|
We all know that we live in a pluralistic
postmodern society of diverging personal and cultural values and consequently
we also have a very colourful and a more and more heterogeneous student
population. In a competence-oriented foreign language classroom students
today have to deal with literature very early. They read and interpret
the texts on more or less the same level even though their receptive
skills can be very different. Learning generally and learning about
literature is a very individual and also subjective process. The contexts
of learning not only depend on political and ideological agendas, cultural
environments and school ethos, but also on emotional, physical and social
differences of the learners. There are students who learn best by working
alone and those who are most successful working in pairs or groups.
Further, the learning profiles of young adolescents often change rapidly
as they develop. There simply is no single learning template for an
average class. If students differ in readiness, interest, and learning
profiles, and if a teacher attempts to address every single student
and to foster continual growth, a one-size-fits-all model of instruction
makes little sense. Rather, differentiated instruction in teaching literature
seems a better solution for meeting the academic diversity. But how
can we tackle this problem? How can teachers deal with mixed-intelligence,
mixed-ability classes? How can teachers promote the relationship between
motivation and individual differentiation among learner groups in teaching
literature in the foreign language classroom? This contribution will
focus on the challenge not only to accept heterogeneity but to find
a positive approach and a productive exposure to dealing with literature
in heterogeneous learner groups.
|