Entwicklung der fachbezogenen Lesekompetenz für Studierende geisteswissenschaftlicher Fächer

DEVELOPMENT OF SUBJECT-RELATED READING SKILLS FOR HUMANITIES STUDENTS Students of philosophy and other humanities subjects learn German as a foreign language primarily to be able to read subject-related texts. Specially designed reading courses enable rapid progress towards the desired reading skills. In particular, subject-related texts offer the opportunity to understand contents in the foreign language more easily, i.e. to take advantage of the interactive process of reading, the interaction of prior knowledge and text data. Two different examples of course designs are presented in the article, from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Italian Universities of Venice and Padua. The following issues will be discussed: reading tasks and reading strategies, receptive grammar, vocabulary teaching (specific vs. general science vocabulary, exercises, use of concordance programs). The authors describe some possible paths to lead students of humanities (even beginners) to read challenging texts in German as a foreign language and to promote their (receptive) multilingualism.