uni'alumni 2012_ENG

How can teachers communicate knowledge in an understandable way? By taking on the perspective of the students. Teachers are experts in their discipline, while stu- dents are still in the process of learning it. The goal of teaching should be to provide guidance to ­students on the path from novice to expert. This involves continually determining where the stu- dents are located on this path, what they are inter- ested in, and what prior knowledge and experiences they possess and can bring to bear in the course. It is important to give students the opportunity to take active part in the process of academic ex- change and also allow them to help shape it. Does making content understandable mean simplifying it or lowering the academic level? I doubt that the academic level suffers when a teacher conveys complex information in an under- standable form. Understandable means that the students are given easier access to the informa- tion. One should never forget that a course of study can’t be completed within the space of a semester. Students acquire their knowledge and the ability to engage in academic work continually over the course of several years. It is thus necessary to ­begin at a less complex level and then increase the complexity as the students develop their abilities. Incidentally, teachers themselves are often sur- prised at the quality of work students are capable of in seemingly simplified learning environments. What is your impression of the level of teaching in Freiburg? On the whole, my impression is very positive. Pro- fessors at the University of Freiburg aren’t just in- terested in being good researchers; they also want to be good teachers. The quality of instruction is becoming more and more important. The univer­ sity’s recent success in the “Excellent Teaching” competition and the “Quality Pact for Teaching” testifies to this fact. they find it interesting. “As an arts scholar you ­often find yourself on the defensive. You have to ­explain what utility your research has.” And yet, ­linguistic change is a topic that is relevant for ­everyone who has ever thought about whether dia- lects have a grammar that is less complex or whether Schiller’s German is dying out because more and more “service points” are cropping up at German train stations. “Linguists don’t say that one variant is better or worse than another,” stresses Hilpert. “Change is the natural state of language.” In order to illustrate this, he shows the audience a diagram on which words are dancing like little balls on a timeline that covers more than 200 years. The linguist doesn’t think that popular events like science slams pose a threat to the integrity of research. “Admittedly though, the format cuts both ways: When you do an entertaining and witty pre- sentation on your project that lasts ten minutes, you might leave the impression that science is ­always laid-back and to the point.” This isn’t al- ways true. Sometimes researchers have to follow paths without knowing whether their findings will Are Anglicisms ­ruining the beautiful ­German language? Linguist Martin ­Hilpert demonstrates why linguistic change is important at the ­Science Slam. Photo: Jost 7