Department of German

© Please do not cite without permission

Susanne Rinner
rinners@georgetown.edu
German Department, Georgetown University
Paper Presented as Part of the Panel:
"Toward an Understanding of Advanced-level Language Learning"
Presented at ACTFL – AATG 2002
Salt Lake City, UT
November 23, 2002

I. Teaching "Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft"

Course Description and Goals

"Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft" is an upper-level course designed to link content and advanced language acquisition.

• Enable students to discuss different notions of love and romantic relationships and how they relate to their literary representation in 20th century literature written in German and in German film.
• Enable students to participate in the academic discourse of literary criticism both orally and in writing.Twofold Rationale for Linking Content and

Advanced Second Language Acquisition

In the research for my dissertation, I developed an interest in the literary representation of notions of love.  To pursue this research interest further, I decided to design a course exploring literary texts of and about love.  With the development and implementation of the curriculum "Developing Multiple Literacies" in the German department at GU, the challenge arose to integrate this content with features of advanced language acquisition.  I was fortunate enough to join the Materials Development Group which formed as part of a grant funded by the Spencer Foundation.  With the other members of the group and under the guidance of Heidi Byrnes, I studied the linkage between content and language acquisition further.

This led me to view language not as a tool; rather, I emphasize how language and its use shape the various discourses and thus their contents.  Due to the interconnectedness between language and content, language acquisition does not end in a course that is topic- and theme-driven and designed for the advanced language learner.  Language and content blend in the academic discourse, thus the goal for courses at all levels of instruction should be to facilitate continued L2 development in terms of accuracy, fluency, and complexity in all four modalities, reading, writing, speaking and listening.  Furthermore, the tight connection between language and content points directly to the cultural embeddedness of texts and to the importance of the role and functions of both, the texts and the participants in a specific discourse.  These underlying assumptions informed the decision-making process in designing this course to serve the dual function of exploring the representation of love and romantic relationships and to enhance advanced language acquisition with respect to academic literary criticism.

I am continuing my presentation by first discussing the manifestations of learner differences and how I address these in my course before, in the third part, I show how I chose texts and designed tasks in order to enable students to join the community of German literary scholars and, in that capacity, to explore the representation of love in 20th century literature written in German while enhancing their advanced language abilities.

II. Advanced Language Learners and Their Differing Needs

Description of Differences

Considering the student body in my course, I notice a lot of variation among advanced language learners and their use of German.  This can be attributed to differences in:

• Confidence in using German
• Proficiency level
• Experience or the lack thereof with the study of literature and familiarity with the topic in particular.
• Exposure to German language, literature, culture, and "life" e.g. in study abroad, heritage speakers, German speaking upbringing.
• Different experiences with the curriculum in the German department at GU.Variety of expectations concerning learning goals and outcomes regarding language acquisition and content.

Addressing Learner Differences

Considering these differences among advanced language learners that lead to differing needs in terms of instruction, it seems crucial to take learner background, interest and goals into consideration.  Thus, I administer questionnaires at the beginning and in the middle of the semester.  These questionnaires not only invite students to reflect on their own experiences learning and using German, their knowledge base and their future plans and goals with respect to their language learning and use, but they also allow me to emphasize the dual goal of the course in terms of content and language acquisition and to stress their interrelatedness.  Raising awareness of these issues seems to be crucial in order to support students' efforts to succeed in this course.

Secondly, throughout the semester, I point explicitly to the dual goal of the course and create space for reflection of what, how and why we are doing what we are doing.  At the end of each unit, one entire class session is devoted to a concluding discussion that is prepared by the students at home.  Part of this session consists in discussing questions concerning linking content and language acquisition.  Furthermore, we explore possible topics for the research paper due at the end of the semester to encourage students to develop the ability to "find" topics for further research and thus, to be truly independent participants in the discourse on German literature.

Third, additional space for direct interaction between the instructor and the students is created through weekly journal writing.  Students write their journal entries mostly in German and reflect on the content of the course as well as on their own progress in terms of language acquisition.  This is a very effective tool for communication and for reflection on individual needs in terms of support and guidance provided by the instructor.

Fourth, both, oral and written work in its various stages receives extensive feedback reflecting the dual goal of this course.  At the same time, at the beginning of the semester, students, in close consultation with the instructor, identify areas which they perceive as their personal weaknesses.  This enables the instructor to provide individualized feedback and to assess students on an individual basis within the frame of the outlined expectations of each assignment.  Thus, the emphasis in this course is on individual instruction as well as on encouraging students to become self-reflective learners within the framework of the course.

III. Texts and Tasks

In the third part of my presentation, I would like to focus on the implications of these differing needs of the advanced language learner in terms of text choice and task development.

In general, I identify the following goals to respond to the differing needs of advanced language learners:

• Raise awareness of language use within a specific discourse, in this course the language of literature pertaining to the representation of love and romantic relationships and literary criticism.
• Support students in becoming knowledgeable, self-aware, self-confident, convincing, and trusted participants in this discourse.
• Raise awareness of the dialogic nature of speaking, listening, reading and writing within a specific discourse, that is not only to foster knowledge of self, but also about the other participants in the discourse, the conventions and the history of the discourse and its interrelatedness to language.

I would now like to demonstrate the structure of one unit of the course "Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft" and some sample texts and tasks in order to illustrate how I integrate texts and tasks and how I work with students in order to explore the topic while advancing language acquisition. (All the units follow basically the same structure and approach.)

Sample Unit:

II. Love at the Turn of the Century: A Discovery

Literary Texts: Arthur Schnitzler: Reigen (1896/97) and Thomas Mann: Der Tod in Venedig (1912).
I chose literary texts that allow students to explore the cultural and historical constructedness of notions of love and the social conventions of romantic relationships through the exploration and interpretation of literary genres, literary language, and aspects of intertextuality.  These literary texts also allow students to explore the lexicogrammatical features for both spoken and written discourses about love and romantic relationships.
Students produce semantic fields based on the literary texts.  Often, it seems to be necessary to develop semantic fields in order to be able to talk about the silences and the gaps in a literary text.

Literary critical text: Horst Thomé. „Arthur Schnitzlers „Reigen" und die Sexualanthropologie der Jahrhundertwende." Text und Kritik (138/139) 1998: 102-113.
This text is the basis for the group presentations as well as for an individual writing assignment, the précis.  Focus of the analysis of the text is on three aspects: content, structure, argument and purpose, and critical evaluation and critique of how the article relates to the topic of the course.  This critique leads to a class discussion that the presenters prepare.
The text serves a dual function:

• Provides an interpretation of literary text and thus demonstrates how to read literature theoretically and methodologically.
• Serves as a model for students own writing.

The notion of texts as a model:

• On the macro level: Literary critical text serves as a model for the research paper that students are expected to write at the end of the semester.
• On the micro level: within the literary critical text, there are paragraphs/ sections that serve as models for the writing assignments during the semester which are the building blocks for the research paper: text summary, character description, etc.

I choose literary critical texts that allow students to explore the different ways of interpreting literary texts in terms of theories and methodological approaches. Furthermore, I choose texts that demonstrate how to contribute to the discourse on a specific literary text structurally, in particular, to give students the opportunity to explore the genre of literary criticism in terms of structuring and expressing one's argument.  Both oral and writing assignments ask for extensive engagement with a text regarding content, textual organization, and lexicogrammatical collocations of a particular genre and topical area.  Furthermore, I am interested in pointing students to the cultural embeddedness of texts in the language in which they are written.

In order to demonstrate the close relation between literary text and literary criticism, between texts and tasks, and between texts as models and students' own efforts to enhance their language use on the very advanced level, I rely heavily on explicit teaching.

Explicit Teaching:

Maximize the chances of noticing, raising awareness, foster attention, pointing to otherwise hidden or covered processes of meaning making, this in turn leads to the internalization of cognitive processes
Since literary texts in particular are inherently ambiguous and need to be interpreted, I think it is important to convey to students that the lack of immediate understanding of a literary text does not point to insufficient knowledge in the L2 but requires the students to create meaning from a text – something that not only occurs in the L2, but also in the L1.

IV. Conclusion

I hope I have demonstrated how it is possible, in a course that links content and language acquisition, to address differing needs of advanced learners of German

• By carefully planning individualized instruction within the framework of the course
• By choosing texts and developing tasks that emphasize issues of literacy that transcend the use of L2 and thus demonstrate that advanced language acquisition consists of more than accumulation of ever more sophisticated vocabulary and the fine-tuning of grammar.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the German Department at GU to provide the opportunity for me to actually teach this course this fall semester.  I would like to thank the other members of the Materials Development Group which existed within the framework of a grant funded by the Spencer Foundation, "Supporting Teacher-Researchers in a Comprehensive Curriculum Renewal Project in a College Foreign Language Department" under the leadership of Professors Heidi Byrnes and John Norris.  In particular, I would like to thank Heidi Byrnes for the countless suggestions and the valuable support throughout the development and implementation of "Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft".

“Liebe, Lust und Leidenschaft”

Students are encouraged to become independent and self-reflective second language learners who, within the framework of the course, determine their own specific learning goals, and monitor and assess their own progress throughout the semester. This will be achieved through a questionnaire at the beginning and in the middle of the semester and through weekly journal writing. Students are also encouraged to visit the instructor’s office hours on a regular basis. The instructor will give extensive feedback on students’ performances in the middle of the semester.

By the end of the semester, students will be able to: