Vorsprung: A Communicative Introduction to German Language and Culture

Vorsprung is an innovative and lively first-year program that uses a five-skills approach, emphasizing the acquisition of communicative as well as cultural competence without sacrificing attention to formal accuracy. Utilizing "focus on form" activities in an engaging, personalized fashion, Vorsprung helps students develop realistic abilities in speaking, listening, and reading German. The program presents a systematic, clear introduction to the essentials of German grammar and practices high-frequency structures and vocabulary in interactive activities. In addition, it provides students with the cultural knowledge that is relevant to their own lives and then asks them to compare their cultures to the habits and behaviors of the German-speaking peoples of Europe. In order to prepare students for successful communication in today's rapidly changing world, Vorsprung exposes them to a wealth of spoken and written authentic textual materials. To support this focus on spoken and written German, Vorsprung offers an array of in-class activities that foster accuracy and provide ample opportunities for students to practice German in authentic contexts.

Thomas Lovik is a Professor of German at Michigan State University where he regularly teaches first-year German, Linguistic Analysis of Modern German, teaching methods for undergraduates and graduate students, and graduate courses on the German language. His departmental duties include coordination of the first-year German language program as well as training German teaching assistant. He also organizes the orientation workshop for all new Arabic, Chinese, German, and Japanese teaching assistants in the department. The current editor of DIE UNTERRICHTSPRAXIS/TEACHING GERMAN, Prof. Lovik has published in the area of contrastive pragmatics German/English. He is active locally in the AATG-Michigan and the Michigan World Language Association and is a member of several national organizations, including AATG, ACTFL, MLA, and the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators.

J. Douglas Guy is adjunct professor of German at Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, Mass. An editor and ghostwriter, he has made significant contributions to the development of instructional text and media for German and Russian Programs. A presenter at state and national conferences, he has also worked as a court interpreter, translator, and freelance photographer. He regularly sponsors exchange programs at the secondary level. He received his B.A. from Indiana University and his M.A. from Middleburry College.

Monika Chavez was born and raised in Austria and studied German and history at the University of Vienna. While a Fulbright student in Santa Fe, N.M., she continued her education first at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque) and then at the University of Texas at Austin, where she specialized in Applied German Linguistics. In 1992, she joined the German Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her position has allowed her to develop and teach an extensive scope of courses in German language, linguistics, and applied linguistics, with a sizable number of graduate students in the department and related fields choosing applied linguistics/second language acquisition as their area of specialization. She also co-directs the Ph.D. (major and minor) program in Second Language Acquisition.