Cognitive grammar hands-on: a design-based approach to the didactic integration of interactive grammar animations

Abstract

[EN] Tutorial computer-assisted language learning tends to employ a deductive teaching approach, explicating grammatical concepts prior to practice exercises. This leads to a didactic gap, impacting learner engagement. Interactive Grammar Animations (InGA) aim to bridge this gap by enabling learners to explore the conceptual motivation and meaningfulness of grammar on their own. To harness the potential of InGAs, the selection of a suitable learning object and its didactic integration are pivotal. Only against the backdrop of media-adequate didactics, InGAs grant alternative access to the learning content and can become a means of insight and understanding. To bridge both the didactic and the knowledge gap, the research project on InGAs investigates the functionality of the interactive learning medium and its integration into a didactic concept. As a case study, the project uses grammar animations on the German passive voice whose visual interface is extended so that language learners can manipulate the content presented within them. Following a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach, the project is currently in its fourth cycle and this article reports on the challenges of developing and integrating an interactive learning application that adopts an inductive approach to grammar instruction in the foreign language classroom and reflects on didactic as well as methodological aspects.