Student Learning Outcomes for German Courses

German 1441 Beginning German—Language and Culture

Reading

The student will be able to read a short text of simple sentences containing familiar vocabulary and summarize it in English.

Writing

The student will write a very short descriptive personal letter. The student will be able to incorporate adjectives expressing opinion or analysis.

Listening

The student will understand short, simple sentences directed at him or her about familiar topics. The student will recognize and understand familiar material.

Speaking

The student will have a small active vocabulary of basic terms, and say very short, simple utterances which he or she has practiced, in the form of a thirty-second statement. The student will be able to read aloud a set of practiced sentences or utterances with correct pronunciation, phrasing, at normal speed.

Vocabulary

The student's passive vocabulary includes terms relating to describing people, asking for information and clarification, expressing ownership, possibilities, likes and preferences, time (calendar and clock), common daily and leisure activities, and food. Some of this vocabulary is active.

Grammar

The student will grasp characteristic features of standard written German such as noun gender, verb endings, and the nominative and accusative cases. Although he or she will not always be able to produce them correctly, the student will be able to describe these features accurately and give some correct examples.

Culture

The student will have knowledge of the geography of Europe, especially the placement of Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria in Europe, their border countries and the economic and political implications of the present geographical situation, as well as an understanding of the historical instability of borders in general. The student will have a working knowledge of the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim. Furthermore, the student will understand the role of the German language and heritage in the world, in North America, of cuisine in German-speaking countries, and of the metric system. The student will understand the cultural dimensions of greetings/farewells and titles of address. The student will know about employment in the tourist industry in Europe.

German 2313 Beginning German—Language and Culture

Reading

With the aid of a dictionary, the student will read a text of several paragraphs. The student will answer correctly at least 80% of comprehension questions relating to the text. Without a dictionary, the student will read a simple internet text on topics containing familiar vocabulary and content.

Writing

The student will write grammatically correct simple sentences. The student will write compound and complex sentences with teacher support. The student will write an essay, job description, or post card that describes activities, job activities, or personal life activities, and/or the student will write a fairytale or write about an event in the past (journal, interesting evening with someone, etc.). The writing will contain some errors, but will be comprehensible to a native speaker of German.

Listening

The student will listen to a familiar text without written support and understand it. The student will understand blocks of speech of several sentences, which are directed to him or her and relate to familiar topics. The student will comprehend classroom discussions between the instructor and other students. The student will comprehend simple descriptive texts about everyday life or contemporary German culture.

Speaking

The student will read aloud a familiar text fluently with fair to good pronunciation, and respond correctly to simple verbal questions connected with familiar subject matter. The student will use simple and compound sentences. The student will be able to describe an indoor or outdoor picture and speculate as to the activities that are taking place in the picture.

Grammar

Level 1 (internalized) The student will describe static and active situations in the present and present perfect tenses. The student will be able to express comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs when comparing people and things. The student will be able to use the simple (narrative) past of a limited number of verbs to write very simple stories. Level 2 (recognized) The student will have an understanding of adjective endings, and will recognize the past perfect, als, and wenn vs. wann vs. ob. Level 3 (introduced) The student will be exposed to the genitive case and relative pronouns.

Vocabulary

The student will talk about the world of work, including professions, want ads, applying for jobs, job situations, people and things at work, as well as holidays and leisure time.

Culture

The student will have knowledge of the world of work and leisure in the German-speaking cultures, including job interviews, advertising, the apprenticeship system, the social services system, holidays and celebrations, as well as the Grimm Brothers and the tales they saved for posterity, the country of Switzerland, and the cities of Leipzig and Dresden.

German 3301, English 3300, Women's Studies 4392 German Women Writers

Language Skills in English: Oral Presentations, Written Essay Format

The student will be able to present well organized oral reports (description, narration, argument) with appropriate print or media support. The student will write a well organized, academically acceptable essay (description, narration, argument). German majors and minors will demonstrate skill in writing in German.

Content knowledge

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the history of German women writers up to 1800. The student will demonstrate knowledge of women’s and men’s lives, as well as an understanding of their works during the classical period of German literature. The student will provide a cogent argument for his/her informed definition of literature.

German 3313 Conversation and Culture—Germans and Americans

Language skills

Students will have knowledge of German-American intercultural communication patterns, as well as an understanding of differences in oral and written discourse.

Content knowledge

Students will have developed skills in oral interview and oral presentation techniques and methods, as well as skills in conversational interaction.

German 4334 The Culture of Business

At the conclusion of the course, the student will demonstrate specific knowledge and the ability to integrate that knowledge in an understanding of cultural issues. Specific knowledge includes:

1. Cross-cultural differences, problems, and solutions, problems arising from foreign businesses' policies.
2. Business "etiquette" rules and the power of rules.
3. Appropriate means of verbal interaction in German.
4. Knowledge of arts and belles letters as they apply to the business world.
5. Understanding of the history of German business culture, including the concepts of "business defining family" and the Hansa (die Hanse).

The student will demonstrate the ability to discuss and write, in German and in English, about

1. The relationships between knowledge of manners, verbal interaction rules, cross-cultural issues, and high culture in the preservation of wealth, power, class consciousness, and status.
2. The changing nature of international business today.
3. Literature and the arts as subservient to human desire versus subservience to business interests.