GR 401 - German Language in Context: Emerging Competent Abroad I

The goal of this course is to exercise the German language to enhance communicative abilities, to understand and converse with native speakers and to reflect the cultural landscape of Austria with a focus on Vienna by discussing authentic texts like newspaper articles & media coverage of current events, literary texts, art works and extracts of films looking at selected time periods from the early 20th century and the present. Furthermore, we will review and introduce basic and advanced grammar and improve your reading comprehension, listening comprehension as well as speaking and writing skills. We will also look at the differences between the standard German and Viennese/Austrian dialects. 

Emerging Competent Abroad learners are able to meet all of their needs and function independently in the local culture. They are beginning to acquire the subtlety of expression and control of complex structures.

In this course students will work with authentic texts from a wide array of media in order to gain proficiency in dealing with different genres, and to reflect on cultural similarities and differences.  Students will, for example, read newspaper articles, extracts from literature texts, watch videos on current issues and listen to authentic audio files from native speakers. They will also review German grammar and style and expand their vocabulary. The course is held in German fully, so students will not only write but also speak German on a regular basis. 

Special emphasis will be laid on: 

• conversation practice in current topic discussions
• broadening of vocabulary to participate in discussions on a higher level
• listening comprehension exercises in authentic videos, presentations and songs
• pronunciation refinement
• review of complex German grammar and syntax