GER 598: Miniseminar in German Studies/Teaching German
Session II (July 12-July 31) 1 credit

Grammatik im DaF Unterricht
Students are never pleased when the teacher announces: AToday we need to practice grammar. A myriad of boring exercises and the learning of rules have lessened the attraction of grammar lessons for years. But looking at modern grammar books shows that the tide has turned - today, grammar is accompanied by games, visualizations and lots of creativity. At the bottom of this new way of presenting grammar is the concept of communicative grammar. What this concept comprises, how grammar can be tought in communicative situations, and how grammar lessons can be fun, is to be shown in this mini-project. The projet, however, is not only about theory, but mainly about actual teaching. Examples approved of by teachers will be the focus of the project. Exercises, however, are still important. But it is the content, amount, and quality of these exercises that finally decide how correct and thoroughly a grammatical structure is learned. This short course therefore provides participants with suggestions for a concious and creative treatment of grammatical exercises and, furthermore, shows them how to develop and extend exercises themselves.

Instructor: Ruth Nentzel, Universit”t Braunschweig