Learning objectives
At the end of the course the student will be able to:
- use the instruments available for the comprehension and production, especially in writing (dictionaries, grammars, etc.);
- apply the learned rules to the production of new (easy) sentences;
- read and analyze easy texts in an efficient manner;
- critically reflect on German (morphology, syntax, word-formation);
- use the correct terminology in the explanation of grammar phenomena.
Prerequisites
Basic grammatical notions (e.g. adjective, noun, etc.) and mastery of logical analysis (subject, direct object, etc.). No previous knowledge of the German language is necessary: even absolute beginners are admitted, who are strongly advised to also attend the IDEA course, which in the first semester will be combined with the exercises carried out by the language assistant.
Course unit content
Phonetics, morphology, syntax, lexicology, lexicography in the contrastive comparison with Italian and reading strategies for German texts
Full programme
The course introduces to the study of German and to the reflection on the language. In the first module (for everybody, also for those who take the exam for just 6 credits), an overview of the status of German in Europe and in the world is offered and some learning strategies are presented, focusing in particular on vocabulary. In the second module (12 CFU) the phonetic peculiarities and the syntactic and morphological structures of German are explored in depth in a contrastive way (verbal brackets, division of the sentence into syntactic fields, fundamentals of inflection and word formation, order of the constituents in the sentence and internal structure of complex constituents, etc.).
FOR 6 cfu INSTEAD OF 12: only “Studiare il tedesco. Un'introduzione” (S. Lippert) + “Piccolo viaggio nell'anima tedesca” (F. Predazzi, V. Vannuccini) + il MOOC “Il tedesco in prospettiva pluricentrica” + materials on the Elly platform relating to the first module.
Bibliography
1) Il MOOC “Il tedesco in prospettiva pluricentrica” (Eva-Maria Thüne & Simona Leonardi), accessibile al seguente link (previa iscrizione): https://lms.federica.eu/enrol/index.php?id=265.
2) Susanne Lippert, Studiare il tedesco. Un'introduzione, Le Lettere, Firenze, 2023, ISBN: 978-8893663601
3) Francesca Predazzi, Vanna Vannuccini, Piccolo viaggio nell'anima tedesca, Feltrinelli, Milano, 2014, ISBN: 978-8807884108
4) Marina Foschi Albert, Patrizio Malloggi & Chiara Cernicchiaro, Frasi e strutture sintattiche complesse del tedesco, Arnus, Pisa, 2022. ISBN 9788865285848.
5) Paola Barberis & Annemargret Sarnow, Introduzione alla fonetica del tedesco. Con esercizi mirati per parlanti italiani. Con CD-ROM, CELID, Torino, 2015, ISBN: 8867890379.
Teaching methods
Lectures with students' active participation will be the favourite didactic method. The slides used to support the lessons will be uploaded to the Elly platform, to which the students can access through the online enrollment. The slides are an integral part of the didactic material indicated in the bibliography. Non-attending students shall check all the didactic material available, as well as the instructiond given by the professor through the Elly platform.
Assessment methods and criteria
Competencies and skills will be assessed through two types of summative examination:
1) a compulsory written examination, to be taken before the oral examination. There are three parts to the written examination: listening, reading, writing. The written examination is structured like the models provided by the language assistant. The written examination lasts 3 hours. The written examination is assessed with marks ranging from 0 to 30 and the final mark will be calculated on the average of the written and oral examinations.
2) an oral examination based on the basics of theory and the ability to apply them. The students will be expected to be able to reflect upon the German language and compare it with Italian. Both the contents and the language used to express them will be assessed. The mark will be communicated to the student immediately after the oral examination. Please remember that the enrollment to the round is COMPULSORY both for the written and for the oral examinations.
A negative assessment will be given if that the student is unable to attain the minimum requirements of the course. Sufficient evaluation (18-23/30) is determined by the demonstration by the student to have learned the basic and minimum contents of the course. The mean scores (24-27/30) are assigned to the student who produces evidence of a level more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) evaluation indicators listed above. Higher scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded based on the demonstration of a level as very good to excellent evaluation indicators listed above.
Other information
Students must attend the language assistant's lessons as well. During these lessons they will train reading, listening, writing and speaking. Non-attending students are requested to contact the teachers in due advance by e-mail or at office hours for counseling.
