Blank Spaces and Open Spaces: A Critical Examination of Exemplary Research Positions on the Use of Comics in German as a Foreign or Second Language Lessons

Abstract

This article aims to provide suggestions for the incorporation of the insights of comics studies into the field of German as a Foreign/ Second Language. Consequently, the paper explores how comics and graphic novels have been discussed in this field, and what kind of didactic approaches have been developed. In this overview, only selected German- and English-language articles are considered that explicitly relate to the methodology of German as a Foreign/ Second Language. In a first step, three German-language articles are analysed which provide a general didactic-methodological contextualization. The second part deals with four practical examples which focus on how comics can be used to teach about the cultures of the German-speaking countries. In each case, relevant insights are summarized and then categories and approaches are contrasted with each other. The aim is to identify exemplary research positions and, on this basis, to formulate further research questions for an emerging subject area.