"A long and winding road..." - Von der 'Landeskunde' zur interkulturellen Sprachdidaktik. Überlegungen zur Einführung in die Thematik und eine Einleitung zu einem Themenheft

The article looks into the historical aspects and major thematic issues relating to the general topic of the volume. After a brief introductory reflection on the term 'Landeskunde', it surveys the development of the concepts of 'Landeskunde' and 'Kulturkunde' until 1945. This review connects to the second part, which conceptualises the new understanding of 'Landeskunde' with special reference to intercultural learning. The third chapter focuses on basic questions of learning psychology in terms of information-intake regarding 'Landeskunde'. Furthermore, it shows which information processes are triggered off within a foreign learner when confronted with foreign language material and the associated 'cultural' information. Using practical examples taken from modern textbooks on German as a foreign language, chapter four describes the methodological approaches that current teaching materials either recommend or use for the teaching of 'Landeskunde'. In the discussion it becomes apparent how the mediation of 'cultural' topics and contents has progressed with regard to the teaching and learning perspective. The article concludes with a summary of the fifteen contributions to the volume, which focus on different aspects of the issues raised in the introductory section. (Verlag, adapt.).