KEY COMPETENCIES IN GERMAN LANGUAGE TEXTBOOKS FOR REFUGEES : A NEED OR A DEMAND ?

Refugee crisis particularly from Muslim-majority countries has been a heated discussion topic nowadays. Compared to other European countries, Germany receives the most refugees. Entering 2018, Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to implement new regulation by setting a quota for refugees. The presence of refugees in Germany appears real and striking, which in turn can lead to social problems, if both parties are not prepared to deal with this situation. To anticipate this, both the guests and the hosts must be educated to know each other and accept their situation. One of the ways taken by the German government, especially in preparing refugees to adapt well is through education for refugees. Therefore, teaching German as a foreign language is important as it can be a learning medium that is not only aimed at mastering the language but also to achieve a harmonious atmosphere that is increasingly coveted by a pluralistic society. This paper raises the issue of teaching foreign languages as an effect arising from social changes in German society. The results of the study show that the textbook entitled Perspektive Deutsch (Klett, 2014) considers that key competencies are an inseparable part of foreign language skills.


INTRODUCTION
The current situation in Germany is dominated by news on refugees.As of December 31, 2016 there were 1.6 million refugees in Germany.In German, Flüchtling is the word to refer to refugees, which literally means 'people who are on the run'.At present, the word that is also used to convey similar meaning is Schutzsuchende, whose literal meaning is 'someone who seeks protection'.Thus it can be concluded that people who leave their home countries come to Germany to get protection or to survive.
According to information obtained from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Bundes Statistisches Amt), Schutzsuchende's meaning includes foreigners -both men and women -who are still in the process of applying for asylum; immigrants who are recognized under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions; additional people who are still considered entitled to apply for asylum, and those whose asylum has been rejected by German government, but they are still allowed to live in Germany (https://www.destatis.de/DE/PresseService/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2017/11/PD17_387_12521.html).This web page also records the three countries that account for the most refugees in Germany, which are Syria (455,000 immigrants), Afghanistan (191,000 immigrants), and Iraq (with 156,000 immigrants).It is widely known that these countries are currently in conflict.Therefore, many of the residents (who are mainly Moslem) fled to Europe, hoping that they would get protection and be able to continue their lives better.
The influx of refugees to Germany was allegedly caused by a statement made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 31.The statement that reads "wir schaffen das" "we can handle it" is interpreted by the refugees as an "invitation" to enter Germany.They assumed that Germany was ready to accept them with open arms and was able to help them build their lives again after their old lives were ravaged by war.The entry of immigrants is not without problems.There are many difficulties experienced by refugees in Germany, both in terms of weather, food, language, to cultural aspects.Even the German population, which in this case can be considered as the host, must make a lot of adjustments.The pockets of immigrants established in cities in Germany are 'foreign' to them, so it is not uncommon for misunderstandings to arise in their daily lives.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The arrival of refugees to Germany certainly caused various kinds of excesses instead of referring it as problems.These various excesses can be studied from a variety of disciplines, namely politics, sociology, economics, psychology and pedagogy.This paper specifically examines policies related to teaching German as a foreign language for refugees.However, the policy on language certainly cannot be separated from the policies of the social fields as mentioned above.Burns and Robert (2010) suggested interesting point related to language.They said that the refugees are learners that "brought" many things related to life experiences to the class.As commonly known, refugees that fled to German are victims of war-torn countries1 .Those who later settled in Germany and had to learn German as a means of survival, for a moment had "privileges" as students or students in a course institution.This status gives them stability and entities that they are part of the social environment in Germany.This status is strongly bound by the institutions in which they study.Therefore, according to Burns and Robert, this status is only in the class.If they leave the classroom and act in German society as usual, this "special status" is no longer pinned to them.They are still considered as second class citizen or marginalized communities.
On one side, it can be said that these refugees are in safe environment when they are inside the classroom as a student.On the other, outside the class, they need to face situations that require a lot of efforts so that they can adapt, and can really be a part of the society.This situation implied to the competence that needs to be possessed by a teacher of German for refugees, which is the expertise to teach students with refugee background the knowledge needed to integrate with German society.
Relating to integration, many people agree that every person who migrates to a country would want to be a part of the new country.Many of the people are mostly adults; thus, the experiences they bring with them are more complex.Many of them still have the desire to go back to their home country, and they have traumatic experiences.Fathi et.al. (2018) developed a module that can be used to help the refugees acculturate with their new society in which they stay, titled Multidimensional Intercultural Training Acculturation.Acculturation refers to the efforts of an individual to adapt with their new culture.It is a process that happens between the refugee as the guest society and the host society.In this process, information exchange happens between the guest and the host regarding the habits that they need to know and master, for instance, communication forms, eating customs, and dress codes.The ideal outcome suggested by Fathi et. al. (2018) is intercultural competence, or the ability to carry out appropriate social interactions and effective communication with people from different culture, as refugees are not only from a country or continent.The ability of the refugees to communicate well is considered fundamental in the process of adapting with the host culture, one of which is supported by foreign language skills.

RESEARCH THEORY AND METHODOLOGY
This paper does not address the issue of refugees in terms of politics.This paper also does not examine social problems that arise due to the presence of refugees in a country.The purpose of this paper is to describe the changes that occur in the process of teaching German as a second language if the learner is not an ordinary learner.Thus, this paper discusses the relationship between changes in society and language, which also relates to the problem of language teaching.Students in German as a second language in the context of German social-political life today are people who have special conditions and special objectives, namely to integrate with the communities in which they live.
Usually in language teaching, the main goal in the teaching process is active language mastery.Students are expected to be able to produce foreign languages, both oral and written, in accordance with the context and as a strategy to overcome the problems they are facing.The refugees who now live in Germany must also have mastered German language, so that they can survive there and if possible, also have a decent life.This is possible if they also work like Germans.This raises the question, whether the ability to communicate verbally and in writing is still the only competency in teaching foreign languages, or are there other desired competencies?If it turns out that there are other competencies, what are the benefits for students to master these competencies?
The questions above are answered through qualitative research methods, which are carried out through literature review.The theory used is largely the theories of foreign language teaching, which are linked with the current social and political conditions of Germany.The process of foreign language teaching which becomes the focus of this paper is not observed through processes in the classroom; instead, through the media, namely through textbooks (Lehrbuch).The textbook chosen as a corpus of data is a book titled Perspektive Deutsch.Kommunikation am Arbeitsplatz A2/B1+, authored by Lourdes Ros, 2014 edition, published by Klett publisher.This book is used for foreign language teaching for specific purpose.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Back to the current situation of refugees in Germany, there are regulations that impose seven points that need to be prepared for the cities that accept refugees (Katz et. al. 2016), namely: 1. Place to live.The city government must prepare temporary shelter for asylum seekers and affordable housing for refugees.The challenge for city government in this case is to prevent segregation between the old population and immigrant complexes which eventually may complicate integration process in the long run.
2. Education.In order for refugees and their offspring to be integrated with the local population, it is strongly recommended that refugees, with the assistance of city government, immediate enter their children to primary level of education.
3. German for second language.In order for refugees to be integrated in economic and social contexts economy and society, refugees must have adequate language skills 4. Work training.For adults in productive age, working provides a lot of benefits for integration process, including becoming a source of income, giving them the chance to practice language skills, and developing their sense of belonging 5. Mental and physical health services.Studies found that refugees suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety disorder, which in turn can complicate integration process.
6. Access to services.Authorities must ensure that refugees have the access to financial (banking) services.This aspect often causes trouble for refugees due to language and culture difficulties.
7. Security.The authorities must guarantee security for both local residents and refugees who come to their city.Even recently, even though European countries have raised the level of handling security due to the arrival of refugees, refugees themselves have reportedly been targeted by hate crimes.From the explanation above, it is obvious that language is one of the keys to the success of the integration process, both in Germany and in countries that accept refugees.Therefore, refugees are encouraged to immediately learn and master the language in the country where they live.After they have gained sufficient knowledge, they are encouraged to have jobs, which have been proven to be a great help to the process of adaptation and integration of refugees with the communities in the countries they are currently inhabiting.
The refugees currently stay Germany must learn German.Nowadays, there are a lot of institutions that offer German courses for refugees.Since the purpose is to equip refugees with German in work context, German language class that they take is German language for special purposes.Foreign language teaching oriented to work is referred as berufsorientierter Fremdsprachenunterricht in German.According to Funk/Kuhn (2013: 316), berufsorientierter Fremdsprachenunterricht is in essence the same with foreign language in general, but it has an emphasis on pragmatic elements and adapted to the needs of the learners.Related to the key concepts used, materials taught, and education needed to be completed by the instructors, this type of teaching still follows general guidance on foreign language teaching.The instructor is also not expected to have specific educational background or special field of language.
The term berufsorientierter Fremdsprachenunterricht refers to VOLL approach from Europarats, or vocationally oriented language learning.Europarats (the Council of Europe) is the first organization that was founded in Europe after World War 2, that aims to uphold peace, democracy, and stability in Europe (http://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/lexika/daseuropalexikon/176949/europarat).
According to VOLL approach, berufsorientierter Fremdsprachunterricht is a special, thematic, goal-oriented foreign language teaching, but does not imply language teaching that is specific for a particular job or field (Funk/Kuhn 2013).
Funk dan Kuhn emphasized that the communication ability of a foreign language speaker for general purposes and work purposes are inseparable.They believed that the two communication abilities cannot be developed separately.That is why a work-oriented foreign language teaching cannot be fully separated from general foreign language teaching.
The following are the three types of work-oriented foreign language teaching (Funk/Kuhn 2013) : 1. Foreign language teaching that aims at preparation for work (berufsvorbereitender Fremsprachenunterricht).For instance, Arabic language courses as a preparation course for Indonesian Foreign Workers who will work in Saudi Arabia.
2. Foreign language teaching that functions as work support (berufsbegleitender Fremsprachenunterricht).An example is German language courses for technicians that work in German automotive company, which aim to teach language so that they can understand how to assemble and read guidebooks in German.
3. Foreign language teaching that serves as additional qualifications for work (berufsqualifizierender Fremdsprachenunterricht).An example is English courses for accountants from Indonesia who is going to work in multinational companies Teaching German as a foreign or second language with work orientation is enough to make the teaching process more complex.Issues such as the themes to be discussed, the grammar to be the focus of learning and the types of social forms that are most suitable to be applied in the classroom are things that need to be addressed by the teacher.Regarding the arrival of refugees in a country, the problem of integration also inevitably becomes the attention of foreign language instructors.Therefore, the goals to be achieved by teachers of foreign languages are now two, namely preparing students to be able to communicate in foreign languages in his job, and secondly, provide expertise and skills so that job seekers with immigrant backgrounds can integrate and be accepted by the host country well.
Nowadays, there are also a lot of changes in working fields.According to Weissenberg (2013), the changes of technology and company structure change the level of language skills and the form of communication demanded from all workers.This applies in all types of job.Regardless the kinds of work, the changes in company structure alters the pattern of communication in the workplace.This leads to new practices in language and communication in the company.Usually, this is visible in the forms of communication in areas of work that are operational in nature, which are usually occupied by workers with low qualifications or with migrant background.Weissenberg (2013) further concluded that there are several new condition in every kinds of job which were the impacts of the change in technology and in company structure.This includes the improvement of quality standard, the increase in the demands for workers to take further education (Weiterbildung), the new forms of organizations in work, the increase of service orientation towards customers or clients, and other abilities in the work that involves with different kinds of text.Because of the many changes of work demands, the refugees that are looking for a job in Germany need to work extra hard to meet the demands.
The textbook Perspektive Deutsch is a book aimed at German language learners who want to work in Germany or have worked in Germany, and want to sharpen or improve their language skills needed at work.This book is suitable for use by learners from A2 level.Perspektive Deutsch consists of 12 chapters, and every chapter consists of 7 parts.
Similar to foreign language teaching in general, Perspektive Deutsch develops learner"s foreign language in four skills, as well as German grammar skills.This paper does not highlight sections that teach German language and grammar skills in this textbook, but focus on one section called Module F, which specifically teaches Key Competence, or in German is called "Schlüsselqualifikation".This section is very crucial because this is what distinguishes this book from the books used by teaching foreign languages in general.This section prepares students to obtain soft skills other than foreign languages in order to succeed at work.
From the first chapter, learners have become acquainted with key competencies (page 15).Students are expected to get a general understanding of what is meant by key competencies and what competencies are referred to as key competencies.In addition, in this section, students are also directed to understand the importance of key competencies in working context.If they consider that these key competencies are important, they also decide on the percentage of key competencies compared to knowledge about the related fields (80% / 20%, or 50% / 50%).The exercises in this section are mostly in the form of discussion, so that students can freely express their opinions.The frequency of right and wrong answers such as in language skills exercises is quite small in this exercise in Module F, because the most important thing for them is that they can discuss, and can understand the importance of these key competencies in order to compete with colleagues from Germany and outside Germany.In this textbook, there are 11 key competencies taught, which are (according to the order of appearance in the chapters of this textbooks) friendliness, motivation, reliability, intercultural competence, self-initiative, flexibility, collaborative skills, willingness to learn, punctuality, problem-solving skills, and orientation to service.However, this paper does not discuss all the key competencies one by one.The competence discussed in the textbook that is particularly appropriate and highly needed in German social context nowadays that is very multicultural, is intercultural competence, as emphasized by Fathi et.al. (2018).
Intercultural competencies are taught in chapter 5 (page 63).This section begins with three texts containing stories about people who have misunderstandings, which are caused by cultural differences.In these texts, it is not mentioned where the person with misunderstanding is from, but it immediately elaborates how the misunderstanding happens.Learners are then asked to discuss what the cause of the misunderstanding is, and what they will do if they are in such a situation.These kinds of exercises are very important because they can open up the horizons of learners" thinking, as well as change the perspectives on matters that may have been acceptable so far.If they now live in Germany, there is always the possibility that the habits they get from their homeland can no longer be practiced in Germany.
The next exercise is still in the form of text, a job vacancy in Munich area.The job is related to the city government, thus requiring the ability to get along with many people.The expected competencies in this field of work are knowledge about migration and cultural differences, the ability to understand social, cultural, and individual differences (able to understand things that are different and does not hold prejudice), and attitudes to be able to change perspectives (accepting cultural differences, by not glorifying one culture, or even degrading a particular culture) 2 .
This exercise is ideal for German language learners who want to work in Germany.Conflicts at work are inevitable, that sometimes are not always related to specific competence in the field but more related to the ability to socialize and cultural differences.By recognizing that cultural differences are unavoidable, foreign workers in Germany with refugee backgrounds will be better equipped to integrate and compete with other workers.
The next exercise is still in the form of discussion.One exercise is a language-related exercise, because in this section the learner is expected to collect expressions that can be used to express willingness to talk about things that cause misunderstandings.This book wants to convey that unwillingness to deal with and resolve problems is something that is not good.Problems like misunderstandings that seem trivial but carried out over and over again will cause greater problems if not discussed thoroughly.For this reason, the ability to convey this must be trained, because often learners have difficulties expressing it in a foreign language so they choose to stay quiet.The final exercise in this section is personal questions, namely whether learners have experienced misunderstandings in work context caused by cultural differences, and how they overcome them.
2 It is very interesting to relate the ability to change perspectives that are expected from the refugees with the thesis of Thomas de Maizière, German Minister of Home Affairs period 2013-2018, regarding German cultural values.This thesis is conveyed by the text titled Leitkultur für Deutschlandwas ist das eigentlich?(2017).In his thesis, the emphasized that Germany is dominated with Christian values "unser Land ist christlich geprägt".He also suggested that Germany is neutral to all life views, but he welcomes churches and other religious community "unser Staat ist weltanschaulich neutral, aber den Kirchen und Religionsgemeinschaften freundlich zugewandt'.Interestingly, he also stated that Germany is the country that is the most European "wir sind vielleicht das europäischste Land in Eropa".This statement aligns with Fathi et. al."s (2018) statement that Leitkultur implies Eurocentric norms, that then reproduced and stabilized through German language teaching.De Maizière ended his thesis by saying that there are some values that can be negotiated and there are those that have to be preserved.However, de Maizière then stated that actually not many from German Leitkultur that needs to be negotiated because the values contained in it are already perfect "überzeugend".The values that need to be preserved according to de Maiziere is basic human rights, which is respect, and the fact that German society is a part of Western society, Europeans that have pride, confidence, and patriots that have been proven "Teil des Westens, stolze Europäer und aufgeklärte Patrioten".In my opinion, another interesting part of the book is at the back of the book, namely Rückblick or self-reflection.In this section learners are asked to recall what they have learned about competency, and which competencies they think are important and interesting.All eleven competencies are of course impossible to learn and practice within 300 hours as stated in the teaching of this book, so it is reasonable that out of these eleven there are some competencies that learners feel they do not yet have.Therefore, in the last exercise, there is a question that says "which key competencies do you still need to master, and how do you get them?".This kind of open questions triggers learners to be able to think for themselves and can determine what steps they must take so that their goals for success at work can be achieved.
As one of the European Union member countries that opens employment for citizens of other countries besides German citizens, Germany is indeed known as an immigrant country.The second reason, namely the economic reasons stated as follows: The country would be worse off economically without immigration.In 2050, approximately ten million people in Germany will be over 80 years old.The human resources potential would decline tangibly without immigration.We already have a shortage of skilled personnel in many areaswe need carers, doctors, IT specialists, and skilled workers in the fields of technology, mechanical engineering and automotive engineering.We need immigration followed by rapid integration so that the German economy can remain as strong as it is now (Özoğuz: 2017).
It can be implied from Özoğuz"s statement that there is an urgent need that is currently faced by Germany that is sometimes difficult to admit even by the Germans.Germany"s has inverted population pyramid, that is caused by low birth rate.This forces German government to find the way in order to maintain sustainable economic growth.Therefore, the existence of immigrant in Germany can be considered as a solution for this problem.
Back to the aspect of mastering German as a second language, immigrants who are now in Germany are required to be able to master the cultural aspects as well because the demands pinned to them are quite large.It is not impossible that one day they must bury their desires to return to their country.It is also not impossible that in the future, German government will demand the refugees to return the favor, for opening their gates for the refugees, by asking them to enter Germany"s work landscape and fill the positions that lack resources.Regarding this, if the refugees are willing to live in Germany forever, "Leitkultur" agenda needs to be taken more seriously, even though we do not always agree with what is contained in it.Integration is a long and timeconsuming process.Therefore, it is better if this process is done as early as possible, right after they set foot in Germany.