Course Schedule

Examines the nature and function of minority discourses in German culture and literature.

Intercultural Communication (ICC) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is a graduate course on theory, research and practice of communication between people from different cultures and how it relates to language learning. The course is designed for future language professionals (e.g., teachers, translators, and researchers). It will (a) help them prepare themselves for intercultural encounters and develop the skills needed to communicate effectively and appropriately when interacting and collaborating with people that are culturally different from themselves and (2) it will help them prepare to teach, and/or conduct research about ICC and SLA.

This class is intended to prepare students to teach a second/foreign language. It will provide students with the essential foundations in language teaching methodology and theory, pedagogical grammar, curriculum and materials development, classroom management, and formal and informal assessment techniques. In addition, students will gain practical knowledge through video practicum components, which allow them to watch and reflect on actual classroom teaching. Students will complete this program with the pedagogical knowledge and practical understanding necessary to be confident and effective language teachers.

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

The purpose of the Proseminar is to provide incoming SLAT major and minor students with a forum in which they can acquire knowledge about current major issues in the field of Applied Linguistics and methods applied to investigate them, critically engage with research and scholarship, and develop a stance in relation to these major issues. Please register through the SLAT Program Coordinator.

Rapid acquisition of reading proficiency in German. No prior knowledge of German is necessary. Proficiency certification obtained from this course fulfills graduate foreign language requirement is some departments (consult department for information).

Intended for advanced MA and PhD students in their last year of coursework (third-semester for MA students, fifth-semester for PhD students), this student- and project-centered seminar helps students bring their previous research projects to a new level of excellence. Students arrive to the seminar with a recently completed German Studies project (whether literary/cultural, applied linguistic, or both), which they wish to turn into a 'publishable' piece of research. This can be a pedagogical lesson-study, a research article, a multi-modal work, or a mixed-methods project. By mid-way in the semester, students will have brought this project to fruition in writing and by way of an oral presentation, so that the remainder of the semester can focus on cultivating advanced competence in interdisciplinary research methods in German Studies, with equal attention afforded to literary/cultural and applied linguistic/pedagogical approaches.

This course will combine insights from Translation Studies, applied linguistics, and German cultural / literary studies to help students develop skills, knowledge, and experience in translating a number of literary and non-literary genres, including song texts, short essays, advertising texts, everyday speech, and historical artifacts. We will learn about how to negotiate literal and connotative meaning across codes, idioms, cultures, communities, and symbolic systems. We will explore the idea of "being a translator" as an everyday social and cultural practice. Graduate-level requirements include a final paper.

Issues in and methods of applied linguistics with emphasis on Germanic languages. Student taking GER 480 for German Studies credit must have advanced proficiency in German. Graduate-level requirements include an in-depth research paper on an aspect of applied linguistic research. Students taking GER 580 for German Studies credit must have advanced proficiency in German.

The development and exchange of scholarly information, usually in a small group setting. The scope of work shall consist of research by course registrants, with the exchange of the results of such research through discussion, reports, and/or papers.

Survey of major perspectives on second language acquisition processes, including interlanguage theory, the Monitor Model, acculturation/pidginization theory, cognitive/connectionist theory, and linguistic universals. Analysis of research from the different perspectives includes consideration of grammatical, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic dimensions of language learning.