The Text Type "Curriculum Vitae" in an Intercultural Perspective. Indications for a Linguistically Based German As a Second Language Instruction at University

The present article shows a practical example of intercultural oriented didactics of Deutsch als Fremdsprache. As the didactic unit chosen, a comparison of text types, in which the text dimension gives the opportunity to analyze culturems at many different description levels of the language system. With a text type chosen, namely, the curriculum vitae, being the CV as a textual form of expression which students sooner or later in their professional careers are due to be confronted with. The diversity of cultural characteristics in the typical German & Italian CVs are empirically evaluated by taking into consideration a corpus of texts in the two languages collected on the internet. The method of analysis derives from text-linguistic theories, aiming to show which are the possibilities for the DaF didactics to define on a scientific ground its research object, in order to avoid the risk of teaching notions of cultural specificity which cannot be clearly disassociated from cliches. References. Adapted from the source document