Procedure:
- The instructor describes a situation that entails a certain potential for conflict or tension. Examples:
a) In school, two students quarrel because one of them inadvertently broke the other student’s pencil.
b) In their spare time, two native children or adolescents mock two migrants.
c) While on vacation in her country of origin, a young girl is made fun of by two youths who live there.
d) Over dinner at home, a child asks for something that her parents absolutely do not want (e. g. get a dog, or go to the disco). - Group or class discussions about how the students would react in this situation. Possible questions and prompts: How would you feel in this situation? What thoughts occur to you? How would you conduct yourself concretely? What kinds or realistic solutions are there?
- Perhaps include a round of discussions about language means, if needed. See “remarks” on the following page.
- Engage in a short discussion about which criteria should be observed in the individual presentations (e. g. plausibility of the solution; quality of the language; understandability, etc.).The criteria should be transparent and known by all students. For working with criteria matrices that are appropriate for this case, see chapter 3d in the introduction.
- The students are divided into groups (or they form groups of their own). They have 10–15 minutes to prepare their presentation. The presentation should take no more than 5–8 minutes.
- The groups dramatize their solutions. Following each presentation (or at the end of the exercise, if there are few groups) the other students provide the criteria-oriented feedback.
Variants:
- Instead of a narrative, a picture that portrays a suspenseful situation may also serve as an introduction and directive for the exercise.
- Other scenarios may, of course, also be suggested by the students.
Comments:
- Following the discussion and depending on the topic, it can be useful to add a review of language means which are needed for the corresponding scene. This can include topic-specific vocabulary or otherwise useful language means for argumentation purposes. See also 1c in the introduction.
- Suggestions that require a conflict resolution are particulary useful to further the social competence; see also volume 4 “Intercultural competences”, #1.5, 2.6, 4.7, 5.2, 5.5, 5.7 and 6.7.