Dr Subhasri Vijayakumar

A Needs Based Approach to a German Curriculum for Engineers Dr Subhasri Vijayakumar

The post-modern 21st century is characterized by change. Factors like globalization, internationalization and liberalization have brought change to all walks of life, including the economy of the country, the educational sector, the society and its culture. Although English is the global lingua franca, foreign language proficiency is an added advantage for communication across the globe. Educational institutions are vested with the huge responsibility of producing human resources adept at working locally while thinking globally. In this era of knowledge explosion and Google-based knowledge, at a tertiary level, what drives the learners to learn a foreign language? What is the role of foreign languages in industries in India? How do the stakeholders of tertiary technical education view foreign language skills in the current era? These are a few areas that are yet to be explored in detail in the Indian context.

This book explores the needs of the stakeholders of German language education at tertiary level, through a mixed methods inquiry. German language teaching in India is detailed and a comparison is drawn between European countries and India on how it has evolved over the years. The book elucidates the various language skills deemed important by the learners, teachers and the industries both quantitatively and qualitatively. With the results of the study indicating a discernible gap in the needs of the stakeholders and the current process of teaching/learning German in a tertiary sector, the book suggests a plausible design for a German curriculum contextualized to the Indian classroom. A teacher-learner centric model, optimum use of Web 2.0 tools and the teaching of learning strategies to strengthen lifelong learning are the fulcrum of the suggested German curriculum.

This book is a must-read for all language educators, enthusiasts and administrators who strive to bring in a change in the curriculum of foreign language teaching in India.