The course deals with German language varieties and current language change. The aim of the course is to develop a deeper understanding of current developments and different varieties of German.

The course consists of two parts, a theoretical introduction to the topic and a practical mini-research project.

The theoretical part deals with different varieties of German, including those spoken outside Europe. In addition, current trends such as gender-sensitive language will be discussed and psycholinguistic aspects of language change will be addressed.

In the practical part of the course, gender-sensitive German is examined in more detail using a corpus analysis.

- Knowledge and understanding: students acquire a basic knowledge of neologisms and learn, with the help of corpora, various analysis procedures. These objectives are primarily pursued through lectures, seminar discussions and analysis tasks in the course, which aims to develop metalinguistic knowledge.

- Applied knowledge and understanding: students will be able to apply the acquired concepts to the description and analysis of German and its varieties. They will know the importance of appropriate grammatical and lexical handling of communication and will be able to assess the relationship between the use of linguistic forms on the one hand and communicative effects on the other. These objectives will be pursued mainly through seminar activities.

- Autonomy of judgement: Students are able to judge the correctness and appropriateness of German language utterances and in particular to assess the impact of grammar on utterances.

- Communication skills: Students are able to communicate in German at an intermediate level. This will be pursued through language exercises.

- Ability to learn: Students acquire the basic tools and concepts for researching grammatical and lexical aspects of the German language. This will be pursued through lectures, classroom discussions and various types of analysis and conversations in German.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

The course will be supplemented by exercises held by lecturers with German as their native language. These hours will be dedicated to the development of language skills. For further information, see the 'German language - lectures' page.

Teaching

Student centred learning

Dialogue lessons
Group or individual work

Project work

Innovative teaching methods

The course follows a student-centered learning approach with project work being the core of the course. After having acquired theoretical knowledge, the students will conduct a mini research project, researching like linguists and presenting their results in class.

Course books

During the course we use the following online resources.

COSMAS I/II (Corpus Search, Management and Analysis System), http://www.ids-mannheim.de/cosmas2/, © 1991-2024 Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim

For further reasing on lexicology I recommend: Neuland, Eva (2023). Soziolinguistik der deutschen Sprache. Ein Einführung.

Assessment

Oral examination.

The assessment criteria are: 

- relevance and effectiveness of the answers in relation to the programme content

- the level of articulation of the answers

- the appropriateness of the disciplinary language used

- the ability to apply knowledge to specific cases

- the ability to critically reflect concepts and processes 

Alternatively.

During the course, student have the option to take part in a small research project and present their data.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

Course books

See above.

Assessment

Oral examination.

The assessment criteria are: 

- relevance and effectiveness of the answers in relation to the programme content

- the level of articulation of the answers

- the appropriateness of the disciplinary language used

- the ability to apply knowledge to specific cases

- the ability to critically reflect concepts and processes 

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.