“Schwätzt Dir Lëtzebuergesch” is the title of the Luxembourgish language manuals produced by the Institut National des Langues Luxembourg (INLL).
The manuals are mainly aimed at adults enrolled in Luxembourgish language courses. They correspond to levels A1, A2 and B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and convey knowledge in the four skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. However, the emphasis is on oral communication.
The topics in these volumes are aimed at a wide audience and offer good preparation for everyday situations in a national context. In addition, in the different chapters, the learner will be able to discover information about the country, festivals and public holidays, as well as Luxembourg’s national dishes or celebrities.
The A1, A2 and B2 textbooks are available in bookshops at a price of €24 each.
In addition, the B2 level files are available free of charge on the dedicated website together with notes, answers to exercises and supplementary material for the 4 levels.
HELP WITH SETTING UP A LUXEMBOURGISH LANGUAGE COURSE AT LEVELS A1, A2, B1
INTRODUCTION
The Council of Europe’s project to establish and improve the teaching of foreign languages in a homogeneous way throughout Europe has been underway since the 1990s. The publication of the “Common European Framework of Reference” (CEFR) in 2000 provided a tool for describing the levels of different language skills. The objectives of the framework are to allow uniformity and coordination on a European scale in the learning and teaching of all languages and transparency in the assessment and certification of foreign languages. (*)
This pack has been designed to help Luxembourgish language teachers to move towards the levels of the framework. It contains two distinct and complementary segments, the handbook, and the competence descriptions.
The coursebook for Luxembourgish as a foreign language in adult education is designed as a concrete aid to the construction of the course. Here the teacher will find the communicative learning objectives for a certain CEFR level, the sub-objectives and for levels A1 and A2 also the indication, respective lexicon and grammar that will give the student the means to reach the learning objective at this level.
The learning objectives can, especially from level A1.2 onwards, be used at different points in the course, depending on the structure of the course.
Elements that have already been mentioned once in a certain learning objective will not be explicitly repeated in the following list.
The different chapters of the guideline contain references to the descriptions of the competences. In contrast to the coursebookl, each competence of a level is described separately in the competence description. (Listening comprehension, speaking-interaction, speaking (monologue), reading comprehension and writing).
Here the teacher gains understanding of what the learner needs to master linguistically in order to reach A1 level in a particular skill, e.g., in speaking. The linguistic actions for the oral skills are illustrated by example sentences in order to specify the linguistic level required.
Here you can also find other types of text or concrete language tasks for planning the course.
Due to the particular linguistic situation in Luxembourg – with three national languages – the learner is less exposed to Luxembourgish as a written language in their daily life (e.g., press, literary works, films, TV series, signs are mainly in other languages). Therefore, writing competence is an important didactic tool for learning our language, but it will, as a rule, not have the same value as in other countries, where the learner is confronted with the national language at every step.
The speed of learning depends on many factors. These include the mother tongue, the learning culture, different learning habits and the motivation of the learner.
(*) Europarat/ Rat für kulturelle Zusammenarbeit: „ Gemeinsamer europäischer Referenzrahmen für Sprachen: lernen, lehren, beurteilen“ Hg. u.a. Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes. – Langenscheidt: Berlin , München, Wien , Zürich, New York 2000 u. 2001 (dt. Fassung) / ISBN 3-468-49469-6, S. 35 ff. (Translation : Grupp « Referentiel » CLL / INL).