Teaching and Learning German as a Foreign Language in Primary and Secondary School: A Case Study

The development of communicative and pragmatic competence is considered one of the main goals of modern foreign language teaching. The primary focus of this paper is to explore how German was taught in school. 35 learners in the first and second years of the Bachelor’s degree program in German studies in the 2021/2022 academic year at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Split were surveyed. An online questionnaire was used for the study, which included an overview of German lessons in primary and secondary school. The absolute majority of respondents agreed that formulaic sequences were taught in primary and secondary school. However, regarding the question of promoting fluency, there are divided opinions among the students. In addition, most respondents agree that the focus in both primary and secondary German lessons was on grammar and spelling rules and less on their active use in the spoken language. Also, from the received answers to the question posed about the method of teaching linguistic content, it is clear that the teaching of the content from the textbooks was, as a rule, taught according to the principle of reading, translating and memorizing, without repetitions in the form of dialogues and in some new communication situations. Thus, the present study can serve as a stimulus to think about more modern teaching methods, aiming at the development of communicative and pragmatic skills.