Professor Dennis Mahoney
The objective of Intermediate German is to reinforce and build upon students' reading, writing, listening, and conversational skills. In addition, we will concentrate on building vocabulary in context; this will be aided by the reading and discussing of texts dealing with modern German culture and literature that also allow comparison with our own perspectives and experiences. Finally, we will make use of audio-visual materials and Internet resources as springboards for discussion and group work in class. By the end of the semester, students will be in a position to make use of their newly-expanded skills in German in a variety of settings, such as more advanced coursework in German literature, culture, composition and conversation, or even study abroad.
In the Spring semester, we will complete our review of German grammar and structure with the help of chapters 7-12 of Weiter! Grammatik. The grammar review exercises will be integrated with corresponding exercises from the workbook. The workbook (Arbeitsheft ) exercises are designed to review and extend students' grammar, listening comprehension, reading, and writing skills; tapes for the audio portion of the workbook exercises are available for listening in the UVM Language Lab, located in the Southwick Building on Redstone Campus. Workbooks will be collected and evaluated at the end of each chapter.
Finally, in addition to continuing with the readings in German literature, language, and culture in Palette, we will also explore information available in media such as "Deutsche Welle" telecasts and "WWW" sites; in the process, we will be studying aspects of the German language, such as the passive voice and the quote-subjunctive, that are frequently employed in these media. In order to encourage the exchange of information prior to our class discussions, students will write an informal journal (auf deutsch, natürlich!) whose entries will be distributed via e-mail to everyone else in the class; these bi-weekly entries will also be part of the required reading for the course.
The approximate dates for the three quizzes will be February 16, March 15, and April 21. Exact dates for quizzes will be announced at least a week in advance. As a rule, the workbooks will be collected 2 class periods prior to a quiz, so as to allow students time for additional review.Evaluation
: Three quizzes 30% Formal Writing Assignments and Workbook 30% Final Examination 20% Class Preparation, Participation, Performance 20% (including e-mail entries; see accompanying explanation)
The evaluation of class performance for Intermediate German will consist of two components. One component will reflect your attendance, homework, e-mail journal entries, and level of preparedness/activity in the course. In other words, this grade indicates performance when you are present in class.
The second component will correspond to the number of unexcused absences. Each unexcused absence from class counts as a zero for that day and will be calculated as such into your classroom performance grade.
Example: 42-day spring semester
--Unexcused absences = 4
--Class performance grade: 85 (B)
-- Final Grade for performance: (85 x 38) ÷ 42 = 77 (C)
The moral of the story is: attend class
regularly and faithfully. This will
not only help your grade you will also learn German better and will
enjoy it
more as you do! And if you have a valid reason for missing class
(illness, family
emergency), please notify me in a timely fashion.
Waterman 422A
telephone: 802-656-1476 (w); 802-864-9028 (h)
(e-mail: dmahoney@moose.uvm.edu)
Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10:00-11:00 am
1:30-2:30 pm
Tuesday, Thursday 1:30-2:00 pm
3:15-4:00 pm
or by appointment
For starters, I'm including a "German Studies on the Internet" link put together by Professor Andreas Lixl-Purcell (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) that I've found helpful for searching the Internet. Please let me know of other useful sources!