What was the goal?
The goal of the project was to investigate how the use of a stuffed animal called Markus Frosch influences the linguistic development and motivation of students in a German language support class. The project was initiated by a teacher who observed that many children in German support classes showed inhibitions preventing them from actively speaking or writing, along with a strong fear of making mistakes, low linguistic self-confidence, and weak motivation for language learning. The project aimed to determine whether Markus Frosch could help reduce these language-related inhibitions and strengthen students’ self-confidence in both spoken and written German.
How did the project proceed?
The project was based on an action research approach. Markus Frosch was actively, purposefully, and regularly integrated into the German language support class as a learning companion. The children were asked to respond to letters from Markus Frosch on familiar, age-appropriate topics such as seasons, clothing, and friends, motivating them to engage in communicative tasks. At the beginning of the project, data were collected through a questionnaire containing open-ended questions on familiar topics. The same topics were then addressed during the learning phase through the Markus Frosch letters. After approximately one to two months of instruction, the same questionnaire was administered again. The teacher also kept short observation notes throughout the learning phase to document students’ motivation and classroom participation. By comparing the questionnaires from the beginning and end of the data collection period, students’ productive language development was observed in the areas of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence length and quality.
What were the results?
The results demonstrated that the use of the stuffed animal had a positive effect on both learning motivation and linguistic development. Students participated more actively in lessons and showed greater willingness to speak and write in German. The questionnaire comparison revealed linguistic improvements: students used a broader vocabulary, more complex grammatical forms such as declension, and wrote longer sentences after the learning phase. However, it must be noted that only a small number of students were observed, limiting the scope of the findings. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the stuffed animal played a supportive role in reducing language-related fears and hesitations and in building a positive learning environment. The project concluded that emotional and motivational factors play an important role in language acquisition, and that relationship-based, communicative methods can effectively reduce inhibitions and enhance motivation. For future research, it was recommended to work with larger student groups over a longer period and to include comparison groups without the stuffed animal to provide clearer evidence of its effectiveness.