EXPERIENCES AT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GERMAN COURSES IN THE ISF PROGRAM: LANGUAGE POLICIES, CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES

Due to the investment undertaken since 2015, German institutions have become one of the main partners in the program Language without borders (IsF). This article contextualizes the growth of the German language IsF program and the increased academic cooperation between Germany and Brazil as a consequence of intentional Foreign Language Policy. After discussing the policy basics, the article presents the results of the two year trial period for German in the IsF program. Based on official documents and questionnaires answered by the learners, data is shown about the participation and engagement in the language learning process. At the end, a brief discussion is made about the German – Brazil plans for further academic cooperation in the field of IsF.


INTRODUCTION
For the last few years, important changes can be observed in the entire world: these changes concern areas like the economy and politics, as well as the way academic action and innovation is perceived and performed (SCHÜTTE, 2015, p. 135). One of the main topics of transformation belongs to the way to deal with knowledge, and lately more and more scholars use the term of -societies of knowledge‖ to describe the strategies adopted by some countries to face the growing challenges of a globalized world (HALLET, 2006;SCHÜTTE, 2015). In other words, -societies of knowledge‖ value knowledge and its management as a means to preserve a quality living standard for all of its members. These societies usually focus on international * English Language Teaching Assistant at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niterói, Brazil. ** Visiting professor at Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and coordinator of the IsF German program at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Experiences at the implementation of German courses… Olhares & Trilhas | Uberlândia | vol.20, n. 3 | set/dez. 2018-ISSN 1983 Spain speak languages similar to Portuguese. For these reasons, students and academic scholars often chose to study in these countries (EBC 2012).
The situation is different when Germany is concerned. People there speak a language that has historically been considered more difficult for students with no prior knowledge of the language to learn in a short period abroad (VOERKEL, 2018, p. 176). However, Brazil has a long history with the German language and culture. In the 19 th and 20 th century, many German speaking immigrants arrived to Brazil, making it today the country with the highest number of German speakers outside of Europe (AMMON, 2015a(AMMON, , p. 1038AMMON, 2015b, p. 372;VOERKEL, 2017, p. 26). Despite this historical connection and the significant language funding provided by the German government, the number of German language learners remains relatively small within Brazil. Out of the almost 50,000,000 students enrolled in Brazilian schools and universities, only about 100,000, or 0.2%, are learning German (AUSWÄRTIGES AMT, 2015, p. 8). As a result, in 2015 Germany decided to officially join the IsF program, giving thus continuity to its efforts for Internationalization 3 .

GERMANY AND INTERNATIONALIZATION
A reputation stemming partly from the twelve years of Nazi dictatorship, Germany and its citizens are often regarded as cold, hostile, and humorless by neighboring countries and partners worldwide (KÖRBER, 2015, p. 166). What usually is not reflected in these stereotypes: Germany has changed drastically within the last three generations, especially following the -Reunification‖ of Eastern and Western Germany in 1990. Most notably, Germany has seen an increase in population heterogeneity and in the presence of foreigners in the country. With an overall population of about 83,000,000 people, there are approximately 8,700,000 people without German passport living in the country 4 . When adding foreigners and Germans born outside of the country (or with at least one parent not born in Germany), this number jumps to approximately 17,000,000, which means that more than 20% of the 3 The term -Internationalization‖ is used in the sense of the Brazilian concept of -internacionalização‖, which means the efforts of universities and (public) exchange organizations to support academic exchange and international research projects. 4 Interesting fact: In the media, the focus usually is set on the undocumented illegal persons and the refugees coming from African and Asian countries. Still, more than two thirds of the foreign population comes from EUmember countries, with the right to live in any EU-member country, and the percentage of people with no legal status is very low. Experiences at the implementation of German courses… Olhares & Trilhas | Uberlândia | vol.20, n. 3 | set/dez. 2018-ISSN 1983 German population has a -migration background‖ 5 (DESTATIS, 2018). People travelling throughout Germany may be surprised to encounter foreigners, especially in bigger cities, but the history of Germany suggests this is to be expected.
After 1945, migration was significant. Depending on the region, the percentage of displaced people as a consequence of World War II was almost 25% of the total population (OLTMER, 2017, p. 154). In the 1950s and especially the 1960s, Western Germany experienced important economic growth which led to increased labor demands. Initially, this demand was met by people from rural areas moving into the city, but by the 1960s, Germany was contracting foreign workers (OLTMER, 2017, p. 158). Formal immigration contracts between Germany and other countries lasted from 1955 to 1973 6 (OLTMER, 2013, p. 39;OLTMER, 2017, p. 160). The main spots of origin were Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey, and the population coming to Western Germany from all foreign countries rose between 1961 and 1973 from 0.5 to 2.6 million (OLTMER, 2013, p. 39;OLTMER, 2017, p. 190). Eastern Germany as well received international migrants, but in far lower numbers than Western Germany, and most migrants were from the so-called -Socialist Brother Countries‖ 7 (WEISS, 2013, p. 42). In addition, Germany has long received immigrants seeking asylum. After a dramatic rise in asylum seekers through the early 1990s, Germany passed an immigration law in 1993 to ebb the flow, however, the number of people seeking asylum rose again in 2015 and 2016, exceeding 500,000 per year (OLTMER, 2017, p. 231, p. 234). In other words: for the last 50 years, Germany has experienced consistent migration, and will continue to be an important destination for immigration.
The end of WWII changed more than the ethnic makeup of Germany. Because of its landscape and limited raw materials, Germany strategically developed its export sector and international contacts (SCHÜTTE, 2015, p. 147), and up from the 1960s, the economy became increasingly reliant on these international trade relations. During the first years of the new millennium, Germany was considered the -world leader of exportation‖, until China 5 In comparison to the two other mainly German speaking countries in Central Europe: Austria reaches about 22%, Switzerland almost 37% of people with -migration background‖ (STATISTIK AUSTRIA 2017, p. 9; SCHWEIZERISCHE EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT, 2017). 6 Migration movements were even higher: Between the late 1950s and 1973, there were about 14 million foreign workers coming to Western Germany, whereas 11 million went back to their country of origin (OLTMER 2013, p. 39). 7 Even more than 28 years after the -Reunification‖, these migration patterns persist, with Eastern Germany presenting lower number of foreign population and particular characteristics concerning countries of origin and working activities (WEISS 2013, 43, 44).
As a consequence, close relationship with international partners have been a priority in government strategies and decisions for a long time, including in the areas of culture and education. In the 1970s, Chancellor Willy Brandt and his center-left government officially adopted the -Foreign Cultural Policy‖ 8 ,which has since become a staple in Germany's international political strategy (KÖRBER, 2015, p. 160). In the new millennium, an enlargement of the agenda was set, and the latest revisions of the now called -Foreign Cultural and Educational Policy‖ focused, among other measures, significant attention on two key areas influencing the IsF program: language policy and the university agenda. The policy has been responsible for shifts in government policy towards education and culture and has strengthened overall academic exchange and cooperation (SCHÜTTE, 2015, p. 137).
For the last decades, universities were receiving increasing numbers of foreign students, and today foreign students made up more than 12% of the overall student enrolment.
In addition, universities are attracting foreign visiting professors, and about 10% of professors are not German (SCHÜTTE, 2015, p. 144 learning is an essential part of the official political agenda.

GERMAN-GRAZILIAN RELATIONS IN TERMS OF EDUCATION
Since its discovery and conquest in the 16 th century, Brazil has fascinated the Europeans (VOERKEL, 2017, p. 15). For 300 years, the Portuguese exerted influence over the land in terms of economy, language and culture. At the beginning of the 19th century, the country gained its independence, and began seeking its own trade partners as a way to solidify its independence.  .
The cultural and scientific relationships between Brazil and Germany were

INTRODUCING THE ISF GERMAN PROGRAM
The idea for the Language without Borders (IsF) program was suggested shortly after CsF students started to participate in exchange activities with German universities as soon as the scholarship program was launched in 2011, and by 2015, more than 6,000 scholarship holders had participated in the program (DAAD, 2015, p. 5). Pre-departure language development was critical for students heading to Germany because only a minority of the participants had previous knowledge of the language 12 . As students participating in the program were immediately expected to take courses in German, IsF administrators began to consider expanding the courses offers and to include German, starting with 10 universities.
By that time, the language learning program was undergoing substantial changes.
Because The partners decided that the IsF German language courses would cover the basics, from beginning levels (A1.1) to intermediate levels (B1). They were to be offered as onlinecourses, each course lasting for three months with a 90-hours-workload and online tuition.
Because of the complexity of virtual learning, the partners agreed to include face-to-face 11 A more complete insight in the goals of the IsF program can be found in the article published by ABREU E LIMA, MORAES, BARBOSA and BLUM in 2016. 12 Referring to Peuschel (2014, p. 654), less than one third of the students had a command of German language at level B2 or above. Experiences at the implementation of German courses… German courses has a coordinator managing the day-to-day of the German IsF-program and supervising the local face-to-face tutor.

THE TRIAL PERIOD
The two-year trial period began in October of 2016 with a total of 389 participants from ten different universities throughout Brazil. Subsequently, German courses were offered to the academic community between the second semester of 2016 and the first semester of 2018, with a total number of 1,461 participants.  The data shows plainly: there is significant demand for German courses at Brazilian universities (DAAD 2018, p. 54). At one point, the program had to turn away students who wanted to participate because the trial period offered only a limited number of spots. This offer to demand mismatch resulted in less than 6% of students who applied to the program being accepted. 13 The creation and work of this advisory council, called Nucleo Gestor in Portuguese, is explained in the article presented by ABREU E LIMA and BARROS, 2016. Experiences at the implementation of German courses…

Semester
Olhares & Trilhas | Uberlândia | vol.20, n. 3 | set/dez. -ISSN 1983 When regarding the overall numbers of the IsF program, the demand for German language courses was only 2 nd to English.  Each IsF language program has its own set of operating guidelines, making it difficult to compare demand data. However, considering the difficulty of German over other Romance languages such as French, Italian or Spanish that Brazilian students may be more familiar with, the German enrolment numbers are noteworthy. One theory explaining the demand is that the courses are offered free of charge 17 , although other language courses are also free.

Language
Other reasons may be the excellent German university systems reputation, job prospects, or even the rarity of free German language courses.
The demand for courses and the number of universities that enrolled in the IsF trial period highlighted the demand for IsF German courses. The trial period opened 14 slots for universities to participate, which were filled by the 3 rd semester 18 (DAAD, 2018, p. 54).

UFMG Experiences at the implementation of German courses…
Olhares & Trilhas | Uberlândia | vol.20, n. 3 | set/dez. -ISSN 1983 • Online learning: Brazilian students spend a lot of time on mobile devices. Internet and social media are very present in their lives, but that does not mean that they are familiar with online learning processes or strategies. Frequently, the challenges of learning a language online are underestimated, and learners face difficulties leveraging the advantages of online tools for their own learning process.
• Content management and didactics: IsF German courses are mostly taught online and offered for a three-month period twice a year. To reinforce the content covered, the courses offer additional face-to-face tutoring sessions at the university. It is a challenge to coordinate the material covered with tutoring sessions.
• Dropout rate: In the first course offered, at the second semester of 2016, the percentage of learners that did not finish the course was nearly 50%. When asked why students missed lectures, students responded that the workloadan average of 8 hours per weekwas too demanding, considering the responsibilities they already have to their primary studies. In addition, students mentioned difficulty relating to the online tutors, who usually did not speak Portuguese.
• Continuity: The German courses have an average progression, which means that beginners need at least four courses to reach intermediate level. During the trial period, the average transition rate from one course to the next was below 50%, and few students that started German courses in 2016 enrolled in the 2018 courses. One explanation for this drop is that CsF was cancelled in 2016and public scholarships were cut drastically.
• Communication: Concerning both internal and external communication, it was challenging to find an efficient way to exchange information between the partners in the program. The MEC, DAAD, and DUO partners had to agree on both content and organizational issues. In addition, the communications flow with the students had to be established and continuously revisited.
The identification of the challenges was a crucial point for quality control. Some of these challenges are difficult to address, for example, fewer students have the opportunity to participate in an exchange program sponsored by public agencies 21 . Nevertheless, the partners 21 The fact that Brazilian public agencies have cut their scholarships affects directly the motivation of the students to keep on learning languages.
identified several areas for improvement to ensure the continuity of the learning process and the ongoing of the program as a whole. Below are some of the improvement measures that were taken during the trial period: • Communication between all involved parties, including the MEC, DAAD, DUO, Coordinators, online-and face-to-face tutors and students was streamlined.
• Online training programs led by DUO experts were implemented for local coordinators and tutors.
• Mandatory informational meetings with the IsF coordinator at the local university were institutionalized.
• Information for students concerning the relevance of language command, the language learning process, and exchange possibilities was increasingly distributed.
• Communication between online tutors and classroom tutors has been improved.
• Online and in-person learning was streamlined ensuring cohesion and follow-through.
These changes improved considerably supported language acquisition and participation for students. The courses offered in the 2018-1 semester saw a drastic reduction of the dropout rate (to less than 5%) and an approval rating that reached nearly 60%. Still, the IsF German program is continually exploring new ways to improve. Next, the program will focus on the learning process as a whole and an efficient combination of learning by virtual and blended-learning settings.

A SHORT PREVIEW
Shortly before the IsF German trial period was officially over, MEC and DAAD decided to renew the program for four additional years (from 2019 to 2022). The main challenge now lies in integrating the trial period lessons to create a sustainable, long-term IsF German program. This program will continue to be an important tool to promote the general academic cooperation between Brazil and Germany and a milestone for internationalization efforts.
Still, there is a lot of work to do when thinking about Internationalization efforts.
There are not only challenges found when outgoing study exchange is concerned, but as well in the reception of incomings. Despite increased enrolments, the Brazilian academic sector faces significant challenges to enrol international students: only 0.2% of the students in Brazilian universities are foreigners, which means the number is more than 50 times lower than in German universities.
Brazilian universities often have no established infrastructure to receive foreign students and researchers, there are immense bureaucratic issues, and the overall importance given towards learning foreign languages is relatively low (STALLIVERI, 2017, p. 135-139).
Despite the low numbers up to now, Internationalization is gaining weight at Brazilian universities. Language policy becomes an increasingly important tool to promote academic exchange, and with regards on the dynamic Master´s and PhD programs and research activities, Brazil has the potential to once again be one of the top-20 producers of new scientific knowledge. It thus can be confirmed that in the context of current age of academic globalization and international cooperation, the IsF German program remains an important instrument to strengthen German and Brazilian relations (ROCHE; SUÑER, 2017, p. 11).