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This review of research on the learning, teaching, and assessment of L2 German published or completed between 2002 and 2008 may be particularly timely due to developments from within the profession as well as recent political changes which continue to have a strong bearing on the way L2 German is promoted, learned, taught and assessed. Far from representing an isolated field of research concerned only with the requirements and policies of its own subject matter, empirical research into L2 German now contributes greatly to the wider field of research in L2 acquisition, applied linguistics, and foreign language teaching. Part one of this article covers studies on the acquisition of grammatical and pragmatic aspects as well as individual differences and choices such as age, motivation, and learner strategies. Part two will cover research concerned with the impact of contextual factors and pedagogical choices on learning conditions, learning processes, and learning outcomes. A consideration of competing, conflicting, or even incommensurable epistemological frameworks as well as an outlook on current and future language policy will conclude part two. [For Part 2, see EJ866685.]

Research on the teaching and learning of German as a foreign language (GFL) during the past decade has mainly focused on six fields: (1) reception-production-interaction; (2) project- /task-based learning and learner autonomy; (3) phonetics-lexis-grammar; (4) literature-(inter-) cultural learning; (5) textbooks-(digital) media; (6) teacher education-teaching profession. In this time span, GFL research on teaching and learning has continued its tradition of being soundly grounded in linguistics and literature/culture studies and has gained new momentum by increasingly relying on regional and on empirical approaches. For the future, more GFL research on school contexts seems desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]