To Gender or Not to Gender?: Strategies for Teaching Gender‐Inclusive Language in the L2 German Classroom

ABSTRACT The lack of consensus about gender‐inclusive language (GIL) in German poses growing challenges for English‐speaking German as a foreign language (L2 German) students and instructors. Whereas students often struggle to convey the same gender sensitivity that is generally available in English into their second language (L2), instructors are equally under‐resourced about how to instruct students about various GIL discourses. This article provides a praxis‐oriented solution to begin to remedy the growing disparity in North American L2 German classrooms. It first highlights general issues surrounding GIL in the L2 German classroom, such as the generic masculine form and the lack of consensus about gender stars, colons, and pair forms among native speakers. It then suggests three guidelines for the instructor to support GIL in the classroom: (i) to rely on authentic materials, (ii) to design the class as a “language problem” that students solve, and (iii) to provide the learner with scaffolded, inductive support. Last, it provides a sample lesson that applies the three guidelines, which can serve as a basis for other German lessons that aim to teach GIL, as well as to provide support for other inclusive lessons for L2 classrooms that work within the framework of highly gendered languages.