ABI - Belonging and exclusion
aiMOOCABI - Belonging and exclusion
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Einleitung
ABI - Belonging and exclusion
Mini-description: Analyse social, cultural and linguistic mechanisms of belonging and exclusion through concrete cases, media and literary examples. You work mainly in English and learn to connect evidence, context, language and interpretation. German support comes only after context, word formation, visualisation, an English explanation and dictionary work.
Target group: Basisfach (BF) und Leistungsfach (LF), Englisch als fortgeführte Fremdsprache, Kursstufe Baden-Württemberg. Orientierung: B2, in Teilen C1 als Lernziel – ohne künstliche Schwierigkeit.
Core question: Who gets to belong, who is positioned outside, by which mechanisms, and how can texts, images and language make these processes visible?
Media entry – Observe, infer, verify: Look at the visual before reading any explanation. Name three visible patterns, formulate one cautious inference and one question that the graphic cannot answer. Then check the file description on Wikimedia Commons and distinguish data shown from interpretation.
Viewing impulse: In Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk The danger of a single story, listen for how repeated representations can reduce complex people to one dominant narrative. Note one mechanism of exclusion, one possible consequence and one strategy for widening perspective.
Course principle: Belonging is not simply a feeling. In this course, you examine it as negotiated access to recognition, participation, voice, space and representation. Exclusion may be formal or informal, material or symbolic, social, cultural or linguistic.
Academic integrity and privacy: You analyse and write yourself. If your school permits AI-supported work, identify its use, verify claims and sources, and never submit an AI-generated substitute essay. Use fictitious data in practice tasks. Recordings are voluntary and can remain private. Do not upload personal data, classmates' work or copyrighted materials to external AI systems without explicit permission.
I-can-Ziele
By the end of the course, you can:
- Belonging: explain how recognition, participation and identity can be negotiated in social situations.
- Exclusion: identify social, cultural and linguistic mechanisms of exclusion and support your claims with evidence.
- Analysis: connect form, language, narrative perspective, context and effect instead of merely summarising.
- Intercultural competence: compare perspectives without reducing groups to fixed stereotypes.
- Listening and viewing: extract claims, examples, attitudes and framing from authentic media.
- Writing: build evidence-based analytical and argumentative paragraphs.
- Speaking: discuss contested interpretations precisely and respectfully.
- Mediation: select and relay relevant information for a defined audience and purpose.
- Abi readiness: recognise typical operators and choose a task-appropriate analytical strategy.
BF focus: one or two well-chosen cases, manageable texts, guided analysis steps and clear scaffolds.
LF focus: wider material range, denser texts, more independent comparison, synthesis across sources and stronger emphasis on AFB II/III.
Vorwissen und Lernweg
Quick start: Without searching, write a one-sentence definition for each term: belonging, exclusion, identity, stereotype, code-switching. Mark each definition with A, B or C: A = secure, B = partly secure, C = unsure. Revisit your ratings after the course.
English-first help ladder:
- Context: infer meaning from the sentence, image or situation.
- Word formation: identify roots, prefixes and suffixes.
- Visualise: sketch a simple relation or mechanism.
- English dictionary: check a learner's dictionary definition and example.
- English paraphrase: explain the idea in easier English.
- German help: use a short German equivalent only if the previous steps are not enough.
Input: Mechanisms of belonging and exclusion
A simple mechanism map
Use this chain whenever you analyse a case:
Marker or difference → norm or gatekeeper → act of inclusion/exclusion → response or negotiation → consequence → evidence
Example: An accent becomes noticeable → a listener treats one accent as the norm → the speaker is interrupted or underestimated → the speaker adapts, resists or code-switches → participation changes → you support the claim with concrete wording, behaviour or visual evidence.
Important: A marker such as accent, origin, clothing or name does not automatically cause exclusion. Analyse the social rule, institution, expectation or representation that gives the marker meaning.
Social and institutional belonging
Case lens – Ellis Island: Describe only what is visually observable first. Then ask: Which institution controls movement? Which categories might matter at the border? Which forms of agency are visible or invisible? Do not infer a person's feelings, legal status or biography from appearance alone.
Case lens – Windrush and public memory: A monument does more than remember individuals; it can shape public narratives about who belongs to a national story. Analyse location, figures, material, gesture and public function. Then research one reliable source on the historical context and distinguish remembrance from historical evidence.
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Case lens – equality and participation: Use the photograph as a historical source. Analyse composition and public visibility. Then connect the visual evidence to the concepts of participation, rights and representation. Avoid judging an entire movement from one image.
Cultural belonging and representation
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A single story is a useful analytical lens when one repeated narrative becomes so dominant that complexity disappears. In literature and media, ask who gets to speak, whose perspective is missing, which labels recur and whether the text confirms or destabilises expectations.
Useful distinction:
| Term | Analytical question |
|---|---|
| Representation | How is a person or group presented? |
| Stereotype | Which simplified and generalised expectation is repeated? |
| Othering | How is an in-group constructed against an out-group? |
| Voice | Who can speak, narrate or define the situation? |
| Counter-narrative | Which dominant story is complicated or challenged? |
Linguistic belonging
Language visibility: A bilingual sign shows that language in public space can be connected to recognition, authority and identity. Analyse not only what languages appear, but also order, typography, size, audience and institutional context.
Listening focus – code-switching: While viewing the British Council video, note why speakers may shift language, variety, register or style. Classify each reason as identity-related, audience-related, situational or strategic.
Viewing focus – accents and belonging: Listen for how the video frames accent diversity. Write down one claim, one example and one question you would ask to test whether the claim applies beyond the featured speakers.
Extension – language and thought: Use Lera Boroditsky's TED talk as a stimulus, not as proof that language mechanically determines thought. Identify the evidence presented and formulate one limitation or alternative explanation.
Listening / Viewing
Strategy before, during and after viewing
Before: Predict content from title, speaker and context. Activate five key words.
During first viewing: Focus on gist, speaker position and structure. Do not stop for every unknown word.
During second viewing: Collect evidence: key phrases, examples, contrasts, tone and visual framing.
After: Separate what the source says from what you infer. Check whether your notes support your conclusion.
Listening/Viewing task – What does it mean to be a refugee?
BF: Identify the central definition, three causes or conditions mentioned, and two distinctions that prevent overgeneralisation. Summarise the video in 80–100 words.
LF: Analyse how the TED-Ed video combines definition, visualisation and simplification. Compare its framing of forced displacement with one literary character from the course. Evaluate what becomes clearer and what remains underrepresented.
Source discipline: The video is an educational introduction. For current legal definitions or statistics, verify with an official or specialist source before using them in an exam-style argument.
Reading: literary examples
Copyright note: This MOOC does not reproduce complete mandatory texts or long protected passages. Work with your school's licensed editions, legally provided excerpts or your own notes.
Jhumpa Lahiri: The Third and Final Continent
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Lens: migration, adaptation and negotiated home. Track how spaces, routines and relationships influence the protagonist's sense of stability. Analyse how understated narration can make gradual change visible.
BF prompt: Select one short passage from your legal school edition. Explain how one setting and one interaction contribute to the theme of belonging.
LF prompt: Connect narrative restraint, temporal structure and cultural negotiation. Compare the protagonist's adaptation with one more conflict-driven migration narrative.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Thing Around Your Neck
Lens: alienation, expectation and voice. Examine how migration, social expectations and relationships shape Akunna's position in the United States. Pay attention to the unusual second-person narration and to recurring images of pressure or distance.
BF prompt: Identify one moment in which expectation and lived experience differ. Explain the effect of the narrative perspective.
LF prompt: Analyse how second-person narration creates both intimacy and distance. Link this formal choice to the story's negotiation of visibility, agency and belonging.
Andrea Levy: Loose Change
Lens: encounter, social distance and unequal vulnerability. The story stages an encounter in London that brings different migration experiences into contact. Analyse how assumptions change through dialogue, setting and withheld information.
BF prompt: Trace one change in the narrator's perception and support it with two details from your edition.
LF prompt: Examine how the text links personal encounter to wider questions of hospitality, social responsibility and national belonging without reducing the characters to symbols.
Zadie Smith: The Embassy of Cambodia
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Lens: invisibility, exploitation and urban belonging. Focus on Fatou's position in London, the relation between private and public space, and the function of recurring motifs and collective narration.
BF prompt: Choose one recurring motif and explain how it shapes the reader's view of exclusion.
LF prompt: Analyse how collective voice, spatial boundaries and repetition complicate the question of who notices whom in a multicultural city.
Further mandatory-work constellation
For the current Baden-Württemberg cohorts checked for Abitur 2027 and 2028, the official focus also includes the film Arrival and short stories by Sefi Atta, Luis Alberto Urrea, Kit de Waal and Neel Mukherjee in addition to the four texts above. Use your current official Facherlass to verify the exact requirements for your cohort.
Film safety and copyright: No protected film sequence from Arrival is embedded here. Use only your school's licensed or otherwise lawful access. Analyse selected scenes through your own notes: framing of the unfamiliar, communication, language, fear, cooperation and perspective.
Kontextwortschatz und Wortbildung
Learn vocabulary through families, collocations and analytical use.
| Word family | Useful collocations | Analytical sentence |
|---|---|---|
| belong – belonging | sense of belonging; belong to a community | The scene presents belonging as conditional rather than automatic. |
| include – inclusion – inclusive | social inclusion; inclusive language | The institution signals inclusion through access and recognition. |
| exclude – exclusion – exclusionary | social exclusion; exclusionary practice | The rule becomes exclusionary when it restricts participation unequally. |
| migrate – migrant – migration | migration experience; migration policy | The narrative distinguishes individual experience from generalised ideas about migration. |
| assimilate – assimilation | pressure to assimilate | The character experiences pressure to assimilate without fully abandoning prior identities. |
| stereotype – stereotypical | challenge a stereotype; stereotypical image | The text initially activates a stereotype and later destabilises it. |
| represent – representation | cultural representation; self-representation | Representation matters because it shapes who appears normal, marginal or absent. |
| marginal – marginalise – marginalisation | social marginalisation | The speaker is marginalised through repeated interruptions and dismissive labels. |
Word-building challenge: For each family, add one adjective or noun and write one sentence in which the word performs analytical work rather than merely naming a topic.
Analyse
Six-step analysis toolkit
- Identify the issue: What aspect of belonging or exclusion is at stake?
- Name the mechanism: Which norm, institution, label, narrative or linguistic practice matters?
- Select evidence: Which exact detail from text, image, sound or interaction supports the claim?
- Analyse form: How do narrative perspective, diction, syntax, imagery, composition, sound or structure shape meaning?
- Explain effect and context: What does the form make visible, and what contextual knowledge is relevant?
- Qualify the interpretation: Which limitation or alternative reading should be considered?
Avoid the analysis gap: Do not stop after “the author uses a metaphor”. Continue: The metaphor frames X as …, which positions Y as … and therefore reinforces/challenges …
Visual analysis
Use D-E-A-L:
D – Describe visible details without interpretation.
E – Evidence select composition, gesture, text, perspective or contrast.
A – Analyse explain how these choices shape meaning.
L – Link connect the visual finding to belonging, exclusion, participation or representation.
Transfer question: Which forms of exclusion become visible in a protest image, and which may remain outside the frame?
Speaking
Structured discussion
Prompt: Belonging is created more strongly by everyday interaction than by formal membership.
BF preparation: Prepare one claim, two examples and one counterargument. Use sentence starters: One mechanism is …, The evidence suggests …, A limitation of this view is …
LF preparation: Connect at least one literary text, one non-literary source and one linguistic example. Distinguish between legal/formal membership, social recognition and self-identification.
Feedback partner: Listen for evidence, qualification and responsiveness. Do not rate accent imitation or “native-likeness”; focus on intelligibility, precision, interaction and range.
Writing
From evidence to paragraph
Use C-E-A-L:
C – Claim: make a focused analytical statement.
E – Evidence: refer precisely to the text or medium.
A – Analysis: explain how form and content create meaning.
L – Link: connect the finding to the task and wider argument.
BF writing task: Write one 180–220-word analytical paragraph on how one literary moment constructs belonging or exclusion. Use one main mechanism and two pieces of evidence.
LF writing task: Write a 350–450-word synthesis connecting two literary texts and one non-literary source. Your thesis must distinguish at least two mechanisms and address one meaningful difference between the sources.
No replacement essay: Draft the thesis and evidence plan yourself. If permitted, use digital or AI feedback only to check a specific aspect such as coherence or vocabulary, then verify suggestions and document what you changed.
Mediation
A student council is planning a fictional “Belonging Week”. A German-language planning note states:
Fiktive Informationen: In einer anonymen Übungsumfrage sagen 38 von 100 fiktiven Lernenden, dass sie sich in neuen Gruppen zunächst sprachlich unsicher fühlen. 27 nennen unklare Gruppenregeln als Hürde. 18 wünschen sich mehr sichtbare Mehrsprachigkeit. Die Zahlen sind frei erfunden und dienen nur der Sprachmittlungsübung.
Task: Write an English briefing of 120–150 words for an exchange partner who helps organise the week. Select only information relevant to concrete activities. Do not translate sentence by sentence.
BF help: Use The fictional survey suggests … / One practical implication is … / A possible activity would be …
LF extension: Explain one limitation of the fictitious data and add a recommendation that distinguishes language visibility from actual participation.
Differenzierung BF / LF
| Dimension | Basisfach | Leistungsfach |
|---|---|---|
| Material | one central case plus selected literary example | several cases and independent source connections |
| Text complexity | shorter or clearly structured passages | denser passages, ambiguity and wider contextualisation |
| Analysis | guided mechanism → evidence → effect | independent multi-layer analysis and synthesis |
| Speaking | prepared contribution with sentence support | spontaneous comparison, qualification and source linking |
| Writing | focused paragraph or shorter structured response | sustained synthesis with multiple sources |
| AFB II/III | targeted guided application and evaluation | broader, more independent analysis, evaluation and transfer |
| Help | vocabulary bank, prompts, model structure | optional prompts, source matrix, self-selected analytical route |
Fast track: Skip repeated scaffolds once you can explain mechanism, evidence and effect accurately.
Support track: Reduce the number of sources, not the quality of thinking. Use shorter extracts, visual organisers and sentence frames.
Hilfen, Feedback und Fehleranalyse
Help desk
If vocabulary blocks you: use the English-first help ladder.
If you only summarise: underline your evidence and add This matters because … after each piece.
If your interpretation is too broad: replace always, everyone and society thinks with precise agents, contexts and evidence.
If you stereotype: distinguish a character, narrator, source or documented context from an entire group.
If your paragraph feels disconnected: check whether every sentence serves the task and your claim.
Feedback: 2 + 1
Give two evidence-based strengths and one next step.
| Check | Question |
|---|---|
| Task fulfilment | Does the response answer the operator and exact focus? |
| Evidence | Are claims tied to concrete details? |
| Analysis | Is form connected to meaning and effect? |
| Coherence | Does each paragraph develop one line of argument? |
| Language | Is vocabulary precise and register appropriate? |
| Reflection | Are limitations or alternative readings acknowledged where useful? |
Fehleranalyse
Label one recurring problem in your own draft:
C = content inaccurate or too general
E = evidence missing or imprecise
A = analysis stops at naming a device
L = language obscures meaning
R = register inappropriate for an analytical task
S = source or AI-generated claim not verified
Then revise only one paragraph and explain in one sentence what improved.
Transfer
Build a belonging map for a new case. Use six boxes: marker, norm/gatekeeper, inclusion/exclusion act, response, consequence, evidence. Then compare the new case with one literary example and identify one similarity and one difference.
Possible safe cases: a fictional school club, a bilingual public sign, a museum label, a sports-team code of conduct, a literary encounter or a public information campaign.
Privacy rule: Do not collect classmates' personal experiences unless participation is genuinely voluntary. Prefer fictional scenarios or already public material.
Abi-Check
Stand: 03.10.2026. For the Baden-Württemberg Abitur cohorts 2027 and 2028, the official Facherlasse name On the Move: Migration and Cross-Cultural Encounters as a focus and include the mandatory constellation used above. Both refer current upper-secondary work to the applicable Bildungsplan and specify task formats for the written examination or course assessment. Always check your exact cohort again shortly before planning revision.
Official sources:
- Ministerium für Kultus Baden-Württemberg: Termine und Informationen zum Abitur
- Facherlass Abitur 2027
- Facherlass Abitur 2028
- Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg
LF check: Practise listening comprehension and sustained writing under time pressure. Be ready for summary, analysis and argumentative or creative follow-up tasks, depending on the official format. Coursework places substantial weight on higher-order analysis and evaluation.
BF check: The focus is addressed in an appropriate reduced extent with selected mandatory material and level-specific support. Across the course, practise listening, reading, analysis, mediation and different writing formats.
For both: Operators matter. Evidence matters. Task focus matters. Do not memorise a generic “belonging essay”; practise adapting concepts to unfamiliar material.
Abi self-check
Before submitting an exam-style response, ask:
- Have I answered the exact operator?
- Is my thesis more specific than the topic word?
- Does every analytical claim have evidence?
- Have I explained the effect of form, not only named techniques?
- Have I linked evidence to belonging or exclusion without overgeneralising?
- Have I checked source reliability and factual context?
- Is my conclusion a result of the analysis rather than a repetition?
Folgekurs
Continue with ABI - Migration and cross-cultural encounters, ABI - Identity and representation or ABI - Language, power and communication. Reuse the mechanism map, but change the material and analytical focus.
Interaktive Aufgaben
Quiz: Teste Dein Wissen
Which description best fits belonging in this course? (Access to recognition participation voice and representation) (!Simply being physically present in a place) (!Having exactly the same identity as a group) (!Speaking only one accepted language)
What is a gatekeeping mechanism? (A practice that controls access to a group resource or opportunity) (!A literary device used only in poetry) (!A synonym for cultural diversity) (!A method for translating every sentence literally)
What does code-switching involve? (Shifting language variety register or style according to context) (!Forgetting one language completely) (!Replacing analysis with translation) (!Using only formal English in every situation)
Why can a single story be problematic? (It can reduce complex people to one dominant simplified narrative) (!It always contains false grammar) (!It can only appear in fictional writing) (!It makes every reader agree with the author)
What should a strong visual analysis do after description? (Connect visual evidence to meaning and effect) (!Invent the feelings of every person shown) (!Ignore composition and perspective) (!Summarise only the historical background)
Which theme is central to The Third and Final Continent in this course? (Migration adaptation and negotiated home) (!Detective work and criminal evidence) (!Scientific experimentation) (!Medieval warfare)
Which narrative feature is especially relevant to The Thing Around Your Neck? (Second-person narration) (!A stage chorus) (!A first-person diary only) (!A sequence of newspaper headlines)
What does the course use Loose Change to explore? (Encounter social distance and unequal vulnerability) (!Space travel and alien communication) (!A grammar rule for modal verbs) (!The history of the printing press)
Which analytical lens is central to The Embassy of Cambodia? (Invisibility exploitation and urban belonging) (!Agricultural technology) (!Romantic comedy conventions) (!Weather forecasting)
How does LF work typically extend BF work in this course? (By using broader material deeper analysis and more independent synthesis) (!By avoiding literary texts) (!By replacing evidence with personal opinion) (!By making every sentence unnecessarily complex)
Memory
| Belonging | Recognition and participation |
| Exclusion | Restricted access or voice |
| Code-switching | Context-dependent language or style shift |
| Diaspora | Community living beyond an ancestral homeland |
| Gatekeeping | Control of access to groups or resources |
| Stereotype | Simplified generalisation about a group |
Drag and Drop
| Ordne die richtigen Begriffe zu. | Thema |
|---|---|
| Accent judgement | Linguistic boundary |
| Border procedure | Formal gatekeeping |
| Single story | Representational reduction |
| Bilingual sign | Language visibility |
| Narrative focalisation | Reader perspective |
Kreuzworträtsel
| Belonging | What term describes recognition and participation within a social context? |
| Exclusion | What term describes being restricted from participation or access? |
| Diaspora | What word can describe communities living beyond an ancestral homeland? |
| Register | What term describes a language variety chosen for a social situation? |
| Stereotype | What word means an oversimplified generalisation about a group? |
| Migration | What term describes movement from one place of residence to another? |
LearningApps
Lückentext
Offene Aufgaben
Leicht
- Image annotation: Choose one Wikimedia Commons image from this course. Add five factual observations and two cautious interpretations. Mark clearly which is which.
- Vocabulary map: Build a word-family map for belong, exclude, represent and migrate. Add one analytical sentence for each family.
- One-minute viewing summary: Watch one embedded educational video and produce a 60-second spoken or written summary. Recording is optional and may remain private.
- Perspective switch: Take a fictional school-club scenario and write two 100-word perspectives showing how the same rule may feel inclusive to one person and exclusionary to another.
Standard
- Compare public memory: Compare the Ellis Island image and the Windrush monument. Explain what each medium can and cannot tell you about migration and belonging.
- Close reading: Use one short passage from a legally provided mandatory text. Identify one mechanism of belonging or exclusion and analyse two formal choices.
- Language landscape: Design a fictional bilingual sign for a school space. Explain how order, size and wording communicate recognition. Do not photograph people or collect personal data.
- Mini-podcast: Create a private two-minute audio commentary on whether code-switching can function as adaptation, agency, pressure or several of these at once. Support your view with one source.
Schwer
- Literary synthesis: Compare two mandatory works and one non-literary medium. Develop a thesis about how different mechanisms shape belonging.
- Mediation policy brief: Use the fictitious survey in this MOOC to write a concise English recommendation for an international school partner. Include one limitation of the data.
- Counter-narrative project: Create a short illustrated or written counter-narrative that complicates a familiar stereotype. Add a source note explaining which assumptions you deliberately avoided.
- Abi simulation: Complete one self-chosen analysis plus writing task under realistic time constraints. Afterwards, code your errors with C, E, A, L, R and S and rewrite your weakest paragraph.
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Lernkontrolle
- Mechanism transfer: You receive an unfamiliar fictional case in which a student is repeatedly excluded from group decisions because others treat their accent as evidence of low competence. Explain the mechanism, distinguish evidence from assumption and propose two alternative interpretations that would need checking.
- Literary comparison: Compare how two literary texts from the course construct visibility or invisibility. Your answer must connect narrative form to social meaning.
- Source evaluation: A social-media post claims that one statistic “proves” a whole group does not want to integrate. Explain at least four checks you would perform before using the claim.
- Visual transfer: Analyse a new public-space image with D-E-A-L and explain one important limitation of the image as evidence about belonging.
- Language and power: Explain how code-switching can be voluntary in one setting and pressured in another. Use two contrasting hypothetical examples.
- Synthesis: Develop a thesis that connects one institutional, one cultural and one linguistic mechanism of exclusion. Then identify where the three mechanisms overlap and where they differ.
Lernnachweis
For a successful learning record, you should be able to demonstrate:
- A precise working definition of belonging and exclusion.
- Accurate distinction between social, cultural, institutional and linguistic mechanisms.
- Evidence-based analysis of at least one literary and one non-literary source.
- Correct use of analytical vocabulary and suitable English register.
- A BF- or LF-appropriate written response with clear task focus.
- A spoken contribution that responds to another perspective rather than delivering a memorised monologue.
- A mediation product that selects information for audience and purpose instead of translating mechanically.
- A documented revision step based on feedback or error analysis.
- Responsible source checking, including transparent handling of any permitted AI assistance.
- Transfer of the mechanism map to one unfamiliar case.
OERs zum Thema
Open and official starting points:
- Wikimedia Commons – licence information is available on each file-description page.
- TED – educational talks used here only as embedded viewing prompts.
- British Council – English-learning and language-culture resources.
- Ministerium für Kultus Baden-Württemberg – current Abitur information and Facherlasse.
- Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg – official curriculum portal.
Verknüpfte Lernbereiche