Elaborating Reading Strategies in Textbooks (German as a Foreign Language)

Abstract

With the development of globalization, foreign language acquisition plays an increasingly important role in everyday life, in order to communicate fluently with each other without obstacles and to get to know a new culture. Reading comprehension is an indispensable skill in foreign language teaching. The question of how reading strategies can support and optimize reading comprehension in foreign language teaching has been a controversial and popular topic of discussion in the scientific field of "German as a foreign language" for almost four decades. It is assumed that reading strategies can positively influence reading comprehension and reading competence. Nowadays, the mediation and embedding of reading strategies in foreign language teaching and curriculum are mandatory and helpful. The use of reading strategies is assigned a meaningful task in DaF (German as a foreign language) textbooks within the framework of systematic training. The present article provides a theoretical overview of the elaborative reading strategies. In between, they are presented in detail.