Advanced Conversation I

Catalog description

This course will develop students' oral production to improve their communication skills; therefore, the emphasis of the course is on advanced-level conversation produced by the students. Different than GRMN 311 , GRMN 309 has one long, cultural "text" that is interwoven throughout the semester. Text is understood here in the critical sense of an object that may be "read" critically whether it is a work of literature or popular culture, and it will vary with the expertise of the instructor. This may be the 1950s-Austrian films of Empress Sissi as in the example below, or the several versions of the foundational saga of Switzerland William Tell, or the 21st-century German internet series "Dark." The inclusion of an extended text aims to help students make the jump from intermediate level discourse to advanced, that is from "I liked the film" to "Most of the film struck a chord with me, but not all." The starting point for the discussions and activities to be carried out will, consequently, either be the skills-based conversation from the text or the assigned segment of one of the protracted texts from German-speaking countries, which will provide students with a contextualized vocabulary and, at the same time, greater knowledge and understanding of German, Austrian, and Swiss history and culture. As in GRMN 311 , key grammar points are reviewed to improve grammatical accuracy in oral production. Counts as a Understanding Global Perspectives course. Prereq: GRMN 202 .