LANGE A. THE TOPIC “CHRISTMAS” AT GERMAN LESSONS.

Abstract

The whole year language learners have to deal with phonetics, grammar, syntax … That means that we can do something nice at the end of the year! The article will show methods and exercises how teachers can create a certain “Christmas atmosphere” in the classroom. The article will show possibilities how to deal with the topic from a linguistic point of view, e.g. when there are which holidays in Germany? How does a traditional German Christmas holiday look like? What typical Christmas traditions are there in Austria and Switzerland? Also there will be shown what traditions exist in some regions in Germany (Bundesländer). The article wants to encourage German teacher to deal with the topic “Christmas”. According to different language levels the teacher can be very inventive and creative. With younger learners a bakery lesson or a singing lesson could be done, with learners at the language level of B2 and higher there should be more discussions at the lessons. The topic of Christmas and its controversies is excellent also for elder learners. Many teachers are afraid of the topic Christmas with older learners because they are afraid to have a “too childish” lesson.