German Graduate Seminars Fall 2007
German 511:
Hülya N. Yilmaz
Monday 3:00- 6:00
Schedule #: 814117
304 Burrowes
E-mail: hun1@psu.edu
Office #: 863-7489
The Teaching of College German
This course is intended for students who are teaching a college level German language course for the first time. There are three main goals for this course. First, both during and outside of class, considerable time will be devoted to the practical side of foreign language teaching within a communicative-language-teaching approach. Assignments and readings with this goal in mind will focus on teaching constituents, including developing lesson plans, writing and grading quizzes (and exams, if applicable), and evaluating oneself as a teacher. Second, certain readings and class discussions will provide a broader background about the field of second language acquisition in general. Being only one semester-long, the course will offer not beyond an overview for this field of inquiry. This portion of the course will help students become more familiar with common concepts and terminology within the field of second language acquisition, and how this area of research informs foreign language pedagogy and vise versa. The final goal of this course is for students to become more aware of their own teaching style, and how they, as teachers, fit into the larger foreign language teaching community.
Required Texts:
Brown, H. Douglas. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy (Paperback). Pearson ESL (2nd. Ed.), 2000.
Kramsch, Claire. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
Margulies, Nancy and Nasu Maal. Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching
Visual Mapping (Paperback). Zephyr Press (2nd. Ed.), 2001.
Requirements:
Class participation (200 points), 3 observation reports (50 points each à 150 points), Sample lesson plan (100 points), Videotape and midcourse evaluation (200 points), Evaluation of computer-based teaching/learning tasks (100 points), Evaluation of a first year textbook (100 points), and Final evaluation and thoughts on yourself as a teacher (200 points).
German 515:
Instructor: Carrie Jackson
Tuesday and Thursday 2:30-3:45
Schedule #: 894400
304 Burrowes
E-mail: cnj1@psu.edu
Office #: 863-7488
This course is designed to give students an overview of the research and theories comprising the various subfields of applied linguistics. Over the course of the semester we will examine some (although by no means all!) of the major issues dealt with in the areas of second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, foreign language pedagogy, and sociolinguistics. Since applied linguistics, by nature, is an interdisciplinary field, we will read and discuss material that relates to these fields of inquiry in general, as well as relevant literature that is specific to German-speaking contexts.
There are three main goals for this course. First, students will become more familiar with broader concepts in applied linguistics, including different theoretical perspectives and some of the major questions explored by researchers in the various subfields of applied linguistics. Second, students will familiarize themselves with the major journals and bibliographic sources relevant to applied linguistics. Finally, students will learn how scholars in applied linguistics design and conduct research. To this end, students will write a paper in which they discuss selected previous research on a particular topic in applied linguistics, and propose a study of their own that explores a particular issue or unanswered question related to their topic.
German 520
Instructor: Vickie Ziegeler
Tuesday and Thursday 1:00-2:15
Schedule #: 868987
304 Burrowes
E-mail: vlz1@psu.edu
Office #: 863-7484
German 520 introduces students to Middle High German language , literature and culture. The course teaches students to read medieval German using Hartmann von Aue's Der arme Heinrich. Lectures in the course deal with historical developments in the language such as umlaut, as well as with literary and cultural topics that situate Middle High German historically in the development of the German language and culturally in the medieval period.
German 571
Instructor: Martina Kolb
Tuesday and Thursday 4:15-5:30
Schedule #: 894868
304 Burrowes
E-mail: muk23@psu.edu
Office #: 865-0068
Turn-of the-Century Literature
In diesem Einführungsseminar zur Literatur der Jahrhundertwende, einer Epoche, die gemeinhin als Beginn der Moderne verstanden wird, werden wir eine Auswahl lyrischer, dramatischer, erzählender und theoretischer Texte in ihren argumentativen, formal-ästhetischen und historisch-kulturellen Aspekten studieren, diskutieren, analysieren und interpretieren. Dabei sollen fürs fin-de-siècle typische Themen wie Familienverfall und Generationskonflikt, Sprachkrise und Traumwelt, Décadence und Bohème, Außenseitertum und Selbstbeobachtung, Enttabuisierungsgesten und der Gegensatz bürgerlicher und künstlerischer Lebensform ins Zentrum unserer Betrachtungen rücken. Das Seminar beginnt mit symbolistischen, impressionistischen und proto-expressionistischen Gegenpositionen zum Realismus und Naturalismus des ausgehenden 19. Jahrhunderts, wendet sich im Anschluß Freud um 1900 zu, um dann vor dem Hintergrund psychoanalytischer wie kunsttheoretischer Einsichten mit Texten des literarischen Expressionismus (1910-1925) – inklusive Kafka – zu schließen.
German 597A
Instructor: Bettina Mathes
Thursday 6:00-9:00
Schedule #: 896863
304 Burrowes
E-mail: bem12@psu.edu
Office #: 863-7487
Muslim Dialogues: cultural encounters, political contestations, and gendered exchanges
This seminar is designed to provide graduate students with detailed information on the genesis of the modern Islamic world. It is interdisciplinary in nature and presumes no specific preparation. We are particularly interested, however, in resisting the tendency to characterize Islam as a monolithic cultural and religious block, especially when it comes to the idea of “modernity.” We therefore take the notion of “dialogue” as our leitmotif for the course, as it emphasizes the discursive nature of several interactions: dialogues between Muslims and non-Muslims, dialogues among various groups of Muslims, and dialogues between ideas of Islam, East and West. Our explicit aim is to de-center the analysis of Islam in the modern world by introducing historical, cultural and literary information from Africa, Asia and Europe.
The seminar is funded by a grant from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; it will be team taught by Professors Jonathan Brockopp (Religious Studies), Tijana Krstic (History) and Bettina Mathes (German, Women's Studies, STS), and will also include sessions with experts from Penn State and other universities.
