Something old, something new: Integrating canonical works in a German Studies curriculum

This essay focuses on advanced-level German instruction and advocates an open, flexible approach to integrating the recommendations of the much-discussed 2007 MLA report on “Foreign Languages and Higher Education.” Specifically, language, literature, film, and cultural studies are combined to allow for the development of transcultural competence at the advanced level, while also fostering advanced capacities in German. Informing the discussion is an examination of changing demands on German Studies curricula and their inclusion or exclusion of canonical material. Bringing together a wide range of cultural products facilitates students' consideration of cultural/historical contexts, relationships and similarities and differences among characters, and connections to the students' own experiences. Student goal-setting, assessment, and evaluation help to direct the trajectory of the advanced course, avoiding the common problem of underdefined or undertheorized pedagogies past the intermediate level. Copyright Statement - Author posting © Blackwell Publishing 2011. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Blackwell Publishing for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Die Unterrichtspraxis / Teaching German, 44.2: 124-132. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-1221.2011.00102.xArts, Faculty ofCentral, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, Department ofReviewedFacult