Zur Bedeutung der Lexik für das literarische Lesen: Didaktische Erkenntnisse einer Textdeckungsuntersuchung

Educational success is strongly related to competence in reading. Didactical reading and vocabulary acquisition are essential focus points. Lexical frequency plays a prominent role in this spectrum. This contribution combines the focus on vocabulary with literary reading in German as a foreign language. 26 literary titles were selected from the didactical catalogue for German on www.lezenvoordelijst.nl, half of which were classified at B2-level. Examinations of text coverage, using the frequency lists of Nation/Tschirner (2006) and Tschirner (2008b), gave insight into the didactical use of these texts. It was examined which rate of text coverage the chosen literary works have, how this text coverage acts to the estimated CEFR-level, and which didactical measures can be derived from the determination of the lexical usability of the selected literary works. The average of the text coverage at B2-level was 87%.