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FIGURES
Figure 1: Distribution of the focus group according to grade, group
and gender ... 21
Figure 2: Distribution of the focus group according to age ... 21
Figure 3: Distribution of students according to when they started
learning English at school, divided by G8 and G9 ... 23
Figure 4: Distribution of students according to the frequency of
reading English literature during their leisure time. ... 24
Figure 5: Correlation between the exam marks and the report
marks... 30
Figure 6: Error ratio values of G8 and G9 students ... 34
Figure 7: Correlation between total number of written words and
total number of produced mistakes ... 36
Figure 8: Correlation between the mean error ratio and the exam
marks... 37
Figure 9: Correlation between the mean error ratio and the number
of achieved points for linguistic accuracy ... 43
Figure 10: Correlation between the students' linguistic accuracy and
their overall linguistic performance, measured in points ... 44
Figure 11: Correlation between linguistic accuracy and the total
number of points achieved ... 44
Figure 12: Correlation between the extent to which students enjoy
English lessons at school and how much they like
speaking English in general ... 46
Figure 13: Correlation between the extent to which students read
English literature during their leisure time and their mean
error ratio in the investigated exam ... 47
Figure 14: Correlation between the duration of the longest stay in an
English speaking country and the mean error ratio ... 48
Figure 15: Distribution of students according to when they started
studying English at school ... 52
Figure 16: Correlation between when students started learning
English at school and their mean error ratio ... 53
TABLES
Table 1:
Comparison of the North-Rhine Westphalian G8 and G9
school system ... 7
Table 2:
Interpretation of the correlation coefficient r ... 19
Table 3:
Mark distribution of the investigated exam ... 26
Table 4:
Point distribution of the investigated exam ... 28
Table 5:
Mark distribution of the final report ... 29
Table 6:
Average values of the students' total number of words
produced, divided by age, group and gender ... 31
Table 7:
A first overview of the error ratio values ... 33
Table 8:
Average values of the students' error ratio, divided by
age, group and gender ... 35
Table 9:
Average number of orthographical mistakes per 100
words, divided by age, group and gender ... 39
Table 10: Average number of grammatical mistakes per 100 words,
divided by age, group and gender ... 39
Table 11: Average number of lexical mistakes per 100 words,
divided by age, group and gender ... 40
Table 12: Average number of points achieved, divided by age,
group and gender ... 42
Table 13: Overview of error ratios, divided by students who have
studied for this exam and those who have not ... 49
FOREIGN TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS
Term Description
Abitur
Highest degree which students can
achieve at the end of the upper secon-
dary level at a German Gymnasium;
Compulsory precondition to enter univer-
sity.
Doppeljahrgang
In North-Rhine Westphalia, two grades
will graduate in 2013 due to the reduction
of the duration of compulsory schooling
at the Gymnasium.
G8
According to the new school system, the
duration of general schooling at a Gym-
nasium in North-Rhine Westphalia is lim-
ited to only eight years.
G9
According to the old school system, the
duration of general schooling at a Gym-
nasium in North-Rhine Westphalia was
nine years.
Gymnasium
German type of school which offers sec-
ondary, pre-university schooling.
Kernlehrpläne
New form of core curricula implemented
in North-Rhine Westphalia in 2004.
Lernstandserhebungen
Comparative exams which are conducted
in all main subjects in order to find out
about the current competences of stu-
dents for the purpose of quality assur-
ance of the German school system.
Prep phase
First year of the upper secondary level at
the Gymnasium.
Regierungsbezirk
Subdivision of a German federal state.
1. Introduction
In Germany, education matters lie within the scope of each of the 16
German federal states. Consequently, there is no unique educational
system which is valid for the entire Federal Republic of Germany, but 16
individual ones. However, a German-wide basic framework, including
regulations about the compulsory school attendance for instance, does
exist (Hamburger Abendblatt, January 2, 2009).
The duration of compulsory schooling until passing the Abitur at the
Gymnasium, however, is not regulated by this framework, but belongs to
the power of decision of each federal state. For instance, in Thuringia
and Saxony, the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium
has been limited to eight years, as it was already the case before the re-
unification of Germany in 1990. In the other federal states, like North-
Rhine Westphalia for example, the duration of compulsory schooling at
the Gymnasium included an additional ninth year, resulting in the fact
that the students attended the Gymnasium from grade 5 until grade 13.
Nevertheless, in 2001, the ministry of education of the federal state
Saarland decided for a reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling
at the Gymnasium by one year. By now, all the other federal states have
followed and therefore also made the decision for a reduced duration of
only eight years at the Gymnasium (Scholter, 2008).
After many heated discussions, also the North-Rhine Westphalian minis-
try of education decided for a reduction of the duration of compulsory
schooling at the Gymnasium. As a consequence of this decision, stu-
dents of two grades (G8 and G9 students) entered the upper secondary
level at all North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien on August 31
st
, 2010
(Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-
Westfalen, n.d.a). The students of this so-called Doppeljahrgang will all
graduate in 2013 and therefore all of them will have to pass the same
Abitur exams. Hence, it must be guaranteed that G8 students have the
same preconditions as G9 students, despite having one year less of
general schooling before graduating.
1
Since no students
1
have entered the upper secondary level after only
five years at the Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia before 2010,
empirical research in this area is hardly available by now. Nevertheless,
this Doppeljahrgang offers the unique chance of directly comparing G8
and G9 students in order to find out in how far the new G8 system was
implemented successfully or not.
Especially in the context of learning foreign languages it might be
doubted that one year less of learning the foreign language can be eas-
ily compensated. Whereas the teaching of new grammatical aspects
used to be completed mainly by the end of the intermediate secondary
level also according to the old G9 system, other aspects, such as vo-
cabulary, only develop over time. Therefore, it is of interest to find out in
how far the new G8 system was successfully implemented into the con-
cept of teaching English as a foreign language at the Gymnasium.
On the basis of the lack of empirical research, a case study concerning
the English foreign language classroom was conducted, which is the
core of this thesis. For practicability and comparability reasons, this case
study was mainly focused on linguistic accuracy. Thus, the aim was to
find out in how far the current grade 10 G8 students managed to catch
up with the current grade 11 G9 students with regard to linguistic accu-
racy in the English language. The underlying assumption is that, since
vocabulary for instance develops over time, G8 students are not as lin-
guistically accurate as G9 students by the end of the prep phase of the
upper secondary level.
In order to provide the reader first of all with the necessary theoretical
background knowledge, an overview of what linguistic accuracy actually
refers to and how it can be measured is shown in Chapter 2. Further-
more, the main information on when, how and why the reduction of the
duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium was conducted in
North-Rhine Westphalia and how it affected the English lessons will be
presented. In Chapter 3, the aim and methodology of the preliminary
1
Except for students from very few test schools which started the eight-years-program one year
in advance.
2
study will be explained before the presentation of the main outcomes.
Moreover, tentative explanations for those results will be discussed.
Chapter 4 will then present an outlook in which advantages and disad-
vantages of the present case study will be discussed. Finally, in Chapter
5, the main results of the present case study will be summarised with the
intention to evaluate in how far further research in this field is recom-
mendable.
3
2. Theory
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with the essential
theoretical background knowledge for the underlying case study of this
thesis. The aim of this case study was to find out in how far students of
the new G8 system could manage to reach the same level as students
of the old G9 system by the end of the prep phase of the upper secon-
dary level with regard to linguistic accuracy in the English language.
Thus, it is first of all important to understand what linguistic accuracy re-
fers to and why it should be measured, which will be addressed in this
chapter. Additionally, an overview will be given of when, how and why
the new G8 school system for the North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien
was implemented. Moreover, a comparison of the old G9 core curricu-
lum and the new G8 core curriculum for teaching English as a foreign
language will be presented.
2.1. What is linguistic accuracy and why should it be measured?
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2005, p.11), the
term accuracy refers to "the state of being exact or correct" or "the ability
to do something skilfully without making mistakes". Since this definition
is quite broad and can be applied for any context, the following, more
specified, definition by Wolfe-Quintero, Inagaki, and Kim (1998) will
serve as the underlying definition of linguistic accuracy for this thesis:
"[A]ccuracy is the ability to be free from errors while using language to
communicate in either writing or speech".
In terms of foreign language learning and teaching, reaching a native
speaker's level with the main focus on linguistic accuracy has been the
goal for many years. Therefore, corrections of the linguistic aspects for
exams were merely based on the number of mistakes produced per 100
words. This, however, is totally outdated nowadays. "The Common
European Framework [...] describes intercultural communicative compe-
tence (ICC) as the main goal of foreign language learning" (Müller-
4
Hartmann & Ditfurth, 2009). But does that imply that linguistic accuracy
is not included at all in the context of learning and teaching a foreign
language anymore? Taking into consideration what intercultural com-
municative competence refers to, the answer to this question definitely
has to be "no". The model of intercultural communicative competence
proposed by Celce-Murcia (2007) for instance shows the integration of
six competences: strategic-, discourse-, formulaic-, socio-cultural-, inter-
actional-, and linguistic competence. According to this model, those
competences are all interconnected and essential to be acquired in the
process of foreign language learning. Consequently, linguistic accuracy
is, among others, one essential factor in the process of becoming profi-
cient in a foreign language and therefore has to be integrated into teach-
ing a foreign language as well. However, since it is no longer the main
focus of foreign language teaching, it is important to find the right bal-
ance, which often turns out to be quite a challenge for many teachers.
To underline the importance of linguistic accuracy as well as its connec-
tion with content, the following example will serve: The two sentences "I
have been together with my boyfriend for three years" and "I was to-
gether with my boyfriend for three years" on first sight do not hint at any
lack of linguistic accuracy. The only difference observable is the use of
different past tense forms. Whereas the verb is used in present perfect
in the first sentence, it is used in the simple past form in the second one.
Both sentences are grammatically and linguistically correct. Though, the
first sentence implies that the speaker is still together with her boyfriend.
In contrast to that does the usage of the verb in the simple past form in
the second sentence indicate that the relationship lasted three years but
is over now. In this respect, the usage of two different forms of express-
ing the past changes the content completely, which emphasizes the im-
portance of being linguistically accurate in communicative situations in
order to prevent misunderstandings.
To put it in a nutshell, it is true that accuracy generally represents a point
at issue and should not be foregrounded in teaching English as a foreign
language. However, even though linguistic accuracy is no longer the
5
main focus of foreign language teaching and learning, it is still an inte-
gral part of it and must be highly considered in the foreign language
classroom. Neglecting linguistic accuracy can lead to misunderstandings
while communicating in the foreign language, which thus should be
avoided. In order to find out about the level of linguistic accuracy of stu-
dents, it is important to apply a suitable method of measuring linguistic
accuracy. Whereas the mere information of the error ratio at the end of
an exam is no longer sufficient as correction method, it is still a good
measurement to gain a first impression of the students' linguistic accu-
racy level. The methodology applied to measure linguistic accuracy for
the underlying case study of this thesis will be explained in Chapter
3.1.2.
2.2. The North-Rhine Westphalian school system
"Die Schulzeitverkürzung ist für die Gymnasien die vielleicht größte pä-
dagogische und organisatorische Herausforderung der vergangenen
Jahre" (Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-
Westfalen, n.d.b).
After giving an overview of when, how and why the reduction of the du-
ration of compulsory schooling at North-Rhine Westphalian Gymnasien
was carried out, a comparison of the G8 and G9 core curricula for teach-
ing English should provide information in how far this reduced duration
of compulsory schooling affected the English foreign language class-
room.
2.2.1.
The change from G9 to G8
The following paragraph is mainly based on the texts "Die gymnasiale
Oberstufe an Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen in Nordrhein-Westfalen.
Informationen für Schülerinnen und Schüler, die im Jahr 2010 in die
gymnasiale Oberstufe eintreten."(Ministerium für Schule und
Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 2009a) and "Das acht-
jährige Gymnasium in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Schulzeitverkürzung ge-
6
lingt."(Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-
Westfalen, 2009b).
After many years of discussion, the final decision to change the North-
Rhine Westphalian school system was made in 2004: The German
school form Gymnasium was changed from a nine-years-program to an
eight-years-program in North-Rhine Westphalia. In January 2005, the
North-Rhine Westphalian federal state government adopted the reduc-
tion of the compulsory schooling duration at the Gymnasium in the
school law. Students starting their time at a Gymnasium in the summer
of 2005 were the first students
2
in North-Rhine Westphalia who would
pass the Abitur after only eight years studying at a Gymnasium. That is
where the term G8 originates from.
Nevertheless, reducing the duration of compulsory schooling at the
Gymnasium by one year cannot be done by simply getting rid of the last
year. The following Table 1 shows the main differences between the old
G9 system and the new G8 system:
Table 1: Comparison of the North-Rhine Westphalian G8 and G9 school
system
G9
G8
Lower Secondary
Level
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 5
Grade 6
Intermediate Se-
condary Level
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Upper Secondary
Level
Grade 11
(prep phase)
Grade 12 and 13
(qualification phase)
Grade 10
(prep phase)
Grade 11 and 12
(qualification phase)
Source: Adapted from Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen (2009b).
The main difference, as indicated in Table 1, is that the intermediate
secondary level was reduced from four years to three years, which re-
2
Except for students from very few test schools which started the eight-years-program one year
in advance.
7
sults in the fact that students of the new G8 system graduate one year
earlier than students from the old G9 system and consequently can en-
ter university after only 12 years of general schooling.
The reason for Germany, and in this case especially North-Rhine West-
phalia, to decide for a one year reduction of compulsory schooling at the
Gymnasium was mainly the intention to keep pace with the competition:
In fact, students from other European countries are on average only 17
years old when starting university whereas German students, according
to the G9 system, were at least 18, often even 19 years old. In order to
stay competitive, the North-Rhine Westphalian ministry of education
made the decision to reduce the duration of compulsory schooling at the
Gymnasium after long discussions and under consideration of all posi-
tive aspects as well as the negative ones.
In his famous speech "Aufbruch ins 21. Jahrhundert" (Herzog, 1997),
Roman Herzog, the president of the Federal Republic of Germany at
that time, already wondered how children from other very efficient coun-
tries could already graduate from school at the age of 17 and graduate
from university at the age of 24. He called it lost and stolen time of our
young population and questioned why it should not be possible to pass
the Abitur in Germany after only 12 years, as the following excerpt of his
speech shows:
Wie kommt es, dass die leistungsfähigsten Nationen in der Welt es
schaffen, ihre Kinder die Schulen mit siebzehn und die Hochschulen
mit vierundzwanzig abschließen zu lassen? Es sind wohlgemerkt ge-
rade diese Länder, die auf dem Weltmarkt der Bildung am attraktivs-
ten sind. Warum soll nicht auch in Deutschland ein Abitur in zwölf
Jahren zu machen sein? Für mich persönlich sind die Jahre, die un-
seren jungen Leuten bisher verloren gehen, gestohlene Lebenszeit
(Herzog, 1997).
In fact, the results of Lernstandserhebungen and comparative exams at
the end of the intermediate secondary level of the last years, in which
students from different types of schools, including the Gymnasium, par-
ticipated, proved that students from the Gymnasium outperformed the
students from all the other types of schools. Accordingly, a reduction of
the duration of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium seemed to be
appropriate since students from a Gymnasium actually fulfilled the re-
8
quirements of successfully finishing the intermediate secondary level
much earlier.
Nevertheless, this reduction of compulsory schooling could not be real-
ised by simply dividing the content of the missing year by the other eight
remaining school years, a whole new system had to be implemented.
How the reduction was realised for each subject can be observed best
by comparing the old core curriculum to the new one. A comparison of
the old and the new core curricula for teaching English as a foreign lan-
guage will be presented in the following Chapter 2.2.2.
Critics of the G8 system did not only see the problem of integrating the
content of the missing year into the remaining eight school years, how-
ever, they also put forward the argument that students would spend
much more time at school and therefore would not have time for other
activities, such as playing an instrument or doing sports anymore.
It is true that the number of lessons per week in terms of the G8 system
had to be raised; however, the dimension of it is not as high as criticised.
Since more than six lessons (each lesson lasting 45 minutes) in the
morning and more than eight lessons per day at school are not appro-
priate from a pedagogical point of view, lessons in the afternoon are un-
avoidable in the new system. However, the number of days with lessons
in the afternoon is limited and according to the age: Whereas grade 5
and grade 6 students do not have to attend afternoon lessons more than
once per week, students of grade 7 and grade 8 spend two afternoons
per week at school in the maximum. In this way, the increase of lessons
per day mainly affects the older students: While G9 students had on av-
erage 30 lessons per week during the prep phase (grade 11) and be-
tween 28 and 31 lessons per week during the qualification phase (grade
12 and grade 13), G8 students have on average 34 lessons per week
during the prep phase (grade 10) as well as during the qualification
phase (grade 11 and grade 12) with a range of 32 up to 36 lessons per
week each year.
In order to minimize the pressure on students best possible, the ministry
of education proposed a change from a 45-minute-lesson system to a
9
60-minute- or even up to 90-minute-lesson system. Consequently, the
number of different subjects for students per day would be reduced and
teachers would have more chances to integrate practical units into their
lessons since they simply would have more time per lesson. However,
the decision to change the schedule system lies in the scope of decision
of each school individually.
Since an increase of lessons per day also affects the remaining time for
homework, rules, such as forbidding teachers to ask for homework from
one day to the next when students have lessons in the afternoon, were
compulsorily introduced. In this way, the strain on students, especially
on the younger ones, should be reduced. In addition, the time for home-
work in grade 5 and 6 is now limited to maximal 90 minutes per day, in
grade 7 and 8 to maximal 120 minutes per day.
As the overview of the main changes from the G9 to the G8 system in
this chapter has shown, the strain on students has increased due to the
reduction of compulsory schooling at the Gymnasium by one year, for
instance by a higher number of lessons per week; however, adjustments
of homework regulations and afternoon lessons were implemented in
order to keep the pressure on students to a very minimum.
2.2.2.
A comparison of the G8 and G9 core curricula
The new form of core curricula (the so-called Kernlehrpläne) was intro-
duced in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2004 and serves as a guideline for
schools and teachers. Those core curricula are based on competences
which students should reach according to the national educational stan-
dards, on which the conference of ministers for the arts and culture has
agreed on. The core curriculum gives an overview of the expected com-
petences by the end of the intermediate secondary level in general, but
also regulates the expectations of which competences should be
reached by the end of each grade (Ministerium für Schule und
Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, n.d.c).
10
In this manner, this chapter will show a comparison of the G9 and the
G8 core curricula for teaching English as a foreign language in order to
point out how the reduction of the duration of compulsory schooling was
integrated into the concept of teaching English at the Gymnasium.
Therefore, this chapter is based on the official core curricula for G8 and
G9, published by the Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des
Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (n.d.c).
Whereas the expectations of students' competences by the end of grade
6, grade 8, and grade 10 are described in the G9 core curriculum, in the
G8 core curriculum those expectations are pointed out for the end of
grade 6, grade 8 and grade 9, due to the fact that grade 10 already be-
longs to the upper secondary level.
With regard to the expectations for the competences which should be
reached by the end of grade 6, no differences can be observed, except
for two insignificant ones. Strikingly at this point is that both curricula
provide for the fact that English teachers should make use of the already
available foreign language knowledge of students. However, since 2003,
students have been taking English lessons compulsory from grade 3
onwards at primary school, and since 2009 even from grade 1 onwards
(Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes Nordrhein-
Westfalen, 2010). Consequently, G9 students usually did not have any
exposure to the English language at primary school before entering the
Gymnasium, whereas G8 students have at least two years, soon already
even four years. This was obviously totally neglected by the adjustment
of the core curricula since the expectations for the competences which
should be reached by the end of grade 6 were not changed. On the one
hand this disregard can be justified by that teaching foreign languages to
primary school students should primarily serve the motivational aspect
of a language; on the other hand, however, with regard to the fact that a
complete year of learning the language at the Gymnasium was reduced
according to the G8 system, a further adaptation to the fact that students
start studying the language now 4 years earlier should be considered.
11
In both, the G8 and the G9, core curricula the level A2 with parts of the
level B1 of the Common European Framework (the Europe-wide guide-
line for recognizing language qualities) is described as the goal of what
students should reach by the end of grade 8. There are small dissimilari-
ties with regard to the content concerning what should be acquired by
the end of grade 8: For instance, according to the G9 core curriculum,
the school system of the USA or Australia should be exemplary investi-
gated. The G8 core curriculum in contrast leaves more space in that it
should be the school system of either the USA or any other English-
speaking country. In this way, teachers and students have more oppor-
tunities to make their own choice on which English-speaking country
they want to deal with. In general, however, a comparison of the ex-
pected competences by the end of grade 8 shows mainly accordance.
Especially important to mention, since linguistic accuracy is the main fo-
cus of the case study underlying this thesis, is that the expected linguis-
tic competences are exactly the same for both core curricula.
As far as the next level, the competences expected by the end of grade
9 (G8) and grade 10 (G9), are concerned, major differences can be ob-
served. Grade 9 students of the G8 system are supposed to reach the
level B1 according to the CEF, while grade 10 students of the G9 sys-
tem are supposed to reach parts of the level B2 (especially with regard
to receptive competences) in addition. Consequently, those different
levels of G8 and G9 students have to be adapted during the prep phase
of the upper secondary level, since in 2013 the first G8 and the last G9
students will have to pass the same Abitur exams. Nevertheless, a com-
parison of the core curricula concerning writing competences, which
should be acquired by the end of the intermediate secondary level, does
not show any significant differences. Hence, the logical consequence
would be that G8 and G9 students are actually on the same level con-
cerning linguistic accuracy in written English. Since this, however, was
often doubted by many critics of the new G8 system, the following Chap-
ter 3 should provide a first impression of empirical research in this field.
12
3. Preliminary
Study
The aim of this thesis, as already pointed out in Chapter 1, was to get a
first impression of in how far the new G8 system was implemented suc-
cessfully with regard to the English foreign language classroom concern-
ing the students' linguistic accuracy. For that reason, a case study was
conducted. This chapter is divided into three main parts: Chapter 3.1
first of all gives an insight into the aim and methodology of this case
study. In a next step, the outcomes of the case study will be presented
in Chapter 3.2 before the presentation of tentative explanations for those
results in Chapter 3.3.
3.1. Aim
and
Methodology
In this chapter, the aim and methodology, on which this case study is
based, will be introduced. In a first step, the motivation for this case
study will be explained. Afterwards, a description of the procedure of the
data acquirement and the main methodology for the data analysis fol-
lows. At the end, the target group of this case study will be presented
with distinctions according to the different groups, gender and grade.
3.1.1.
Motivation for the case study
The starting point for this thesis was a number of heated discussions
about the change of the North-Rhine Westphalian school system. Both,
the old G9 system and the new G8 system of the Gymnasium do not
only have supporters but opponents as well. However, research on this
field is rather limited, since by now, no North-Rhine Westphalian student
has passed the Abitur after only 8 years at the Gymnasium according to
the G8 system. Hence, discussions about the new system cannot be
based on statistics so far. Those students who started their time at the
Gymnasium in North-Rhine Westphalia in 2004 will pass their Abitur in
2013 after 9 years at the Gymnasium as the last students under the old
G9 system. At the same time, in 2013, students who started their time at
13
the Gymnasium in 2005 will pass their Abitur after only 8 years at the
Gymnasium as the first students under the new G8 system. Conse-
quently, two grades will graduate at the same time which offers the
unique opportunity to directly compare students of the old and of the
new system.
In June 2011, all North-Rhine Westphalian grade 10 students of the G8
system had to sit nationwide standardised Maths and German exams,
which are replacing the comparative exam at the end of the intermediate
secondary level of the G9 system. In order to find out whether the grade
10 students of the G8 system and the grade 11 students of the G9 sys-
tem are by now already on the same level or not, which should actually
be the case according to the new system, many schools voluntarily de-
cided for their grade 11 students to participate in those exams as well.
First scores about the Maths exam results have recently been published
and will be addressed in Chapter 5.
In the English foreign language classroom, those nationwide compara-
tive exams were not conducted in North-Rhine Westphalia since the
ministry of education wanted to support the chance for schools to im-
plement an oral communication exam which therefore replaced one writ-
ten exam (Ministerium für Schule und Weiterbildung des Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen, 2011). Hence, research concerning the English
foreign language classroom is unfortunately rather rare even though this
Doppeljahrgang offers the unique opportunity of directly comparing the
old G9 system to the new G8 system and to find out whether the new
G8 system was implemented successfully.
Even though linguistic accuracy is not the main focus of foreign lan-
guage learning and teaching anymore, as already described above, it is
still an integral part of it and cannot be neglected in teaching English as
a foreign language. With regard to the reduction of the duration of com-
pulsory schooling at the Gymnasium, the lack of empirical studies in the
field of English as a foreign language has created curiosity. This curios-
ity thus resulted in the motivation for conducting a case study in order to
find out in how far the missing year at the Gymnasium could be com-
14
pensated in the English foreign language classroom. For practicability
and comparability reasons, the students' linguistic accuracy was chosen
as the main focus of this case study. Since linguistic accuracy can be
measured by means such as the mean error ratio, a comparison of the
G8 and G9 students in terms of their linguistic accuracy will be ad-
dressed. The following two central questions have emerged and will be
addressed in this empirical study: Was the objective achieved that G8
and G9 students are on the same level by the end of the prep phase,
here with regard to linguistic accuracy in the foreign language English?
Are there external factors which influence the progress of students
learning the English language concerning their linguistic accuracy?
3.1.2. Data
Acquirement
To assess whether there are observable differences between G8 and
G9 students with regard to their linguistic accuracy in English as a for-
eign language, a cross-section case study was carried out. On the prem-
ise that students participated voluntarily, that their parents were asked
for permission as well, that all data were made anonymous and treated
trustworthy, and that the lessons were disturbed only to a minimal ex-
tent, the school administration of the Steinbart-Gymnasium Duisburg
permitted the conducting of a case study with G8 grade 10 and G9
grade 11 students.
Since the students' exams should serve as the main data for this case
study, the fourth and therefore last exam of the school year 2010/2011
was chosen. The reason for choosing exams as the main data for this
study was the fact that students are usually highly motivated during ex-
ams since their aim is to achieve good marks. An additional test might
have had resulted in that students would not have taken it as serious as
an exam, for which they get marks and which has an influence on their
final report marks. Consequently, those additional tests would probably
not have reflected the maximal potential of the students. Of course there
might be students suffering from exam nerves, which might have a
negative influence on the results, but it is hardly possible to exclude all
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- , 2011, Students' Accuracy in Written English Under the Impression of the new "G8" System: A Case Study, Hamburg, Bedey Media GmbH, https://www.bachelor-master-publishing.de/document/296565
