Graded readers as linguistic mediation in teaching/learning German as a foreign language

Abstract

While analysing convergences between the use of translation in language teaching and the practice with books known as graded readers (LLFs), we hypothesize that the language facilitation that characterizes these books can be seen as a type of translation, known as linguistic mediation (in German, “Sprachmittlung”). In order to deepen the study of graded readers and considering the interest of German learners in literature in German language, we analysed a graded reader for learners at the B1 level and compared it with the original text. The chosen book was Die Verwandlung [Franz Kafka], adapted by Achim Seiffert (2003). Using computational tools we generated quantitative data related to corpus linguistics, and verified to what extent the lexical profile and structural characteristics of this book contribute to the facilitation of the text. The results show that the analysed graded reader brings learners closer to Kafkas original novel and can contribute to the expansion of their vocabulary, thus characterizing linguistic mediation. Graded readers also enable the reading of classics of literature in German language at intermediate stages of language learning, which would otherwise be difficult or impossible to deal with.