At the initial stage, the main goals in the development of foreign-language communicative competencies for fourth-graders, and older students studying German as a second language, are developing listening comprehension skills in the foreign language’s speech in the presence of unfamiliar language material, and developing compensatory skills (to guess the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary in terms of context, resemblance to the native language, and using visual aids). Production in German is not the goal of the course “German with Children’s Online University”. Therefore, the teacher, speaking mainly in German, must accept and respond positively to children’s requests, answers in their native language, and then voice them in German. This can be done by echo-questioning (Brauchst du das Klebeband? and taking the appropriate object in your hand) or commenting (Sascha sagt: “In der Muschel hören wir die Geräusche der Umgebung wieder” and accompany the phrase with an illustrative gesture). Most important, there should be no coercion on the part of the teacher. Every student will remember as much in class as possible, and as desired.
