Elementary Course

4 credits · Undergraduate credit

GERMAN 101 is an introductory course for students who have not previously studied German. Learning a new language for the first time is exciting and fun, and the course curriculum and materials focus on engaging students' interest, creativity, and sense of humor. The course focuses systematically on the concurrent development of students' ability to understand spoken and written German and to speak and write German themselves, and on exposing students to a broad range of aspects of German culture. While children may be good at picking up a second language when living in the culture, adults are much better at learning languages in the classroom. This course aims to take advantage of this by helping students to develop effective language learning strategies and by providing students with a wide range of tools and resources to help them to learn the language. By the end of the term students will have a firm foundation in some of the fundamental elements of German grammar and will be able to understand and respond appropriately to a variety of texts and basic conversational situations.