This study explores the ways first-, second-, and third-year college students ("n" = 352) perceived their likely attainment of 19 morpho-syntactic, phonological, pragmatic, and lexical features of German. Analyses further differentiated perceptions by the learner variables of year of enrollment, gender, achievement, motivation for language study,…

This study of 134 college-level learners of German, enrolled in four years of instruction, showed them to "essentialize" German grammar when asked to describe it to a hypothetical friend. Kubota defined the term essentialization to capture learners' views of the target culture. Its main characteristic is the presupposition of "essential, stable,…

Following a folk linguistic approach, this investigation of first-, second- and fourth-year learners' accounts of German found that (1) few had held pre-conceived notions about German prior to language study; (2) most pre-conceived notions concerned German pronunciation; (3) pre-conceived notions about vocabulary were most likely to influence the…

Despite common assumptions of foreign-language culture as a tool in student recruitment and retention, students are not universally convinced of either the teachability of culture or the appropriateness of teaching culture at all levels of language instruction. This paper shows that students' definitions of foreign-language culture differ…

Definitions of culture of 212 first-, second-, and third-year German students are presented and discussed. Results sow that--in terms of the national standards--students overall prefer practices and perspectives over products. Students views on the teachability of culture and its appropriate place in the foreign language classroom are explored.…

Reports on a study of end-of-semester course evaluations conducted at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. A questionnaire, consisting of open-ended and closed portions, explored students baseline profiles of good teaching assistants and good second-year German courses; the intent of the students completing the evaluations; external factors;…

Examines how the demographic values of foreign travel, previous foreign-language learning, major field of study, and other factors affect students' beliefs about the study of German. The article focuses on student-perceived improvement in the four skills and cultural knowledge, student motivation, and the expected contributions of teachers and…