I started posting texts and materials for German on my English blog and quickly realized: My new project “Teaching and Learning German” needed its own space. So here we go: A German language corner to my English language cabinet. It is my reference guide to my online classes and I will gradually add topics for my classes as we go along. It is also meant as orientation and guide for my German language learners.

As in various posts on my English blog, I explain my approach to language learning and teaching. You find recommedations with links on the respective page and at the bottom of the blog. You will find additional exercises and posts on individual language issues and topics, and links to flashcard practice. The language of instruction is English, as most beginners of German have a solid foundation of English. I will gradually switch to German in more advanced posts. 

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Additional thoughts:

Online classes have the great advantage of having a diverse range of activities at their disposal that go way beyond a course book. But, in the end, what happens when groups meet is often unpredictable. We talk about whatever comes up and is of interest at the given time. During these conversations, it becomes clear what language is missing to express what someone wanted to say. These conversations will be woven into the topics here. Some will be extended topically with more vocabulary and additional sources of information, others will lead to specific language focusses (structures or lexico-grammar; thematic word fields etc.) And all this might flow into a new flashcard set. I use textivate activities for more intense reading and additional language practice.

So this blog is – kind of – the ‘course book’ for my online classes. Different to a book based course, though, it allows for a less linear approach. I call it the ‘loop approach’. When we meet in class, you have the opportunity to speak and test what you have already learned. Outside class meetings you can come here and practice whatever you like. A certain order of things is not neccessary.

You can choose from material on your level, but you can also go beyond that – depending on your tolerance for things you do not completely understand – and then go back to simpler things (hence the ‘loop’). Vary the kinds of activities you do and thereby gradually enhance your familiarity with the language.

I am not generally opposed to course books; there are good ones out there (Cornelsen’s Pluspunkt Deutsch e.g.) and much of my choice of topics is not so different from theirs, especially on the A1 level. But I feel a course book based approach doesn’t allow for the spontaneity that evolves during a meeting, where I might have planned certain things, but others come in between – that’s life, that’s language ;-). In addition, I prefer language observation exercises which need more language material to look at than course books can provide.

When it comes to understanding grammatical features, go slow. Find basic regularities first, practice them and try to become comfortable and fairly confident before you move on to irregular features and more complex structures. A lot of language learning happens intuitively and I strongly advise against trying to generalize too much into rules that you then believe to be able to apply. Language learning happens through gradually building up vocabulary and lexical chunks, not through learning rules that may or may not appropiately describe whatever they intend to describe. Looking for patterns and regularities is fine and can be fun; just don’t try to learn rules – learn vocabulary and chunks and phrases.

I sometimes take issue with the terms we use to describe languages. I don’t see the need for complicating things by categorizing e.g. parts of speech with non-intuitively comprehensible Latin terms. However, that has been the tradition in pedagogical grammars and especially in German school grammars since ??? – forever*. I prefer my descriptive or analytical terms to have some kind of explanatory value, and I will try to describe sentence parts in respect of their function in a respective passage. I don’t find the terms ‘accusative’ and ‘dative’ very helpful (and their replacements ‘indirect’ or ‘direct’ objects don’t convince me completely either).

We will analyse words and phrases semantically with a lexical approach that focusses on the grammatical behavior of single lexical items, gradually building up awareness of regularities and irregularities and find out what we can generalize.

Example: A verb like ‘give’ – GEBEN – by its very semantic nature takes (in most cases) one subject (the giver) and two objects, something that is given and who or what this something is given to. Sie gibt ihm ein Geschenk thus has IHM (him) as the recipient of the object EIN GESCHENK (a present). Interestingly, in HIM, we see a remnant of a past case system. HIM or IHM would commonly be called ‘dative object’, THE PRESENT the ‘accusative object’.

The grammatical information linked to the meaning of the word GEBEN is something we learn intuitively when we develop our native language/s. The process is not accompanied by an intellectual analysis based on a more or less adequate meta-language. (How far such analyses help the language learning process is for the individual learner to decide.) The pattern of the verb GEBEN is something we can recognize and use.

In German, different from English, the articles change according to the function of the nouns in a sentence they precede. I believe this is one fact that makes German seem more difficult to learn. However, even if this feature of German might lead to making more mistakes, successful communication can still be possible in early stages. (Some learners of German actually never get it completely right, but doing so is icing on the cake.)

For practicing, you can choose from any kind of material you like. Some learners prefer a completely intuitive approach without any analytical grammar observation, reflection or practice; others like theoretical analyses. Both will be found here. But the most important thing is to enjoy the process of learning and keep at it steadily. Be consistent and curious, and see how your knowledge develops. Just beware, like any skill you want to improve, it is a long process and takes time.

Note: Though meeting in presence might be recommendable every once in a while, the possibilities a meeting room in a company offers are limited. However, going somewhere out together in a German speaking environment can be great fun and a good supplement for any online course.

*(See discussion in Granzow-Emden, Mattias, 2019, Deutsche Grammatik verstehen und unterrichten; Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag)