Educating for Change’ through Children’s Literature: Developing Intercultural Awareness among German Level A1 Learners in Indonesia
Keywords:
SDG 4 – Quality Education, Children’s Literature, Intercultural Awareness, German Language EducationAbstract
Reflecting the vision of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to promote inclusive and equitable quality education. this study explores the potential of children’s literature as a medium for developing intercultural awareness among beginner learners of German (A1 level) in Indonesia. Learning German cannot be separated from the development of linguistic competence, intercultural understanding, but it is also regarded as an integral part of education for sustainable development. Drawing on Target 4.7 of SDG 4 and the concept of intercultural communicative competence, this paper argues that language learning should not only build linguistic skills but also nurture empathy, tolerance, and global citizenship. Through the integration of selected German children’s stories, students engage in linguistic practice, cultural comparison, and reflective learning that connect language and culture meaningfully. The article addresses two questions: (1) How can children’s literature foster intercultural awareness among German A1 learners in Indonesia? and (2) What teaching strategies can effectively integrate children’s literature to enhance intercultural learning in the German A1 classroom? Finally, it can be said that children literature serves as an effective medium to link language learning with cultural understanding in the German A1 classroom. Using children literature and cultural reflection, learners build linguistic competence, develop empathy and intercultural awareness in line with the vision of SDG 4.
References
Bland, J. (2013). Children’s literature and learner empowerment: Children and teenagers in English language education. Bloomsbury.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters.
Kramsch, C. (1993). Context and culture in language teaching. Oxford University Press.
Kramsch, C. (2021). Language as symbolic power. Cambridge University Press.
Lazar, G. (1993). Literature and language teaching: A guide for teachers and trainers. Cambridge University Press.
Setiawan, H. (2020). Reconsidering cultural aspects in foreign language education in Indonesia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 275–284.
Shaules, J. (2019). Language, culture, and the embodied mind: A developmental model of intercultural learning. Springer.
UNESCO. (2017). Education for Sustainable Development Goals: Learning objectives.
UNESCO. (2020). Education for sustainable development: A roadmap. UNESCO Publishing.
Z. G. Shemshadsara (2012). Developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching,” English Lang. Teach., vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 95–99, 2012, doi: 10.5539/elt.v5n3p95.
M. SARR (2023) Die Frage kultureller Identitäten in DaF-Lehrwerken: das Beispiel von IHR und WIR Plus,” Langues Cult., vol. 4, no. 02, pp. 244–257, 2023, doi: 10.62339/jlc.v4i02.208.
