New concepts, new ideas
Intercultural diversity in Finland’s German textbooks

Textbooks continue to play an important role in teaching German as a foreign language (DaF) and thus help shape how learners perceive cultural diversity. How culturally diverse is the image of Germany that Finnish textbooks convey today, and what options for shaping this image are open to teachers?

By Minna Maijala & Mareen Patzelt

Crossing boarders in language teaching

In the intercultural approach, learners’ attitudes and reflections are at the heart of culture-based language teaching. Instead of imparting factual knowledge about cultures, learners should be able to construct culture-related content in a reflective process. DACH, the concept that the German-speaking countries are multilingual and intercultural, has recently emerged in the research literature on German as a foreign language (DaF). Instead of maintaining national boundaries and spatial constraints, the aim is to cross borders. Geographical space and cultural patterns are not excluded from this concept altogether, but expanded to consider issues that cross the borders of the German-speaking countries. Although language teachers today are generally seeking to dispense with national borders and to centre intercultural experience, in our experience this approach is often difficult to implement in practice in the classroom. Especially in German lessons outside German-speaking countries, it can be difficult to completely dispense with national and linguistic boundaries, because in these contexts students often reflect on those countries’ cultures by comparing them to their own.

In 2008, Minna Maijala’s study showed that Finnish and Swedish DaF textbooks considered intercultural diversity very rarely. Instead, the textbooks conveyed a rather one-dimensional and stereotypical image of Germany. Has this representation changed since the early 2000s? In their analysis of Dutch and Polish DaF textbooks in 2020, Ciepielewska-Kaczmarek and her colleagues compiled best practices that encourage learners to reflect on culture and make links with their lifeworld. These authors argue that beneficial exercises put national clichés into perspective, critically question them, and encourage learners to explore their own linguistic and cultural environment or do project work.

The cultural other is still an issue

Let’s take a look at two DaF textbooks that are currently in use in Finland, Magazin.de 1–2 and Plan D 1–2 [see end references, ed.]. They are designed for the last two grades of comprehensive education and the academic track of upper secondary school.

The main strategy for stimulating reflection on culture in these textbooks is to compare Finland and the German-speaking countries. The books provide information on those cultural specifics that differ in the target and source language contexts. In one of the textbooks, this information is isolated in culture boxes, which are visually separated from the main content. The topics of the culture boxes are mostly chosen because they are perceived as interesting or different from a Finnish cultural perspective. For example, in one of the textbooks culture coupons, written in Finnish with key terms in German, provide information on topics such as football, school and living in a shared flat, or highlight linguistic aspects such as “please and thank you” or Austrian German. In the other textbook analysed, a 17-year-old blogs about her experiences during her exchange year in Germany. She writes about everyday things like food and school as well as trips to Berlin, Vienna, and the Alps. Cultural specifics are also shown through the eyes of Erkka, a Finnish student. Learners are made aware of false friends, or expressions that can lead to cultural misunderstandings between German and Finnish speakers.

The cultural Other is still an issue, then, even in instructions for exercises. In one task, learners are asked to find a partner and discuss whether people speak German or Finnish in the place where pictures were taken, based on the houses, cars, and landscapes they can see. Or in a vocabulary exercise, learners are asked to reflect on the difference between wishing someone “success” in German and “luck” in Finnish for an upcoming exam.

If we look at the characters in the two textbooks, Magazin.de is a novelty in the Finnish textbook landscape as it has no Finnish characters in it. The main characters, Vanessa, Lukas, and Felix, come from different German cities. In Plan, cultural diversity is represented by Zarif, who invites Erkka and her German-speaking girlfriends to his Lebanese uncle’s restaurant. Apart from Zarif and his cousin Karim, however, there are no other characters in the textbook who have family born abroad. Although the Lebanese family has lived in Germany for a long time, the fact that they have migrated there is emphasized in a subsequent exercise on the restaurant.

Conclusion: still room for improvement

Culture-related content in Finnish German textbooks is still taught primarily in terms of everyday life in countries where people speak German. One positive development is that the questions and information about culture encourage Finnish learners of German to reflect on and further engage with social and cultural diversity. Compared to the 2000s, Finnish German textbooks today pay more attention to social and cultural diversity, but this could still be improved. For example, young people whose families migrated to Germany are still under-represented. Although exercises may seem to contain stereotypes at first glance, with the appropriate support from a teacher who treats the learners as individuals they offer an opportunity for the class to construct a diverse picture of German-speaking countries – and Finland.

How can teachers use DaF textbooks to better convey Germany’s social and cultural diversity?

One possibility is to complement the exercises in the textbook with other tasks that enable learners to discover and reflect on intercultural diversity both in their own context and in the German-speaking world. Lesson planning should take into account how culture-related content, be it textbook texts, exercises, or illustrations, can stimulate learners to engage in discussion, whatever the language.

In German textbooks, cultural and social diversity can be incorporated through selecting topics and creating the textbook characters, tasks, and questions. Ideally, this should be done using as few stereotypical portrayals as possible and without, for instance, overemphasizing the supposed foreignness of the textbook characters in Germany. If the textbooks themselves do not reflect this approach to diversity, the teacher can guide learners to create their own textbook characters with multilingual and diverse social and cultural backgrounds. To do this, learners can research in their own context and online. Together in discussions, simulations, or role plays between the textbook characters they create, learners can reflect on their different backgrounds and improve their ability to empathize, which can promote a more reflective attitude to culture. Role plays are a particularly effective way of doing this without referring too clearly to specific people. Alternatively or additionally, learners can create posters, portrait galleries or comics to be displayed in the classroom, or digital content such as videos or podcasts. In recent years, it has become much easier to create stimulating digital materials based on different templates, in cooperation with other teachers, and to use them together for a variety of purposes.

The challenge when choosing supplementary materials is to take into account the language level of each target group and the learning objective. If the language level is not sufficient for a critical approach to intercultural diversity, learners should be allowed to reflect on the topic in their first language or in other learned languages.