Zuhören vs. Lesen: Verständnis literarischer Texte bei Schüler_innen

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of the mode of reception (listening vs. reading) on the comprehension of literary texts of different degrees of linguistic complexity in German, testing schoolchildren in Grade 8. To this end, two texts were used: the grammatically and lexically comparatively more complex novella Das Erdbeben in Chili by Heinrich von Kleist, and the comparatively less complex novella Kleider machen Leute by Gottfried Keller. Thus, in contrast to previous studies on schoolchildren’s reading and listening comprehension, which often use very short texts composed specifically for the purpose of the study, a major aim of the current study is to test authentic literary material, which German students are regularly confronted with at school. Students read or listened to excerpts of these novellas and subsequently filled in a questionnaire containing questions on the correct comprehension of the respective texts, thereby addressing both local and global aspects of comprehension. The results are twofold: First, listening comprehension is better than reading comprehension, regardless of the complexity of the text (i.e. for both the Kleist and the Keller text). Second, the first effect is even stronger for global text comprehension than for comprehension of local details.