40 Jahre Sprachunterricht an den österreichischen Volkshochschulen

40 Years of Language Instruction at the Austrian Adult Education Centres. A history of innovation
Language instruction has been an innovative as well as integrative area of Austria’s adult education centres (Volkshochschulen in German) for decades. The project “Follow Me” started in 1979 and trained adult education instructors and schoolteachers who teach languages in the “communicative approach” to language instruction, which is closely connected to the standard behaviorist “audio-lingual” methods of that time. What was innovative was the multimedia learning materials, evaluation by action research, intensive training for course instructors and development of new types of exercises. In 1988 the adult education centres published instructions for self-learning entitled “Fremdsprachenwachstum” (Foreign Language Growth) that received international attention and are still being used today. Yet professional discussion as well has always been prompted by the adult education centres. Since 1992 the Vienna adult education centres have organized international language symposia through which they addressed intercultural learning and plurilingualism early on. Since 1993 they have offered specialist and then multilingual training programs for language instructors. Other innovations reported in the article are the development of language portfolios for adults and actions and research projects on plurilingualism or ideas for remedial German classes in schools. (Ed.)