Eleven pets and 20 ways to express one's opinion: the vocabulary learners of German acquire at English secondary schools

Abstract

This article investigates the vocabulary of textbooks and relates it to education policy, assessment methods and teaching methods. It considers the range of vocabulary covered by key stages 3 and 4 German foreign language textbooks for secondary schools from the beginning of the 1990s to 2006 and shows that there is an overall decrease in the vocabulary throughout this period, as well as an imbalance, which means that pupils acquire detailed knowledge of the vocabulary of certain semantic fields, while other essential vocabulary is neglected. This article proposes changes in the type of vocabulary that is covered by textbooks, and in teaching methods, in order to encourage and facilitate independent language use.