid for the entire Federal Republic of Germany, but 16 individual ones. However, a German-wide basic framework, including regulations about the compulsory school attendance for instance, does exist.

The duration of compulsory schooling until passing the Abitur at the Gymnasium, however, is not regulated by this framework, but belongs to the power of decision of each federal state. For instance, in Thuringia and Saxony, the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium has been limited to eight years, as it was already the case before the reunification of Germany in 1990. In the other federal states, like North-Rhine Westphalia for example, the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium included an additional ninth year, resulting in the fact that the students attended the Gymnasium from grade 5 until grade 13. Nevertheless, in 2001, the ministry of education of the federal state Saarland decided for a reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium by one year. By now, all the other federal states have followed and therefore also made the decision for a reduced duration of only eight years at the Gymnasium.

After many heated discussions, also the North-Rhine Westphalian ministry of education decided for a reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium. As a consequence of this decision, students of two grades (G8 and G9 students) entered the upper secondary level at all North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien on August 31st, 2010 (Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, n.d.a). The students of this so-called Doppeljahrgang will all graduate in 2013 and therefore all of them will have to pass the same Abitur exams. Hence, it must be guaranteed that G8 students have the same preconditions as G9 students, despite having one year less of general schooling before graduating.

Since no students have entered the upper secondary level after only five years at the Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia before 2010, empirical research in this area is hardly available by now. Nevertheless, this Doppeljahrgang offers the unique chance of directly comparing G8 and G9 students in order to find out in how far the new G8 system was implemented successfully or not.

Especially in the context of learning foreign languages it might be doubted that one year less of learning the foreign language can be easily compensated. Whereas the teaching of new grammatical aspects used to be completed mainly by the end of the intermediate secondary level also according to the old G9 system, other aspects, such as vocabulary, only develop over time. Therefore, it is of interest to find out in how far the new G8 system was successfully implemented into the concept of teaching English as a foreign language at the Gymnasium.

On the basis of the lack of empirical research, a case study concerning the English foreign language classroom was conducted, which is the core of this thesis. For practicability and comparability reasons, this case study was mainly focused on linguistic accuracy. Thus, the aim was to find out in how far the current grade 10 G8 students managed to catch up with the current grade 11 G9 students with regard to linguistic accuracy in the English language. The underlying assumption is that, since vocabulary for instance develops over time, G8 students are not as linguistically accurate as G9 students by the end of the prep phase of the upper secondary level.

In order to provide the reader first of all with the necessary theoretical background knowledge, an overview of what linguistic accuracy actually refers to and how it can be measured is shown in Chapter 2. Furthermore, the main information on when, how and why the reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium was conducted in North-Rhine Westphalia and how it affected the English lessons will be presented. In Chapter 3, the aim and methodology of the preliminary study will be explained before the presentation of the main outcomes. Moreover, tentative explanations for those results will be discussed. Chapter 4 will then present an outlook in which advantages and disadvantages of the present case study will be discussed. Finally, in Chapter 5, the main results of the present case study will be summarised with the intention to evaluate in how far further research in this field is recommendable.

Table of Contents:

Text Sample:

Chapter 2, Theory:

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with the essential theoretical background knowledge for the underlying case study of this thesis. The aim of this case study was to find out in how far students of the new G8 system could manage to reach the same level as students of the old G9 system by the end of the prep phase of the upper secondary level with regard to linguistic accuracy in the English language. Thus, it is first of all important to understand what linguistic accuracy refers to and why it should be measured, which will be addressed in this chapter. Additionally, an overview will be given of when, how and why the new G8 school system for the North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien was implemented. Moreover, a comparison of the old G9 core curriculum and the new G8 core curriculum for teaching English as a foreign language will be presented.

2.1, What is linguistic accuracy and why should it be measured?

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the term accuracy refers to ‘the state of being exact or correct’ or ‘the ability to do something skilfully without making mistakes’. Since this definition is quite broad and can be applied for any context, the following, more specified, definition by Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, and Kim (1998) will serve as the underlying definition of linguistic accuracy for this thesis: ‘[A]ccuracy is the ability to be free from errors while using language to communicate in either writing or speech’.

In terms of foreign language learning and teaching, reaching a native speaker’s level with the main focus on linguistic accuracy has been the goal for many years. Therefore, corrections of the linguistic aspects for exams were merely based on the number of mistakes produced per 100 words. This, however, is totally outdated nowadays. ‘The Common European Framework [...] describes intercultural communicative competence (ICC) as the main goal of foreign language learning’. But does that imply that linguistic accuracy is not included at all in the context of learning and teaching a foreign language anymore? Taking into consideration what intercultural communicative competence refers to, the answer to this question definitely has to be ‘no’. The model of intercultural communicative competence proposed by Celce-Murcia (2007) for instance shows the integration of six competences: strategic-, discourse-, formulaic-, socio-cultural-, interactional-, and linguistic competence. According to this model, those competences are all interconnected and essential to be acquired in the process of foreign language learning. Consequently, linguistic accuracy is, among others, one essential factor in the process of becoming proficient in a foreign language and therefore has to be integrated into teaching a foreign language as well. However, since it is no longer the main focus of foreign language teaching, it is important to find the right balance, which often turns out to be quite a challenge for many teachers.

To underline the importance of linguistic accuracy as well as its connection with content, the following example will serve: The two sentences ‘I have been together with my boyfriend for three years’ and ‘I was together with my boyfriend for three years’ on first sight do not hint at any lack of linguistic accuracy. The only difference observable is the use of different past tense forms. Whereas the verb is used in present perfect in the first sentence, it is used in the simple past form in the second one. Both sentences are grammatically and linguistically correct. Though, the first sentence implies that the speaker is still together with her boyfriend. In contrast to that does the usage of the verb in the simple past form in the second sentence indicate that the relationship lasted three years but is over now. In this respect, the usage of two different forms of expressing the past changes the content completely, which emphasizes the importance of being linguistically accurate in communicative situations in order to prevent misunderstandings.

To put it in a nutshell, it is true that accuracy generally represents a point at issue and should not be foregrounded in teaching English as a foreign language. However, even though linguistic accuracy is no longer the main focus of foreign language teaching and learning, it is still an integral part of it and must be highly considered in the foreign language classroom. Neglecting linguistic accuracy can lead to misunderstandings while communicating in the foreign language, which thus should be avoided. In order to find out about the level of linguistic accuracy of students, it is important to apply a suitable method of measuring linguistic accuracy. Whereas the mere information of the error ratio at the end of an exam is no longer sufficient as correction method, it is still a good measurement to gain a first impression of the students’ linguistic accuracy level. The methodology applied to measure linguistic accuracy for the underlying case study of this thesis will be explained in Chapter 3.1.2.

2.2, The North-Rhine Westphalian school system:

‘Die Schulzeitverkürzung ist für die Gymnasien die vielleicht größte pädagogische und organisatorische Herausforderung der vergangenen Jahre’ (Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, n.d.b).

After giving an overview of when, how and why the reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling at North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien was carried out, a comparison of the G8 and G9 core curricula for teaching English should provide information in how far this reduced duration of compulsory schooling affected the English foreign language classroom.