This article discusses a three-course sequence which has been designed to aid students' attainment of Advanced Low proficiency according to ACTFL guidelines. A cycle of iterative tasks (with increasing learner autonomy) within and between the courses in the sequence are highlighted and their implementation discussed. Additionally,…

This article argues that instructors can effectively implement visual and multi-modal methods often used in beginner and intermediate courses as effective building blocks to develop skills of literary analysis. The article presents aspects of a mini-curriculum based on "Die Verwandlung," the graphic novel, and examples of student work…

This paper is a study of a method for teaching German gender and plural assignment developed by the late Donald Steinmetz. My primary source for classroom material was the unpublished handbook for students that Steinmetz co-authored with Donald Nelson, The Joy of Gender: A Student Handbook made available to me by his son, Erik Steinmetz. In the…

This article addresses a dual desire for teaching units that (1) incorporate green issues into the language curriculum, (2) fulfill the need for comparative cultural studies in the language classroom, and (3) incorporate the ACTFL "Standards for Foreign Language Learning." Included are a review of recent approaches to teaching culture in…

Through the example of a fourth-semester course on modern German history, this article explores the application of interactive and experiential learning models inspired by museum pedagogy. In response to the ACTFL "Standards" and the 2007 MLA report, the teaching of culture has become a priority and educators continue to seek innovative…

This article reports on the ways of incorporating paintings, posters, and film into an advanced German content- and language-integrated course called "Green Germany." It demonstrates how these visual media can be employed for enriching the exploration of various aspects of the course's environmental themes. In line with the research…

The article presents and discusses materials for a cultural lesson about Green Germany. An introductory mini-unit frames the over-all student learning objective: students should be able to respond to the questions "Where are we?" and "Where are we going?" with regard to the natural environment. Three different units then help…

This study describes the design and implementation of a usage-based and corpus-based advanced German grammar course. Teaching materials for the course included DWDS, or "Digitales Worterbuch der deutschen Sprache": a large, representative, free and publicly available corpus of contemporary German texts. The article outlines specific theoretically…

This article offers a critical examination of the current practices and beliefs about vocabulary teaching and learning in typical communicative-approach German classrooms. While research on vocabulary acquisition is scarce, frequency dictionaries reveal that current practice is based heavily on the use of concrete, referential lexemes that may be…

This article explores the possibilities for effecting Transformative Learning in students of German language and culture through the use of popular music videos, in both the target and the students' own languages. Transformative Learning, a term that has differing valences in numerous academic disciplines, is employed here in its social-scientific…

Conceived of as a response to the 2007 MLA Report on the state of foreign language teaching and learning in the United States, this article takes up some of the report's recommendations and puts them into practice. The first part of the article offers a response to current debates concerning foreign language programs and lays the conceptual…

This article examines the importance of visual culture with regard to its pedagogical applications in the German language classroom. I begin by outlining the benefits and concerns associated with making visual art a part of the curriculum. Next, practical ideas are presented for using paintings in beginning, intermediate, and advanced courses.…

This article proposes a theatrically oriented, thematically structured course model for the upper level undergraduate German curriculum. The traditional focus on staging a single play in the German foreign language theater practicum neglects theater's potential to explore other literary genres and cultural texts and runs the danger of…

This article focuses on approaches to teaching dramatic comedy in an upper-level undergraduate course. In particular, it outlines how the genre of comedy permits a special focus on Austria, where the rich tradition of comedy holds a prominent place in German-speaking Europe. I argue that dramatic comedy grants language learners a unique…

This essay offers some direction for greater integration of Austria and Switzerland into every level of the German language and culture curriculum. By excavating a number of now nearly forgotten intercultural connections between these alpine countries and the U.S., it is possible to present a more complete and complex picture of German-speaking…