Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

GER 203 is offered for four hours of transferable credit. It meets four hours per week and is the second term of a three-term sequence which equals one full year of German. This course satisfies part of the foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree, counts as an elective for the A.A. degree, and contributes to the general education requirement for other associate degrees.
 

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

1. Manage most communicative tasks in a variety of social situations.
2. Communicate effectively with some rephrasing and circumlocution with most native speakers.
3. Narrate and describe with increased detail and length using a variety of time frames and modes with consistent accuracy.
4. Understand the values underlying cultural behaviors and attitudes within the Germanspeaking world and how it relates to one’s cultural perspective.
5. Compare and contrast historical and cultural movements through analysis of selected works of art, literature, music, film and/or performing
arts from the target culture.
6. Analyze and develop responses to abstract and complex ideas in a variety of authentic materials in the target language.

Students are expected to attend all classes, participate actively in classroom activities, and prepare oral and written homework assignments. Students may meet with the teacher in conferences. After the introduction to the course, German will be used in the classroom at all times. Students should plan to spend two hours in preparation and practice outside of class for each class hour.

Students may be assessed by any combination of the following:

1. Active participation in the target language
2. Short individual or partner presentations
3. Frequent contextual written tasks (in or outside of class) to assess reading, writing, cultural and aural competencies
4. Oral interviews with partner or oral tests with the instructor
5. In-class, interactive student role-plays
6. A final interactive combined written and oral presentation on a topic to be decided between student and instructor

1. Personal data (expanded)
2. Present, past and future tenses of verbs; subjunctive mood; passive voice
3. Cases and declensions
4. Conjunctions, both coordinating and subordinating
5. Adjective endings (expanded)
6. Comparative and superlative
7. Questions and interrogatives
8. Personal, indefinite, and demonstrative pronouns
9. Reflexive
10. Use of Da- and Wo-Compounds
11. Adjectival Nouns, participial modifiers
12. Numerals and measurements
13. Seasons, dates and time expressions
14. Adverbs
15. Particles, indirect discourse and passive (time permitting)
16. Writing on various topics to be determined by the students and instructor
17. Various oral topics based on readings and other sources. Topics may include childhood, politics (more complex concepts), belief systems, use of simile and metaphor, structure of the language (these themes, concepts and issues are not necessarily presented here in the order presented in class; presentation depends largely on the makeup of the student population in a specific course)

Course Content: Competencies and Skills:
The student will:

1. Manage more complex conversations about herself and her world
2. Speak in the present, past and future tenses with a high degree of accuracy
3. Use the subjunctive mood and passive voice on a very limited basis
4. Continue to use the four cases including corresponding prepositions with a high amount of accuracy
5. Combine sentences using both types of conjunctions
6. Use nouns, their plurals and weak nouns in conjunction with adjectives; with a high degree of accuracy
7. Continue to hone skills using adjectives and use adjectival nouns and modifiers to describe with more detail
8. Talk about daily routines using reflexive pronouns
9. Use Da- and Wo-Compounds to combine sentences and ask questions
10. Expand and review the use of numerals, measurements, and dates
11. Use descriptive adverbs, adverbs of time and place and adverbial conjunctions with relative accuracy
12. Write longer paragraphs and short essays on a variety of simple topics
13. Discuss various complex topics orally
14. Prepare a final interactive combined written and oral presentation on a topic to be decided between student and instructor