In this presentation, I want to present the first part of my dissertation that deals with the situation of German as a foreign language at schools in Scotland, Sweden and Macedonia, and which deals especially with the situation for teachers of this subject in the chosen countries. The three countries were chosen not only because I speak the languages of them, but especially with a focus on a “maximum variation sampling” (Johnson/Christensen 2012,

234), but constrained to countries in Europe. Scotland would in this case be an example of a country where English is not the first foreign language taught at school, as it is the language of instruction. German is, next to other languages offered, one of the first or second foreign languages taught at schools. Sweden is an example of many countries where German only finds a place as a second or third foreign language at schools. English is dominantly the first foreign language learned at school. German has lost footage at schools and in society (as my presentation will show). Macedonia shows the same characteristics as Sweden, but German still has a major impact on society, as a big part of the Macedonian diaspora during the last decade has moved to Germany. Emigration to the USA or Australia, as has happened a lot during the 1970s and 1980s, has decreased to almost none. Also, Germany is the one European country that still grants asylum to Macedonian citizens.

As a first step in my dissertation, detailed country studies (“Länderstudie”) with regard to German as a foreign language at schools is being developed. I have guiding hypothesis that will be proved wrong or right through the country studies, which is the hypothesis of education globalization (Antunes 2006, Lohmann 2014). For modern language teaching, especially the Common European Framework of Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe 2001) can be seen in the light of globalization of education (Byram & Parmenter 2012). The descriptors of the CEFR have had a success story in influencing not only testing (Hustzi et al. 2011), and is also the most commonly known part of the CEFR. In the case of German teacher education at universities, the Bologna process is and has a major globalizing effect (Dietl 2008, Neuland 2008).

For this presentation, national regulation regarding the subject of German and the profession of German teachers at schools will be analyzed with the leading hypothesis of globalization.

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