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USLI
Program and General Goals
The Bachelor’s Degree Program offers a comprehensive education in German language, literature, and linguistics. The Department’s course offerings and its curriculum cover a wide range of fields ranging from language, literature, and linguistics, to history, philosophy, psychology, film, and media. The key focus in these courses is on the history of German and Dutch languages, literatures, linguistic structures, cultures, and intellectual movements in a European and global context. The courses we offer are intended to provide students with the ability to interpret linguistic, literary, and cultural phenomena in their social, historical and discourse dimensions, taking into account the multilingual environments and the global cultures in which German plays a role today. Based on the requirements and in close contact with their advisers, students choose a combination of literature, culture, and linguistics courses after they have accomplished the basic training in language and the core courses. While these courses serve the intellectual advancement and training in specialized areas, they also serve the improvement of basic skills in critical analysis and evaluation, argument development, and written and oral communication. The undergraduate program provides students with the knowledge, experience, language fluency, and analytical skills necessary to enter the academic and the professional world. Students learn in both written and oral form to identify, present, and construct arguments about different types of discourses, major cultural and historical forms and movements, the work of important authors, and the history of ideas. Students learn to analyze and interpret texts, films and other German cultural artifacts from various historical periods and various social backgrounds. A ‘gateway’ course (German 100) allows them to apply their knowledge of the language to the analysis and interpretation of spoken and written texts, images and other media. Upper level courses refine their understanding of language, language learning and language use, as well as of German literature, history and culture, and further develop their ability to produce German spoken and written texts. Students choose their courses from a variety of offerings, and such choices reflect the specific interest and learning goals of the individual student within the framework of the departmental curriculum, e.g., history of German literature or of the German language, Germanic linguistics, intellectual or political history, media and film, applied linguistics, mulicultural Germany. Thus the Department provides students with the possibility to acquire advanced knowledge and skills in a number of fields, e.g., literature from various historical periods, methods of linguistic analysis, Middle High and Old High German, German dialects and levels of usage, discourse analysis, analysis of film, poetics, translation, and semiotics. Course Work
Language Program (German 1-4):In keeping with the Department’s overall mission of contributing to a solid liberal arts education, the German language program at Berkeley goes beyond the teaching of grammar and vocabulary and involves learning new forms of expression that are also new ways of thinking. Students should become sensitive to the inextricable relationship of language and culture, providing a basis for critical awareness of both “things foreign” and their own native culture(s). Central goals for the study of German language at Berkeley include acquiring communicative competencies, analytical and interpretive skills, socio-cultural awareness and the ability to critically reflect on language learning experiences in order to experience language as meaning-making practice. At the heart of the program’s teaching philosophy is a student-centered communicative-oriented teaching approach where language is learned in meaningful contexts. The classroom becomes a site for lively interaction, drawing on a wide range of German-language materials, including art, literature, film, theater, classical and popular music, political cartoons, television, press, and the worldwide web. Students learn through participation in a variety of discourse modes: from casual conversation to dramatic performances and formal presentations, from e-mail exchanges to analytical essays and creative publications on the web. Learning goals:Knowledge:
Skills: Students acquire an advanced low level of language proficiency in the four foreign language skills (Speaking, Listening, Writing and Reading) as applicable within the three modes of communication: interpersonal (involving two-way interactive communication); interpretive (relating to the understanding of spoken or written German); and presentational (involving creating spoken or written German). Assessment: Mixture of formative and summative assessments:
Upper division courses leading to German major / minor (German 100-199):Transitioning from the lower division German 1-4 sequence to the upper division German courses, three specific courses are required for the German major:
The remaining seven upper division course requirement for the German major and the five upper division course requirement for the German minor can be chosen from among the clusters of upper division courses that reflect the range and expertise of the faculty and the variety of its approaches to the literary, linguistic, textual, and cultural traditions of German-speaking countries and their reach to other languages and cultures. These courses also serve as elective courses for undergraduate and graduate degree programs in related disciplines (e.g., Comparative Literature, Classics, Education, Film, Linguistics, History, History of Art, Music, Philosophy, Religious Studies), and they help prepare students to study or conduct research abroad in German-speaking countries. Students acquire knowledge and skills in a variety of areas, a sampling of which follows. A list of upper division courses is also appended below. Learning goals:Knowledge:
Skills:
Assessment:
Path (Formal Requirements):
German Majors and Double Majors are required to take the following courses:
Graduation checklist:
German Minors are required to take the following courses:
In addition, German 198/199 (Group and Independent Study) are open to students who have completed at least 15 upper-division units with an average of no less than B. These credits may not be counted toward the 30-unit total. List of upper division courses:Literature German 105: Middle High German Germanic linguistics German 103: Introduction to German Linguistics German intellectual history German 157A: Luther, Kant, Hegel Applied linguistics German 24: Language and Identity Multicultural Germany / Transnational Europe German 160D: Multicultural Germany Film and Media
Advanced German Language Practice (to be renumbered from 102)
Other
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