This article describes a four-week service learning abroad program. Students from a U.S. university assist and teach in elementary school English classes for one month in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany while living with their German partner teachers. The program description and students' feedback illustrate that this program provides students with the…

This study investigated students' motives for participating in a short-term study abroad program in Germany, their expectations about learning progress at the beginning of the program, and their perceived progress in various language skills at the end of the program. Findings indicated that students' expectations were higher than their perceived…

The present study reports the findings of an experiment on the effects of explicit information on the learning of German case markings. Fifty-nine learners of first- and second-year German received computer-based processing instruction on German accusative case marking and word order. These learners were divided into two groups: one received…

This is a collaborative writing project that is ideally suited for introducing longer narrative writing to second-year students. It involves collaborative learning, group dynamics and extended narrative writing. In the "Rockgruppe-Semesterprojekt", groups of students form fictional rock bands, develop tour itineraries through the German-speaking…

This article discusses how new and familiar computer technology tools can be used in a communicative language classroom. It begins by outlining the benefits and challenges of using such technology for language teaching in general, and it describes some sample activities that the author has used. Readers are shown how to implement various computer…

In this article, I review the options that teachers and students have to obtain German TV in the U.S.: through satellite and cable networks and by streaming, downloading, or recording TV programs through the internet. I also address how one can access TV programs over the air in the German-speaking countries by using a notebook PC and TV card.

The decreasing interest in the study of foreign languages forces us to reconsider and re-evaluate new teaching methods and approaches. Nevertheless, the use of music, in particular modern or pop music, for interdisciplinary studies and students' language skills appears to be still neglected. I claim that the lyrics and music of the popular group…

The negotiation of a West German identity in the decades that followed World War II can be traced in the issues and movements that preoccupied the populace. These in turn are documented in the work of socially and politically motivated "Liedermacher". Songs thus serve as a point of entry for students into how Germans saw themselves in the Bonn…

Popular music is a "lingua franca" for young people. The songs of German "Liedermacher" lend themselves to classroom uses. "Liedermacher" are cultural commentators who entertain and edify with their songs. Focusing on social and political aspects of postwar Germany, "Liedermacher" songs have been a "gesungene Landeskunde" resource since the early…

German hip hop music has proved productive, especially since 2000 when rap in Germany experienced something like a first crisis. As a response, German hip hop artists and record labels have ventured off in several different directions including other musical genres, different topics, and new approaches to German rap. This article discusses the…

Graduate education is a critical mission of Research I universities. In light of the increased attention paid to languages, to assessment, and to the search for new models for teaching and learning in German Departments, a reexamination of how we train our students is called for. A graduate experience that does not compartmentalize too rigorously…

This article describes a fourth-year German course on fairy tales that focuses on the integration of academic content with linguistic skills through technology-enhanced course modules. Situated in the discussion of the language-literature gap and the benefits of computer-assisted language learning, the proposed online course modules may prove…

The focus in many language curricula is shifting from "four skills" to "literacy." In a literacy-oriented curriculum, texts stand at the center of every course at every level. Teachers introduce content through texts early in the language learning process, assist even advanced students with the challenges of reading and writing in German, and help…

Culture has not always played a major role in foreign language instruction. Indeed, it was only in the 1980s that educators began giving serious thought to employing culture for language learning purposes. Exploring issues of otherness in Pepe Danquart's film "Schwarzfahrer", this article illustrates how one can address the more controversial…

Teaching '68 presents pedagogical challenges far greater than assembling a set of workable classroom materials. Divisive controversies that were the hallmark of the time--e.g., the debate over the nature and appropriate use of violence--are with us still, though in a somewhat different form. Further, the instructor's own politics and positionality…