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SvD Debatt 2024-08-30

Det räcker inte att använda digitala översättnings­tjänster eller AI. I stället bör fler lära sig nya språk för att få en bredare kompetens, skriver Maren Eckart och Anneli Fjordevik.

Learning outside the academic institution, or affinity-based informal learning, has been studied by various scholars (e.g., Paul Gee and Henry Jenkins). One place where this type of learning can occur is in online participatory fan culture activities, where fans create, for example, works of literature, films, and translations, as well as comment on one another’s work and teach one another.

In Sweden, very little research on fan culture as a place for collaborative learning has been conducted and existing research has mainly focused on high-school students (Olin-Scheller); therefore, our examination of fan culture activities and learning processes among university students will serve as in important contribution. The general purpose of our project is to find out more about informal learning activities that exist among our own students so that we can then apply that knowledge to our teaching and pedagogical methods as university teachers. We are interested to see how the practitioners themselves experience informal learning activities and how they benefit from these.

As such, a two-step project was designed: first, a questionnaire was distributed to all students of ten language departments at Dalarna University (2432 students). The questionnaire contained questions about the level of awareness of online fan activities and the degree of student participation in these activities. The second part of the project comprised qualitative interviews (in the autumn of 2013) of some of the students who responded to the survey. Here, we examine the kind of fan culture activities that they are consuming and the reasons for their participation. As well, we examine whether they think they have developed any language, cultural, or other skills and knowledge through the communities. In our paper we present the results of this study.

Ein Signum des digitalen Hochschulstudiums ist die Heterogenität; die Studierenden bringen oft sehr unterschiedliche Vorkenntnisse, Kompetenzen, Erwartungen und Lern- und Leistungsvoraussetzungen mit. Die Diversität der Teilnehmenden wird zudem im digitalen DaF-Sprachstudium dadurch verstärkt, dass sich die Kursteilnehmer*innen in ihrem Sprachniveau oft stark unterscheiden. Häufig besteht eine recht große sprachliche, kulturelle und individuelle Diversität in einer Gruppe. Heterogenität gehört nunmehr zur Normalität des Onelinestudiums. 

In diesem Beitrag werden die Ergebnisse einer Umfrage aus der Sicht der Studierenden über sprachlich heterogene Lerngruppen im digitalen Hochschulstudium im Fach Deutsch aus den Jahren 2019-2022 vorgestellt und diskutiert. In den befragten Gruppen gab es sowohl einen großen Anteil an Muttersprachler*innen (bis zu 50%), als auch Studierende auf A2-B1-Niveau. Es wurden unter allem Fragen an die Studierende zu Unterrichtsniveau, Diskussionsklima, negativen und positiven Aspekten der gemischten Gruppen und inwieweit man voneinander lernt, gestellt. Anschließend wird auch darüber reflektiert, inwieweit die Diversität didaktische Herausforderungen für die Lehrkräfte mit sich führt und wie man mit diesen umgehen kann.

This article is about the cultural and social formation of the self-image and the body of the young characters in Stefanie de Velasco’s youth novel Kein Teil der Welt, in which life as a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses and life outside of the religious group are discussed. The focus is on the body and the internal and external conflicts of “the people from the truth”, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses call themselves in the novel and on the emancipation process in a community in which strict control is exercised over the members – not least in terms of body, sexuality, and external appearances – and there is not much room for personal identity or an individual style. Furthermore, self-image and corporeality among the “world people” who do not belong to the religious community are analyzed. It is also discussed what happens to the characters when they cross the border between these two worlds.

In diesem Beitrag wird der Fokus auf die Erwachsenen und deren Rollen in Stefanie Höflers 2018 erschienenem Jugendroman Der grosse schwarze Vogel gerichtet. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf den schweigenden Vater des 14-jährigen Protagonisten nach dem plötzlichen Tod seiner Frau, wobei auch der Begriff Parentifizierung diskutiert wird. Untersucht wird auch die Rolle der Lehrkräfte und deren Positionierung; dabei stellt sich die Frage, ob und inwiefern ein Bedeutungs- und Identitätsverlust stattfindet und welche Auswirkungen dies für den Handlungsverlauf bzw. die Entwicklung der Hauptfigur hat. Es stellt sich mit anderen Worten die Frage nach der Relevanz und Funktion der anwesenden Erwachsenen. Des Weiteren werden konkrete Vorschläge gegeben, wie man mit dem Roman im DaF-Unterricht kreativ arbeiten kann, um die Kommunikation (oder nicht-Kommunikation) zwischen Erwachsenen und Jugendlichen näher zu beleuchten und zu diskutieren.

Im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert und Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde im deutschen Sprachraum streng zwischen Kunst und ,,Nicht-Kunst” bzw. Dilettantismus unterschieden, wobei das Werk des Dilettanten als unprofessionelles Produkt der Natur verstanden wurde. Da von  Berufsschriftstellerinnen noch nicht die Rede war, wurde somit im Prinzip die gesamte Literatur von Frauen dem Dilettantismus zugeordnet. Oft wurden die Werke der Schriftstellerinnen anonym oder unter Pseudonym publiziert. Mentoren haben sich eingemischt und versucht, den ,,unerfahrenen” weiblichen Schriftstellern ihre Stimmen zu verleihen. Immerhin gab es Frauen, die unter eigenem Namen publizierten und in Vorworten selbst zum Wort kamen. In diesem Beitrag werden einige ausgewählte Vorworte aus dieser Zeit ausgehend von Aleida Assmanns Terminologie der starken und schwachen Autorschaft analysiert, um ein Bild davon zu vermitteln, wie die schreibenden Frauen selbst ihr Schriftstellertum aufgefasst haben.

Que Du Luu’s autobiographical youth adult novel Im Jahr des Affen (2016) is about search for identity and being different without feeling different. The 16-year-old main character Mini has Chinese roots, came to Germany as a small child as Vietnamese boat people and describes herself as a banana: yellow on the outside and white on the inside. She lives with her father in a shabby high-rise building in Herford where the father runs a Chinese restaurant and spends most of his time. The employees in the restaurant are also closely linked to the history of the Vietnamese boat people and the restaurant by this means reflect experiences of flight, foreignness, and homelessness. The visit of a Chinese uncle, who lives in Australia, strengthens the Chinese identity of the father and the expectations on Mini to preserve her Chinese identity and language are further reinforced.

This paper explores the fact that not only people but also ideas, memories, and images of identity cross borders and are established beyond the border lines (Nyman & Schimanski 2021). Narratives thus remain in the minds of the refugees and once they have arrived, they construct new configurations of belonging and becoming (Brambilla 2015). This affects the next generation as the refugees might have certain expectations of their children to preserve their original identity, language and belonging, regardless of whether the children have ever been in the home country or not. The next generation of the refugees may find themselves in a third space, caught between the “old” and “new” world. At the same time, they are expected to preserve their first language and cultural traditions and pass them on to future generations. Mini does not remember being in a refugee camp and the escape over the sea, even though these circumstances affect her entire life and shape her identity through transgenerational memories (Assmann 2006). In the eyes of other Chinese people, she cannot be anything else than Chinese and she must deal with a – to her - constructed image and narrative of Germanness and Chineseness/otherness and the dichotomic order that confines migrants to certain (constructed) social environments. In other words, this article highlights the voice of the next generation in migrant literature, and it pays particular attention to hybridity, inter- and transgenerational memories, and the expectations that migrant children live with.

In his children’s books, Peter HÄRTLING often deals with children in exposed situations. One could askwhether or not this theme and the related problems are suitable for children. This paper examines the issues of what is meant by children’s and youth literature and what criteria there are for children’s literature. It includes an analysis of the adjustments of literature offered to young readers, using the example of Das war der Hirbel, written in 1973 by Peter Härtling. The point of departure for this analysis is the categories developed by Hans-Heino Ewers in 2000. These consist of paratextual, linguistic and stylistic, formal, thematic and normative adaptations, as well as adaptations regarding genre and content.

Mit Hilfe der digitalen Technik haben heute auch Laien die Möglichkeit, eigene Texte, Filme, Spiele, Musikstücke usw. im Internet zu „publizieren“ und somit mit professionellen Kulturproduzenten zu konkurrieren. Die Grenze zwischen Produzenten und Zuschauern bzw. Konsumenten ist durch diese „Mitmachkultur“ (participatory culture) erheblich verändert worden. Ein Bereich, der mit dem Heranwachsen des Internets große Verbreitung gefunden hat, ist die Fanfiktion. Fanfiktion sind Texte, die von einer existierenden literarischen Welt ausgehen. Es handelt sich dabei oft um Fantasy-Welten, aber auch klassisch kanonisierte Werke wie Stolz und Vorurteil, Lolita, Faust oder sogar die Bibel kommen vor. Diese werden auf irgendeine Weise weitergeführt, indem der Fanfiktion-Verfasser mit dem existierenden Text einfach fortfährt, ihn aus anderen Perspektiven als die ursprüngliche erzählt oder Charaktere weiterentwickelt, die in der Vorlage Nebenrollen einnahmen.

In diesem Beitrag wird mit Ausgangspunkt in der Fanfiktion-Webseite www.fanfiktion.de die Rolle der Fanfiktion im Allgemeinen und die metatextuelle Dimension der Fanfiktion-Texte zur phantastischen Jugendromanreihe der Tintenwelt-Trilogie (Tintenherz 2003, Tintenblut 2005 und Tintentod 2007) von Cornelia Funke im Besonderen diskutiert. Vor den Fanfiktion-Texten steht meistens ein Kommentar des jeweiligen Verfassers zum „publizierten“ Beitrag. Ausgehend von diesen author‘s notes wird die Annäherung der Fanfiktion-Schreiber und -Schreiberinnen zur Vorlage erläutert; wie sie sich dazu verhalten und wie sie ihre Rolle in der Beziehung zwischen den literarischen Vorlagen und ihren „neuen“ Texten betrachten, kurz ihre Rolle im Grenzland zwischen Leser- und Verfasserschaft.

At the Dalarna University (Sweden), which is specialized in online education, there has been a three-year research project called “Informal Learning Environment”, which explored the educational aspects of fan activities and possible ways to apply them in foreign language and literature courses. One part of the project was a study, conducted in two stages. First, an online questionnaire survey on the language student’s awareness about online fan activities, as well as their participation in those, was carried out. In the second stage, seven students that were actively participating in various fan activities were interviewed. The interviews examined the qualitative aspects of the participants’ involvement in fan communities with four different question areas: In what kind of fan activities do they participate?; Why do they participate, and what makes participation attractive to them?; What kind of knowledge and skills (such as language or cultural or other skills) do they think they have developed through participation?; and do they think it is possible to apply this mechanism of informal learning to the university courses? We also asked whether they see any connection between informal learning in the fan communities and their learning at university / college.During the project (which includes the actual application of some fan activities to the courses), various educational elements of fan activities have become clear. In this proposed paper we do the final analysis of the aforementioned study with a focus on the curiosity and playfulness that we could see in this informal learning. Based on the interviews, we will analyze the motivation / mechanism for the intensive learning processes that seem to take place outside the classroom.

The presentation discusses a possible way of adapting internet fan activities to the academic level online education. At the Dalarna University (Sweden), which is specialized in online education, there was a three-year project called “Informal Learning Environment”, which explored the educational aspects of fan activities, and the possible ways to apply them in language (French, German, Japanese, Portuguese) and literature courses.

The educational effects of fan activities are mentioned by various authors (e.g. James Paul Gee), and we focused on two activities, Fan Fiction and Scanlation.

In the Fan Fiction exercise, the students in French and German Literature had an introduction on Fan Fiction, then were asked to choose one of the literary works studied during the semester, and write a short fictional story based on it. Each student uploaded his/her text to the learning platform and then received peer-feedback from others.

In the Scanlation exercise, a group work was designed for the Translation course (Japanese-English translation). Students formed groups of threes and fours and each group translated two different chapters from Shisso Nikki, a manga by Hideo Aduma. They had two weeks to work together, and then the translations were uploaded to the learning platform. Each student then gave comment and feedback to the chapters translated by other groups.

In all courses, students were asked to evaluate the activities afterwards. The evaluation focused on if they enjoyed the activity, what they learned, and what the peer-feedback meant to them. Since we teach only online courses, the web-based interaction becomes very central. This is also the case in fan communities. Therefore, our hypothesis is that connecting fan activities with web-based teaching may be a way to develop and improve the formal academic learning environment.

Fan culture is a subculture that has developed explosively on the internet over the last decades. Fans are creating their own films, translations, fiction, fan art, blogs, role play and also various forms that are all based on familiar popular culture creations like TV-series, bestsellers, anime, manga stories and games. In our project, we analyze two of these subculture genres, fan fiction and scanlation.

Amateurs, and sometimes professional writers, create new stories by adapting and developing existing storylines and characters from the original. In this way, a "network" of texts occurs, and writers step into an intertextual dialogue with established writers such as JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and Stephanie Meyer (Twilight). Literary reception and creation then merge into a rich reciprocal creative activity which includes comments and feedback from the participators in the community.

The critical attitude of the fans regarding quality and the frustration at waiting for the official translation of manga books led to the development of scanlation, which is an amateur translation of manga distributed on the internet. 

Today, young internet users get involved in conceptual discussions of intertextuality and narrative structures through fan activity. In the case of scanlation, the scanlators practice the skills and techniques of translating in an informal environment. This phenomenon of participatory culture has been observed by scholars and it is concluded that they contribute to the development of a student’s literacy and foreign language skills. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the fandom related to Japanese cultural products such as manga, anime and videogames is one of the strong motives for foreign students to start learning Japanese.

This is something to take into pedagogical consideration when we develop web-based courses. Fan fiction and fan culture make it ​​possible to have an intensive transcultural dialogue between participators throughout the world and is of great interest when studying the interaction between formal and informal learning that puts the student in focus

NGL-projekt vid Högskolan Dalarna inom språkavdelningen som handlar om informella internetbaserade lärmiljöer.