Course Schedule

This course centers minoritized voices in German-language discourses and critically engages with the experiences of minoritized communities in German-speaking contexts.

This course prepares students as generalists in transcultural German Studies to acquire extensive historical and generically diverse reading experience and to set a clear agenda for their MA examination reading list or PhD comprehensive reading list. To achieve this goal, the course draws on the departmental Graduate Handbook and students' research interests, while aiming for parity in representing the fields of literature/culture and applied linguistics. While discussing relevant texts with a specifically transcultural approach in both English and German, the course guides students in assembling their reading lists, committees, and develop active reading strategies.

The primary objective of this course is the development of language teachers' assessment literacy, which includes knowledge of key assessment principles and skill in creating or adopting assessment tools and procedures for the language classroom. Participants in this course will develop their knowledge and skills related to assessing all skill areas in the language classroom, including productive skills (writing, speaking), receptive skills (reading, listening), and assessing grammar and vocabulary. Grading and student evaluation will also be important topics of consideration and exploration in this course. Designed specifically for in-service (and pre-service) language teachers, the course combines theory with practice by covering essential principles of effective classroom assessment and the development of effective assessment tools for classroom use. Participants completing this course will become more assessment literate and better able to evaluate student performance in their classrooms fairly and effectively.

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.

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 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.

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 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.