Open Collections

Orbis pictus to hypertext: a quest for a self-directed multimedia German acquisition programme

University of British Columbia

This thesis investigates the research area of the formation of a self-directed, interactive multimedia, German acquisition programme, intended for first-year university students. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis by discussing the methodology, which is chiefly historical and analytic; by surveying the relevant literature; and by advancing a rationale for the study. Since the thesis emphasizes a historical dimension, Chapter 2 presents research on the career of the seventeenthcentury education reformer Comenius, who is identified as the first systematic theorist of language didactics. His seminal ideas and textbooks connected with language acquisition (LA), which prefigure much in contemporary practice, have been unjustly neglected, and the thesis is intended in part to help correct this situation. Chapter 3 offers research on a historical panorama of landmark theory in linguistics and applied linguistics from Comenius’ time to ours, to explore significant ideas that help to shape LA programmes. From the joint perspective of Comenian didactics and modern philosophy of curriculum, Chapter 4 analyses textbooks now or recently in use in a first-year university German course to derive guidelines, principally from the communicative approach, for the proposed German programme. Chapter 5 synthesizes leading ideas gained from study of Comenius and arising from first-hand investigation of later theorists, also it brings in awareness of the possibilities of interactive multimedia, to present an original outline of a self-directed German programme as a contribution to research on second language acquisition. Appendix A presents pictures illustrating the far off intellectual world of Comenius. Appendix B reports on practices and resources at innovative university language centres in Germany and Britain, and surveys some self-directed LA programmes, but chiefly W.E. Mackey’s multimedia self-directed English LA version for Francophone children in New Brunswick, to establish the main features of what is being called the post-communicative approach to LA.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-03-04

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/5508

Modern Languages Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace