Der Whodunit als Hilfsmittel im Fremdsprachenunterricht – dargestellt anhand von Jaume Fusters Claus de vidre

The necessary transition from instrumental foreign language lessons to the reading of literary texts often will be accompanied by a total reset of supposed knowledge. This might be avoided by a smart text-selection. The article, using the example of the Catalan author Jaume Fuster and his Claus de vidre, shall prove, why and in which way criminal riddles are specially suitable as beginner’s reading. The advantages of Whodunits in order to improve comprehension of written texts based on low or inexistent language experience might be illustrated especially well by introducing a rather marginal language. Obviously, the previous confidence in the existence of a reasonable explanation about the criminal mystery unchains the evolution of linguistic awareness. It’s surprising that the imitation of the detective’s job seems to improve the concentric perception even of those parts of the text which don’t keep any direct relation with the crime.