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Learning German at UW-Madison
How to form realistic expectations of
language learning progress and why
we ask you to do what we ask you
to do.
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Your Experiences
 How did you learn English?
 Do you know a FL other than German?
 How did you learn this language?
 How long did you learn (have you been
learning) this language?
Our Program Goals: How We
Measure Progress
 You can express yourself on a greater
variety of topics
 You can express yourself with more
precision and detail
 You have an increased fluency/speed of
comprehension/production
Our Program Goals: How We
Measure Progress
 You have a decreasing dependence on
listeners/speakers for successful
communication
 You have an increasing repertoire of
language tools
 i.e. Beginning: you can distinguish between a
request and a command
 i.e. Intermediate: you can distinguish between
more and less direct speech
Our Program Goals: How We
Measure Progress
 You develop language strategies which help
with language use (comprehension and
production) in real-life situations (without a
textbook, explanations or preparation, and
use little or no English)
 Increasing comfort level with the language
Our Program Goals: How We
Measure Progress
 You have increasing accuracy in
vocabulary, grammar,
pronunciation/intonation, text production
(i.e. in different genres) and social
conventions (pragmatics)
 You have an increasing awareness of how
languages function - including grammatical
structure and social and cultural
connotations.
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 1
 You can talk about yourself and your needs
in predictable (scripted) situations
 i.e. situations that would likely be encountered
by a student learner of German in a German
speaking country.
 You can understand and interpret very
basically what goes on socially and
culturally in predictable (scripted) situations
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 1
 You gain an overview of the basics of
German grammar
 How is German Grammar organized? (cases,
verb conjugations, etc.)
 What are some basic contrasts? (what function
do the nominative, accusative, and dative cases
have?)
 How is German different from English?
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 1
 You gain an overview of the basics of
German Grammar, cont.
 What are some effects of these differences?
 i.e. German has more case endings, so it is easier to
recognize the nominative and accusative cases
 i.e. German nouns can occur in different places,
which indicates a certain message or emphasis
 How do languages function? What purpose do
they serve?
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 1
 You acquire a basic stock of vocabulary,
which allows you to:
 Talk about the topics previously outlined, both
as they pertain to you AND in conversations
about these topics pertaining to other people
 Expand into greater detail later
 i.e. we learn the 10 basic colors, but in order to talk
about a paining, you will need more colors
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 1
 Use very specific vocabulary and grammar
in very narrow and focused tasks (such as
quizzes) with a high degree of accuracy
 i.e. in a quiz, if you are to select the correct
case, you should be able to do that with great
accuracy. This level of accuracy is not expected
in free and spontaneous speech.
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 You will be able to talk in basic terms about topics
relevant to educated native speakers of the
German-speaking countries
 Including history, politics, the environment and
literature.
 You will achieve a deeper understanding of how
the history, geography and social structure of the
German-speaking countries relates to language use
 In personal conversations, presentations, discussions,
and the language arts (film, literature and media)
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 You will develop a firmer understanding of
how:
 Grammatical structures relate to each other in
form
 How do adjective endings resemble article endings?
 How are the simple past, Subjunctive I and
Subjunctive II similar or different in their forms?
 Grammatical structures relate to certain
functions
 Why would you chose to use the passive over the
active voice, or the subjunctive over the imperative?
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 You will increase your accuracy in narrow
and specified tasks such as quizzes
 This is a review from Year 1
 You will begin working on accuracy in
contextual (less narrow) tasks
 i.e. writing texts and speaking freely
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 You will expand your vocabulary for greater
detail and expressiveness (you will have
alternatives to the verb “gehen”, you will
paraphrase, and use synonyms and
antonyms as they occur in natural language
use
 Synonyms in English:
 A: Isn’t it a beautiful day?
 B: Yes, it is just gorgeous!
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 Antonyms in English:
 A: Wow, that is really difficult!
 B: You’re right, it sure isn’t easy!
 Paraphrasing in English:
 A: I find that really hard to believe!
 B: You are right - it is incredible!
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 You will begin to understand the essential
non-translatability and cultural
embeddedness of language:
 Elusive meaning (It means what it means only
in context)
 i.e. How would you describe, paraphrase, or
“translate” the word “just”?
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That just isn’t fair.
I think it was just punishment for what he did.
Hold on - he just came in.
Just give it to me and be done with it.
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 The non-translatability of languages, cont.
 Different prefered ways of expressing the same
thought
 English: The obvious conclusion is that we did not
do a thorough enough job.
 German: Man muss daraus offensichtlich schließen,
dass wir nicht genau genug gearbeitet haben.
 Notice: different subjects, verb vs. noun related to
“conclusion” and “job,” thorough, and a different
tense (simple past vs. present perfect)
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 The non-translatability of languages, cont.
 Cultural connotations:
 What is a “job” in American English?
 Good job! He does not have a job! That is not my job! He
signed up for on-the-job training.
 In German
 Der Job, Die Arbeit, Der Beruf, die Aufgabe, die Stelle
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 What you should NOT expect to be able to do at
the end of Year 2 (and what we do not expect of
you)
 Speaking or writing without hesitation
 The ability to speak or write well (relatively accurately
and spontaneously) about a topic you have not
practiced
 The ability to easily understand texts (spoken or
written) about which you have very little background
knowledge or which are written in a style other than
factual (i.e. sarcastic or satirical)
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 What you should NOT expect to be able to
do at the end of Year 2, cont:
 The ability to use low-frequency (“unusual” or
“sophisticated”) words spontaneously
 The ability to use low-frequency words in
grammatically-accurate forms
 See the language-learning theory of
“connectionism”
 The ability to maintain high levels of
grammatical accuracy in context (i.e. when
writing an essay)
Our Program Expectations and
Goals: Year 2
 What you should NOT expect to be able to
do at the end of year 2, cont:
 The ability to understand or use ALL
grammatical forms equally well (accurately,
spontaneously) - some (i.e. subject verb
agreement) will develop faster than others
(most notoriously: subjunctives, passives,
relative clauses, and adjective endings)
 The ability to carry on a conversation
independently of how “good” (proficient,
helpful, etc.) your conversational partner is
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 At the UW-Madison and in the vast
majority of language programs throughout
the country, the Communicative Approach
to language learning is used.
 This Approach to language learning has
been around since the early 1970s and was
developed in response to language learners
being able to analyze sentences, but unable
to communicate in the Foreign Language.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 The Communicative Approach is a language
teaching approach that has been and
continues to be the subject of research
studies in Second Language Acquisition
 Basically, the Communicative Approach
says that you can only learn to do Y by
doing Y - not by doing X: You learn how to
communicate by communicating and not by
practicing paradigms.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Learning to Communicate Requires:
 Input (the teacher, other students, and even texts
“talking” to the learner)
 Output (the learner producing meaningful language)
 Interaction/negotiation for meaning
 The back-and-forth of one party trying to communicate a
message and the other trying to comprehend it as intended, and
how the two go back and forth coming closer to arrive at a
common understanding.
 Real tasks associated with real language functions
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Consider how much input, output, and
interaction it took for you to become a
fairly proficient speaker of your mother
tongue (first language). Compare that to
how much input, output, and interaction
can happen in a course which meets 1516 weeks a semester, 250 minutes/week,
with 24 or so students and one teacher.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Consider how real the task of asking for/getting
a treat is for a child as compared to how real
the task of an imaginary shirt at a fictitious
store, supposedly in a country which many
have never visited, is for students who learn the
language in a classroom.
 Try to think of ways to maximize your exposure
to input and your ability to produce output and
interact.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Communication requires not only
knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, but
also knowledge of the social context and the
culture.
 Imagine for a minute that you are lost and need
directions. Now, imagine the reaction of a
German-speaking adult who may be able to
assist you if you address this individual with
“du.”
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Communication requires knowledge of how
certain functions one wishes to accomplish (i.e. to
make a polite request) relate to certain forms
 “Ich hätte gern ein Glas Wasser.”
 vs. “Gib mir ein Glas Wasser.”
 Language is creative and meaning does not neatly
correspond to one single specific form.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Example: You are hot and would like the other
person in the room to agree to open the window. You
can choose from different options, depending on
how well you know the person, your status relative
to the other person’s status, how urgent the situation
is (e.g., you are suffering an asthma attack as
compared to you are mildly uncomfortable), whose
house it is, etc. You can vary what you say in
forcefulness, directness, and politeness. You can
mention the window or not. You can refer to
yourself or to the other person or neither. You can
make a statement or exclamation or ask a question.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Open the [*#@] window!
 For goodness’s sake, please open the window!
 Would you please open the window?
 I am dying here!
 My face must be red.
 Aren’t you hot?
 Don’t you think it’s hot in here?
 It seems it’s a bit warm in here.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Language can be represented in the form of
rules but only with serious limitations.
Rules are shortcuts and abstractions.
 Where there are rules, there are exceptions
(language changes, develops, and constantly
eludes “neatness,” especially in the most
frequently used expressions)
 Much of the language has not been and might
not ever be captured in hard and fast rules.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Language can be represented in the form of
rules but only with serious limitations.
Rules are shortcuts and abstractions, cont.
 Some rules are so complicated that they come
close to being useless as rules.
 Where does one place the particle “doch”?
 How does one use “like” in American English?
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Although we can represent some of
language in rules, that does not mean this is
how we learn it. We can represent a route
we are going to take on a map, but that is
very different from actually walking the
route.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 Some rules are very complex and require so
many sub-rules that it is difficult to use the
language (especially in speaking) if one were to
try it simply by “applying the rule/s”
(remember adjective endings?)
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 Grammar rules are applied more successfully to
certain words (those used more often) than to
others.
 Few people have problems conjugating “er geht” but
many more have problems with “er kneift.”
 According to the Connectionism Theory, if there
were “hard and fast rules,” this difference shouldn’t
occur.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 Most people can only focus on one rule or a
few rules at a time. Actual language use
requires the application of many different rules
at the same time. It is easier to conjugate “er
kneift” in a fill-in-the-blank test than use it in a
sentence or a composition. Thus, accuracy in
quizzes is easier to achieve than accuracy in
essay writing (consequently, we expect higher
accuracy on quizzes)
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 Learners do not simply “add” and “retain” rules as they
learn. Old “rules” get adjusted or seemingly forgotten.
The nominative might make sense until you hear of the
accusative and the accusative is then fine until the
dative comes along. Since rules need to work together
in actual language use, learning a new rule will affect
the “rule system.” We present an overview of the “rule
system” in Year1, so that you can orient yourself and
Review un Year 2 (and 3 and 4).
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Spiral Learning
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 U-shaped Learning
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 Rules are “learned” (understood and retained for future
application) more readily when learners uncover them
themselves - in other words, when learners read or hear
language first and then either look for or, better yet,
“discover” (induce) a rule, it will promote their learning
more than someone first telling them about a rule and
then showing how it applies in a context.
 Inductive Learning (evidence before the rule) is more
beneficial than deductive learning (rule before the evidence)
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 We can represent some rules, cont.
 When people learn their mother tongue, they
are sensitive to rules (and later, exceptions) but
they do not consciously apply them. Most
cannot even give a “rule” of their language until
someone teaches them about such “rules” in
school - much later than when they actually
become proficient in the language.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 Strategies are important in both learning and using
a language. Learning strategies include
memorization, motivating self-talk, and practice of
various kinds. Language use strategies pertain to
both producing (writing and speaking) and
comprehending (listening and reading) languages.
They include paraphrasing, repeating/rereading or
asking for repetition, and guessing at the meaning of
words in context. Strategies enable learners to
function more independently and make “do with
what they know”. This skill is essential in real life,
when one has to communicate without the
immediate aid of a textbook, a teacher, or dictionary.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 One does not learn in a straight line or a constantly
rising curve (or simply add rules), how well one
performs (e.g., how fast one can talk or how
accurately one writes or talks) depends on a number
of other considerations, besides how well one
“knows the rule”. Factors include how much time
one has to plan, rehearse, and/or revise one’s
language production; how familiar the topic is; how
much one has to produce at a time; how comfortable
one feels in the situation, etc.
How We Teach and Why We
Teach This Way
 It is difficult to track “progress” or “growth
in knowledge” in a definitive way.
Language teaching relates to the
science of second-language
acquisition
 Second-language Acquisition is a
theoretical as well as empirical research
field.
To Learn More About SLA
To Learn More About SLA
 Visit UW-Madison websites:
www.sla.wisc.edu and
www.languageinstitute.wisc.edu
 Go on-line, including a UW-Madison
library data base “LLBA”
To Learn More About SLA
 LLBA:
 go to: http://www.library.wisc.edu/
 click on second line (E Resource Gateway)
 pick “L” for LLBA
 click “LLBA”
 begin e.g., key word search; you might use terms
such as “communicative language”, “accuracy”,
“connectionism”, “accuracy”, “noticing”, “rule
based learning”, “vocabulary” or “lexical accuracy”,
or “language teaching” to read more about many of
the topics touched upon here
To Learn More About SLA
 Visit the websites of relevant professional
and/or research organizations:
 www.actfl.org [American Council on the Teaching
of Foreign Languages]
 www.aaatg.org [Association of American Teachers
of German]
 www.aaal.org [American Association for Applied
Linguistics]
 www.aausc.org [American Association of University
Supervisors and Coordinators]
To Learn More About SLA
 Read (on-line or hard copy) one of the many,
many professional/research journals:
 American Association of Language Program
Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC) - Annual
Volumes
 (Heinle & Heinle)
 ADFL Bulletin
 Annual Review of Applied Linguisticss
 Applied Language Learning
 Applied Linguistics
 Australian Language Matters
 Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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Babel
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition
Brain and Cognition
Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/ Revue
canadienne de linguistique appliequee
Canadian Modern Language Review
College ESL
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
Cognition
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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Didactica (Lengua y Literatura)
ELT Journal
EUROSLA Yearbook
Folia Linguistics
Foreign Language Annals
Fremdsprachenunterricht
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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Gender and Education
Intercultural Education
International Journal of Applied Linguistics (INJAL)
International Journal of Bilingualism
International Review of Applied Linguistics (IRAL)
ITL, Review of Applied Linguistics
Issues in Applied Linguistics
Issues in Language Learning
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
 Jahrbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache
 Journal of English for Academic Purposes
 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition
 Journal of Pragmatics
 Journal of Research in Reading
 Journal of Second Language Writing
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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Language Awareness
Language Communication
Language, Culture, and Curriculum
Language and Education
Language and Intercultural Communication
(Journal of) Language, Identity, and Education
Language Learning
Language Policy
Language in Society
Language Teaching Research
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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Modern Language Journal
Mosaic
Multilingua
Praxis des neusprachlichen Unterrichts
Reading and Writing Quarterly
Reading Psychology
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
 Second Language Research
 Studies in Second Language Acquisition
(SSLA)
 System
 Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German
To Learn More About SLA
 Journal List, cont.
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TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada
TESOL Journal
TESOL Quarterly
World Englishes
Questions?
Questions for discussion
 What were your first impressions of your
first German class at UW?
 What do you really like about your German
class?
 What do you not like so much about your
German class?
 After listening to this presentation, why do
you think your TA teaches as s/he does?
 What can you do to succeed in your
German class at UW-Madison?

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