During the two-days scientific conference on 10th and 11 th of June 2019 the participants exchanged their views and expert knowledge on the influence of the mother tongue in second and third language acquisition, contrastive linguistics and didactic strategies in teaching German as a foreign language in Arabic speaking countries. Based on a keynote speech by Prof. Elke Montanari from the University of Hildesheim the latest research approaches on integrating the influence of the mother tongue as a positive resource into foreign language acquisition were vividly discussed.

Of particular importance was the active involvement of a large number of young academics who were addressed as the meeting’s main target group. Several master students were involved in talks and workshops to gain experience in the scientific community.

Michael Assad© Michael Assad

The conference ended with a fruitful panel discussion addressing potential solutions to the growing demand of German as a technical language in the field of engineering, medicine and natural science. Finding solutions for specific regional challenges in this field turned out to be a major task of prime importance which might be addressed in a future conference.