Kontakte: A Communicative Approach

This introductory German text emphasizes communicative proficiency. The method, called the natural approach, stresses the use of activities in a natural and spontaneous classroom atmosphere. Grammar explanations and exercises are aids to learning only, not the main part of the text. The materials are also comprehension-based: comprehension (listening to and reading German) is viewed as a prerequisite to using German (speaking and writing). This is the German equivalent of the Spanish text, "Dos Mundos".

Dr. Erwin Tschirner received his M.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is Professor of German as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics at the Herder Institute of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and Adjunct Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona. He is an internationally recognized authority on foreign language learning, methodology, testing, and materials design, including multimedia materials, and has taught in universities in the United States, Cuba, and Germany. He has lectured and consulted in North America, Europe, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Professor Tschirner is coauthor of Kontakte: A Communicative Approach and Assoziationen: Deutsch für die Mittelstufe and has published numerous articles, book chapters, books, and edited volumes in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. He has been a tester and tester trainer for the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview since 1989 and 1993, respectively.

School affiliation was listed as the University of Iowa---Iowa City. School status cleared 5/27/99.

Tracy D. Terrell (late) received his Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and published extensively in the area of Spanish dialectology. Professor Terrell’s publications on second-language acquisition are widely known in the United States and abroad.