We have set three broad categories of Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) for what we expect students to know or be able to do after completing a Minor in German.
Student Learning Outcomes for the German Minor
- Language Proficiency
- Students will be able to initiate, maintain, and close a general conversation in German. [speaking]
- Students will be able to understand written examples of a variety of texts that treat familiar and unfamiliar topics and situations. [reading]
- Students will be able to understand main ideas and details of discourse that they hear. [listening]
- Students will be able to write informal and formal texts about familiar topics using simple discourse. [writing]
- Students will be able to describe the grammar they are using, reading, or listening to. [analyzing]
- Knowledge of Cultural Contexts
- Students will be able to appreciate the stylistic features that distinguish texts (from non-fiction and from the literary, visual, and performance arts).
- Students will be able to comment on the place of texts and genres within the cultural tradition.
- Students will be familiar with great works in the cultural tradition.
- Students will be able to discuss historical developments and periods in these cultures.
- Students will appreciate influences and contributions of German speaking peoples on American culture (through immigration, political outlooks and policies).
- Senior Project (for the Individualized German Studies Major)
- Students will have such familiarity with research methods that they can produce scholarly writings that draw on texts or other resources in German and in English.
- Students will demonstrate their ability to read those texts/resources critically.
- Students will demonstrate their ability to synthesize shared and opposing views.
- Students will demonstrate their ability to present their research findings effectively in a public setting.