Books Reviews, Die Unterrichtspraxis, Fall 2002 Issue

Book Reviews

Editor: Phillip J. Campana, Tennessee Technological University

Table of Contents, Book Review Section, Vol. 35.2 (Fall 2002)
:
Elementary Materials (Middle/High School)	Elementary Materials (College/Other Adult)	Elementary/Intermediate Materials (College/Other Adult)	Intermediate Book (College)	Intermediate/Advanced Materials (HS/College)
Grammar Books	Grammar: Research	Reading German	Pedagogy: Articulation	Pedagogy: Background and History
Pedagogy: Teaching Tips	Pedagogy: Theory	Business German	Landeskunde	Teaching Literature
	Teaching the Holocaust		Recommended in Brief

I. Elementary Materials (Middle/High School)

Hallo aus Berlin. Prod. BBC, 1996. Lincolnwood: NTC, 1999. 5 videocassettes, 1 audiocassette + Teacher's Guide, paper, 62 pp., $155.97. <mheducation.com>

This video package, produced by the BBC in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, contains five videocassettes, one audiocassette of songs, and a teacher's guide with a variety of activities and suggestions for use.
Each 10-15 minute episode is developed primarily with a group of 11-14 year-old students from East and West Berlin using authentic language in everyday situations. The target audience is middle school or younger, but beginning level high school students could also benefit from selective use of the videos. Computer-animated characters introduce the topics, perform occasional skits, and close each episode with catchy songs summarizing the main language skills. Topics are further expanded using one-question interviews of people of all ages. In addition to the introductions of the first episode, the other episodes are: Familie, Zu Hause, In der Stadt, Essen und Trinken, Schule, Freizeit, Gesundheit, Ferien und Feste and Unser Berlin.
The topics are presented entirely in German and at a level manageable for novices and even absolute beginners. Students have little difficulty following the action due to verbal repetition, the clear structure of the episodes, the wealth of visual cues, and the infrequent but effective use of on-screen text, which serves to highlight key phrases and questions.
The episodes allow for flexibility and could be used to introduce a topic or expand upon previously learned material. In addition to using the transcripts and activities found in the teacher's guide, teachers could easily tailor lessons around specific selections in order to provide opportunities for students to respond, predict, offer opinions, interpret, imitate, and modify.
One of the other strengths of this series is the immense amount of information on daily life and culture provided by the verbal exchanges and the video selections. Even older students would benefit from these visual aspects. Students preparing for an exchange trip, for example, would not only be offered the chance to practice survival skills, but would also be given an opportunity to encounter situations ranging from the breakfast table to using public transportation.
The episodes also feature an admirable degree of balance in topic selection and presentation while introducing and reinforcing key phrases and vocabulary. While one student visits a fancy café, two other students meet at McDonalds for FischMäcs und Pommes, and a third group of Turkish girls buy ingredients for Börek and Salata. Similarly, the episode on Ferien und Feste moves among a celebration of Bayram (das Zuckerfest), a Confirmation, a simple birthday celebration, and a family vacation on the Baltic. The locus of much of the action occurs on the streets and in the students' homes, as we move from East to West Berlin and between homes and apartments. We are also introduced to visitors of a homeless shelter, the living arrangements of a young Bosnian immigrant, and the family of an Afro-German girl. Free time activities range from swimming and soccer to wheelchair basketball, while food selections range from Eisbein and Currywurst to Corn Flakes and Nutella. The final episode features short but surprisingly informative overviews of World War II, the Wall, recent developments, and common tourist sites.
Overall, this video series provides an easy and entertaining approach to the German language for beginners while offering many opportunities for discussions of daily life and culture, all in an engaging format. Like most video series, this one has its shortcomings. For example, it may take a while to get used to the animated characters and the techno-dance music. Nevertheless the high quality of the video scenes and the focused, manageable language presentations make this a resource which secondary teachers of young students would be pleased to have in their arsenal.

Robert J. Shea
Crestview Middle School (MO)

II. Elementary Materials (College/Other Adult)

Albrecht, Ulrike, et al. Passwort Deutsch - der Schlüssel zur deutschen Sprache. Kurs- und Übungsbuch 1, Wörterheft 1, Audiocassette or Audio-CD 1. Stuttgart: Klett, 2001. Text/Workbook: Paper, 224 pp., $14.11; vocabulary booklet: 48 pp., $4.64; CD: $11.02.
Zeisig, Nicole, and Anneliese Ghahraman-Beck. Passwort Deutsch: Lehrerhandbuch 1. Stuttgart: Klett, 2001. Paper, 128 pp., $9.79. <www.klett-verlag.de>

One of the chief difficulties one has when dealing with Lehrwerke in the Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF) tradition is that they never quite seem to fit into the American college world. The field constantly calls for attention to itself because at least one 'innovative' book seems to be published every year while second, improved editions of a Lehrwerk are quite rare. Each Lehrwerk has a slightly different take, terminology, grammar sequence, and exercise typology setting it off from its ultimately similar 'siblings.' The constant slight paradigm shifts help to keep the Lehrwerke leaner than their American counterparts, which are nurtured over generations of editions and authors, and therefore have paradigms, explanations, and exercise types accumulated during several decades.
Most DaF Lehrwerke nowadays contain many exercises that work well in the classroom. The problems in using a DaF Lehrwerk in the United States usually concern the curriculum. It is usually suggested that the Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache can be passed after 'doing' two or three volumes, but the books do not contain quite enough material for the three years that most American college students need to get there. Moreover, the introduction of structure is spread thin over the three years, often with great attention to detail and huge amounts of vocabulary, but with very little review of major points. Students are often expected to perform speech acts long before the language material to do so has been firmly introduced, and the desired level of control is not always well specified. Most of the DaF idiosyncrasies derive from the heterogeneity of language courses taught in Germany, where many class participants have had extensive instruction long before they ever set foot into their Deutschkurs. For this reason, most American instructors who like DaF books for their visual appeal, communicative orientation, and their pizzazz supplement them with copious material of their own making or copied from elsewhere (the DaF workbooks are often more mechanical and de-contextualized than their American counterparts).
Passwort Deutsch seems to address some of these difficulties. It is planned to comprise 4 volumes plus one volume to prepare for the Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache. This would suggest that one could use approximately one book per semester. The price of the volumes would bear this out, since a student would incur a cost of approx. $30 per semester plus the expense for a dictionary. Looking ahead a little bit, I found the major grammar points covered in the first three volumes to be comparable with those covered in typical introductory textbooks (no passive voice and indirect speech, but much heavier emphasis on verbs with prepositions and pronouns). So, for those colleagues who 'cover' the elementary textbook in three semesters, this series of Lehrwerke would not pose too much of a change from the scope and sequence they are used to.
As in other DaF books, one must beware of the vocabulary load. Volume 1 lists some 600 words from the Zertifikatswortschatz out of a total vocabulary load of about 900. This might just be doable in a semester. Unfortunately, the vocabulary indexes of the next two volumes are significantly larger, and there is no overlap (except that related words like "anfangen" and "der Anfang" may be covered in different volumes). The authors seem to expect that students master close to 2000 words before they go into the third semester. The Wörterheft is of limited help; all it does is list the words singly and in a sentence. Since the sentences are not particularly illustrative of anything, one must look up most words in the dictionary and write their meaning in the appropriate slot. Example sentences in later volumes may show the syntactic and semantic restrictions of words more successfully. For beginners, the advantage in using the Wörterheft is small.
Passwort Deutsch 1 covers basic nominative and accusative cases in the present tense; it introduces the present perfect in the last chapter. There is some work on modals, prepositions, separable prefixes, possessives etc. Passwort Deutsch 1 is better about spiraling material than many other textbooks (e.g. introduction of possessives in chapter 3, and extensive review of the accusative case in chapter 5). The authors have consciously avoided most authentic texts in this volume and instead have opted for manageable, authentic speaking situations, mostly with success. Passwort Deutsch 1 contains six chapters, which would give us a little over two weeks for each chapter if taught in a semester system. The chapters contain 28 pages each, divided into 12 pages in the colorful 'textbook' section and 16 pages in the slightly drab 'workbook'. This format obliterates the need to buy too many separate parts of a Lehrwerk (and it is already being copied by the competition), but it is not clear why one should have to flip pages instead of simply having full-length integrated chapters. The book concludes with an appendix that contains an answer key to the workbook exercises, systematic presentation of all grammar points introduced in these chapters, as well as verb and word indexes.
As usual, the chapters begin with a visually oriented Einstieg (double-page); this is followed by a colorful assortment of various exercises, usually arranged around a number of topics that permit repetition and practice of the topics and grammar points to be introduced. All topically linked exercises have consecutive numbers. Each exercise is marked as suitable for one of the four skills. Most exercises are multiple-choice, complete-the-chart, match-the-pieces, or fill-in-the-blank, although each set contains a directed or free-response speaking exercise. The workbook exercises are similar to the ones in the textbook section. On the whole, there could be more exercises that suggest free writing and expression. Students should be encouraged to express their own meanings early on. Some chapters have a very tight topical focus, e.g. chapter 3, appearing in a TV family show. Others are rather loosely connected, such as chapter 5, "Leute in Hamburg," which describes the daily lives of several "Hamburger" who do not know each other. The early chapters have sections on classroom expressions. All chapters have some listening exercises; the audio is of good quality and within reach of what students can be expected to pick up at the beginning level. It should be noted that the tape/CD tries to introduce some of the regional variants of German, although the dialects are tame enough not to present problems. The last page of each chapter consists of grammar charts to systematize what has been introduced.
The series introduces at least one city from a German-speaking country per chapter beginning in number 2. This travelogue of Germany is reasonably interesting in the first volume, although I have trouble envisioning several semesters of it. The other topics are probably of interest to people who are living in Germany and who are slightly older than college students. Topics cover young families, work, a ten-year class reunion, a retiree, or a cook speaking, but all of them remain rather pale.
The Lehrerhandbuch contains many excellent ideas and suggestions for those teachers who want to do a little extra to involve their students. It lists a Lernziel and an Ablauf for each exercise in the textbook section and gives additional hints on what else could be done for each. It also cross-references exercises in the workbook section, which are not otherwise covered. This book also contains transcriptions of the audio material as well as worksheets for information gap exercises, and a list of 30 games one can play in the classroom from "Ariadnes Faden" to "Zahlenbingo." There are also suggestions on how to group students for group work based on lottery systems or the color of their clothes, etc. Like all games, these need a lot of time. The Lehrerhandbuch suggests a total of 60-80 lessons for each volume of Passwort Deutsch, although it seems to me that this number is based on the more leisurely classroom pace of an intensive course meeting 20 hours per week or more. The tests that are suggested in the end of the Lehrerhandbuch seem very much on the easy side and also lack free writing components. The website for Volume One provides a serviceable mix of formal exercises, not unlike a computer program, and some Web-type searches. The Web exercises for the following volumes, when students know more, promise to be more interesting, though.
On the whole, this is a noteworthy attempt to break out of the mold of recent DaF books. It has been written by practicing teachers and might be one of the few books of its type that could actually carry a course sequence in a college setting. It suffers from the usual overload of vocabulary, and I am not sure if it would capture the interest of students in their late teens and early twenties but is definitely worth looking at if you are currently thinking of new textbooks.

K. Eckhard Kuhn-Osius
Hunter College, CUNY

III. Elementary/Intermediate Materials (College/Other Adult)

Aufderstraße, Hartmut, Jutta Müller, and Thomas Storz. Delphin: Lehrwerk für Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Ismaning: Hueber, 2002. Lehrbuch (1-volume ed.): Paper, 256 pp., 2CDs, incl., EUR15.80. Arbeitsbuch (1-volume ed.): Paper, 504 pp., EUR11.90. 8 audiocassettes: EUR40.80. <www.hueber.de/delfin>

Delfin is an instructional system with the goal of qualifying students for the Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache by the time they complete its 20 chapters. Each chapter focuses on a theme to introduce phonological and grammatical features and provide sufficient opportunities to exercise the learning objectives across the four skills. The text follows the same order of skills in each chapter and does so in ten pages per chapter. Each begins with an inductive presentation of the features covered in the lesson. In this section, called eintauchen (consistent with the dolphin metaphor), the students first encounter the new structures. Typical of German DaF texts, often used in a teaching environment in which German is spoken outside the classroom, when used in a foreign-language teaching context such as in the US, the text requires a teacher to explain the points to be learned in each lesson. After several familiarization exercises, the sequence continues with a reading selection. The texts range from simple descriptions and letters to Reportagen, anecdotes, magazine interviews and articles, short stories, commentary, and poetry. The sequence continues with listening and writing, with each skill exercised in a number of pleasant ways. Here, again, the dolphin metaphor is appropriate in the playful manner the authors use to present their material.
I found the listening exercises light-hearted and well paced. Although native speech at normal rates of speed may be a challenge to students, the ubiquity of contextual clues helps compensate while creating a pleasant learning environment. While this section focuses on listening, students are able to bring other senses to the task as well. The publishers have illustrated the exercises abundantly and attractively so vocabulary is reinforced with multiple senses . The diversity of voices on the audiotapes makes them highly attractive for classroom instruction, but they are also excellent after-class supplements. On the other hand, these tapes are not designed for use without the text at hand.
Speaking exercises are often based on dialogs, but unlike ALM dialogs for which the effort to learn them may have overshadowed the dialog adaptation that was to follow, here the emphasis is clearly on using additional vocabulary (listed at the conclusion of the dialog) in the structures heard in the dialog. The speaking section includes dictation exercises, and the narration occurs twice, once at a good dictation speed - slower than normal speech but not overly so - and a second time considerably slower.
One of the attractive features of this instructional system is the options teachers and students have for using texts and supplemental materials. The Lehrbuch is available in a one-volume or two-volume edition, in slightly shorter than standard European A4 format. Thus, if the number of course hours available warrants it, the teacher can choose a text with ten rather than twenty chapters. Teachers may offer students the option of using either version, as the content is identical, regardless of which edition a student uses. The two-volume edition offers its convenience at about a 50% premium in cost, but for students taking the full 20-lesson course, the option of ten-lesson workbooks may be appreciated: In its 20-lesson format, the workbook offers 504 pages of supplemental exercises, a hefty volume to carry around.
Although it is intended to be supplemental, once the lesson has been introduced, the workbook can be used without the text at hand. A redundancy of text material in the workbook deliberately facilitates using the workbook alone, though each workbook exercise is keyed to the exercises in the Lehrbuch.
While pleased with the audiocassettes, I was disappointed with the audio CDs that are included with the text. Although the brochure that accompanied the review copy would lead one to believe the audio CDs should contain the same material as the cassettes, the two CDs that are packaged in the textbook contain only the speaking exercises, not the listening materials nor the writing exercises such as dictation that require spoken text. Thus, they forego the obvious advantage of this medium. Moreover, the time allotted to complete the speaking exercises was sufficient for some but too short for others. For the latter, students would have to actively use the pause button on their CD players or computer software to allow them to complete the task. Consequently, this option is unattractive for use in an automobile, for instance.
The publisher hosts a website, noted above, of benefit to both teachers and students. In addition to yet more supplemental exercises, the site offers pdf files of spreadsheets that present an overview of grammatical structures, of texts and tasks for writing, and of situations and themes for the speaking exercises (dialogs). Other links provide teaching suggestions for individual chapters. These may be especially helpful to teachers who have not worked with this type of text before.
The tendency in American foreign language textbooks to include age-appropriate material often makes such texts unattractive for adult education. In the themes Delfin uses there is mercifully little that is inappropriate for adults. On the contrary, the authors have devoted attention from the beginning to differences in text, audience, and register, such as situations requiring the choice of Sie- or du/ihr-forms. The authors apply this diversity across the skills exercised, thus helping meet the expectations of proficiency-oriented testing, whether of Zertifikat or ILR/ACTFL type.

Kurt E. Müller
Sprachschule der Donauschwaben (NJ)

IV. Intermediate Book (College)

Moeller, Jack, Winnifred R. Adolph, Barbara Mabee, and Simone Berger. Kaleidoskop: Kultur, Literatur und Grammatik. 6th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Paper, xx + 398 + 62 pp., $71.96 (Workbook: $50.36). <college.hmco.com>

The sixth edition of Kaleidoskop embodies yet another finely crafted pedagogic mix of cultural themes and structure for intermediate students of German. Teachers who have been using Kaleidoskop in the classroom hitherto will doubtless continue to be pleased with this attractively redesigned volume, the breadth of its thematic coverage, and the depth of linguistic-cum-cultural experience it provides students through text, workbook, and a rich array of "study aid" ancillaries. For those German instructors still searching for a user-friendly second-year text that embraces the most recent approaches to enhancing second language acquisition in a classroom setting, Kaleidoskop may be just what the doctor ordered.
Beyond a very utilitarian workbook and audio program -- both digital and cassette -- the sixth edition offers new study aid products that transcend typical, freebie language laboratory fare: a video with news-spot episodes, coordinated with the cultural issues in the thematic section of the text; a CD-ROM that provides additional exercises, a thorough grammar reference, and bilingual dictionaries; and a text-specific website for "authentic" activities related to the themes in the text. The new videotape selections are reminiscent of Houghton Mifflin's Teleskop, a videotape-video workbook combo, which Kaleidoskop users may have used to complement the themes presented in the fifth edition of the text. For those accustomed to the slick Teleskop workbook layout, the new Kaleidoskop videotape and video exercises will certainly take some getting used to, I myself prefer the more enticing format presented in Teleskop. This is not to say, however, that the new Kaleidoskop video clips are any less poignant, interesting, or challenging; these are, in fact, right on the money.
The authors have made a number of revisions across the board in the sixth edition instructional package. Although there is but one entirely new theme in the sixth edition (Stereotypen), there are numerous new readings and updated cultural information among the themes carried over from the fifth edition (e.g., Freizeit, Kommunikation, Deutschland im 21. Jahrhundert, Familie, Musik, Die Welt der Arbeit, Multikulturelle Gesellschaft, Jung und Alt, and Umwelt). As one would expect, this edition incorporates the new orthography but retains the "old" spelling in the authentic readings throughout the volume. I especially applaud the added convenience of the rearranged grammar exercises in Part Two of this edition; the current arrangement is much more user-friendly, and students will no doubt appreciate the fact that they will no longer have to guess which structure explanations belong to which exercises, as grammar explanations and their corresponding exercises are now contiguous.
Scarcely any second language pedagogue would question the assertion that the transition from first- to second-year German is a quantum leap for many students, and not due solely to the linguistic momentum lost during an intervening summer. The authentic readings in intermediate texts are not only much more abstract but also assume a structural/lexical competence that few German students take up -- much less uptake -- from first-year materials and instruction. Happily, Kaleidoskop turns out to be a very good medium for coaxing language learners across the threshold to "intermediate" language -- from the largely replicative skill-getting/skill-using sentence-level language of the Grundstufe to a challenging written-spoken discourse that reflects realities outside the student's immediate experience. Kaleidoskop students will eventually progress through a plethora of authentic text types (thirty-four! -- from "Anzeige" to "Zeitungsartikel"), arriving ultimately at genuine, collaborative, theme-driven situations where they are encouraged to negotiate meaning and exchange personal views in German. In "communicative" parlance, a book for all seasons.
So much for the good news. Schade that such an attractive, well conceived -- though not inexpensive -- paperback starts unraveling already in the second week of classes. The irony here is that the most diligent students and best friends of the German language, those rifling enthusiastically through the pages of the sixth edition, are the same ones leaving Kaleidoskop pages behind on the classroom floor.

Eston E. Evans
Tennessee Tech University

V. Intermediate/Advanced Materials (HS/College)

Murray, Una, ed. Katapult: Authentische Lese-und Hörtexte mit Übungen für Lerner ab dem dritten Unterrichtsjahr. Dublin: Authentik, 2001. 30 pp. magazine and audiocassette. Subscription (3 issues) for cassette and magazine: $33.00; magazine alone: $12.99 ($7.99 ea. for 2-12 subscriptions) plus postage.

Sudrow, Barbara, ed. Authentik auf Deutsch: Zeitschrift und Kassette für Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Dublin: Authentik, 2001. 40 pp. magazine and audiocassette. Subscription (5 issues) for cassette and magazine: $66.00; magazine alone: $19.99 ($13.75 ea. for 2-12 subscriptions) plus postage. <www.authentik.com>

Teachers looking for current authentic materials that have already been prepared for classroom use need look no further than Authentik or Katapult. In each issue, there are authentic articles from such varied German media as the Frankfurter Neue Presse, Ostsee Zeitung, Die Woche, Bunte, Brigitte, Bravo, and Popcorn. Each article includes pictures and various reading and writing exercises such as Lückentexte, Analyze, Lesen und Schreiben, various grammar exercises such as Futur I, Präteritum, and discussion exercises. Teacher support editors are available online to help with planning additional activities. The articles include limited glossaries at the bottom of the page.
The articles included in the magazine are of high interest to teenage or young adult readers. From light, breezy reading such as "Prinz Harry will in die Küche" or "Kuh fiel auf Gast im Kaffeehaus" to more thoughtful writing such as "Dosenpfand wieder fraglich" or "Therapeutisches Klonen nach britischem Vorbild?" and current events such as "EU-Gipfel in Göteborg", there is something for every reader. My students loved reading about "Eminem als Puppe" before I took them to the more serious and classroom useful "Dosenpfand soll eingeführt werden."
The optional accompanying cassette includes interviews, radio news and songs. The transcription of the cassette is also included in the magazine. The cassette adds supplemental information to the topics and themes presented in the magazine. I would highly recommend the cassette subscription, because it adds an authentic listening dimension to the reading. For classroom use, I copy the transcript for the students so they can follow along as they listen.
Both magazines are intended for use in the DaF classroom, with Authentik aimed at very advanced classes, and Katapult aimed at somewhat advanced classes. In the high school setting, Authentik would be less useful, since the vocabulary and grammar used is less accessible to even the most upper level student. Katapult is more suitable to upper level high school classes, especially International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement instruction. For college use, Katapult could be used in 200 to 300 level classes, while Authentik might be suitable for 400 or even 500 level classes.
For those who teach in sensitive school districts, it may be advisable to edit pictures or articles in advance to classroom inclusion. The cover of the September 2001 Katapult, for example, includes a picture of the German rapper Phillie Mc smoking. For some American schools, that may not be a problem, but for others it could pose difficulties. However, the benefits of including authentic, up-to-date reading materials in the classroom far outweigh any editing inconvenience.

Rob Williams
Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools

VI. Grammar Books

Helbig, Gerhard, and Joachim Buscha. Leitfaden der deutschen Grammatik. Berlin: Langenscheidt, 2000. Paper, 304 pp., $22.50. <www.langenscheidt.com>

Helbig and Busch's Leitfaden der deutschen Grammatik is a revised edition of their shorter reference grammar that until 1990 appeared under the title Kurze deutsche Grammatik für Ausländer. Based on the authors' more extensive Deutsche Grammatik: Ein Handbuch für den Ausländerunterricht, Leitfaden is less than half as long and is designed for students learning German. To achieve this reduction in length, Leitfaden focuses on the most important rules of morphology and syntax of contemporary German while dispensing with more detailed explanations of esoteric grammatical exceptions and reducing the number of examples and lists of such word classes as conjunctions and particles. Like Deutsche Grammatik, Leitfaden is organized around the two major rubrics of "word classes" and "the sentence." Instead of twelve categories under "word classes" (verb, substantives, adjectives, adverbs, articles, the pronoun es, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, modals, negation, and sentence equivalents), Leitfaden incorporates prepositions and separate sections for coordinating and subordinating conjunctions (now called "Subjunktionen") under the new heading "Fügewörter." Part Two, "the sentence," now comprises six categories (sentence parts, word order, sentence attributes, sentence types, sentence structure modals, and complex sentences) instead of eight. Eliminated were the sections on adverbial clauses and punctuation.
This edition features an attractive two-color layout on quality paper. Instead of chapters being numbered, they are now identified in the footer at the bottom of each page and the section headings appear at the top of each page with large identifying numerals in the corners. This new reference system, however, does not result in greater ease in finding topics. Users can no longer determine the chapter from the margin numbers, but now must rely on page numbers when looking up a topic.
Many of the grammatical explanations in Leitfaden have been rewritten for improved clarity and conciseness and to reflect the latest linguistic research. The number of sample sentences has been reduced considerably and some examples have been updated, e.g., "Der Vater schenkt dem Schüler das Buch" has been replaced by "Der Vater schenkt dem Sohn den Computer," and political entities that no longer exist have been replaced, e.g., "die Sowjetunion, die Volksrepublik Polen, die Tschechoslowakei." Typical of how explanations have been shortened are the discussions of particles and modal words. Whereas Deutsche Grammatik devotes 24 pages to a discussion of particles and 13 pages to modal words, Leitfaden has reduced coverage of these topics to 5 and 4 pages respectively. Due to space considerations, this volume does not include a bibliography or a word index, both features though that would enhance its usefulness and that the authors should consider for inclusion in the next edition. Leitfaden has been edited to conform to the new German orthography.
Advanced students of German as well as teachers will find that Leitfaden der deutschen Grammatik is a useful reference work of the most important morphological and syntactical features of modern German and a storehouse of practical examples of contemporary usage.

William E. Petig
Stanford University

Rug, Wolfgang, and Andreas Tomaszewski. Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand: Übungsgrammatik Mittel- und Oberstufe (and Lösungsheft). Stuttgart: Klett, 2001. Paper, 256 pp., EUR 19.80/5.00. <www.klett-verlag.de>

Kann die deutsche Grammatik Spaß machen? Darf sie das denn überhaupt? Schließlich sollen doch ernste Regeln vermittelt werden, an denen man sich als Lernender und Lehrender zu orientieren hat. Den Eindruck, dass man sich daran die Zähne ausbeißen kann, erweckt so manches Grammatikbuch. Erst kürzlich zeigten Gerhard Helbig und Joachim Buscha in ihrer Übungsgrammatik Deutsch (2000), wie staubtrocken die Thematik aufbereitet werden kann. Einen völlig anderen Zugang zur deutschen Grammatik bieten Rug und Tomaszewski in ihrer Neuauflage der Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand. Diese Übungsgrammatik, die für die Mittel- und Oberstufe gedacht ist, deutet bereits auf der Titelseite jene Ironie an, von der das ganze Buch geprägt ist: Ein Lausebengel hat dem Wort “Sinn" die Vorsilbe “un" verpasst. Die beiden Autoren weisen in ihrem Vorwort darauf hin, wie wichtig dieser lebendige Umgang mit der Sprache ist, der sich nicht zuletzt in Wortwitz manifestiert, denn: “Grammatik ist nämlich kein totes und starres System von Regeln, sondern erschließt die Gestalt und die Schönheit einer Sprache" (3). Es ist daher nur folgerichtig, dass Rug und Tomaszewski jeglichen sprachwissenschaftlichen Jargon vermeiden, aber dennoch klar, prägnant und kompetent die Grammatik erklären. Witzige, unterhaltsame und zuweilen auch nachdenkliche Texte sind den Kapiteln als Anschauungsbeispiele vorangestellt. Darauf folgt die Rubrik “Grammatik im Kasten", in der einzelne Grammatikkapitel übersichtlich dargestellt werden. In den “Übungen und Regeln" erläutern die Autoren die Anwendung der jeweiligen Grammatikpunkte. Auf den anschließenden “Übungen mit Stil" liegt zumeist der Schwerpunkt dieses Lehrwerkes, wovon Lerner der Oberstufe besonders profitieren werden, denn hier warten die Autoren mit einer Menge wissenswerter Phrasen und Wörter auf, die unterschiedlichen Stilebenen entstammen.
Dass dieses Buch auch Entwicklungstendenzen in der Gegenwartssprache reflektiert, zeigt sich u.a. in den Erklärungen zum Gebrauch von Konjunktiv II in der indirekten Rede. Hier raten die Autoren von “Formen [ab], die zwar anders geschrieben werden als Indikativ, die aber ähnlich klingen" (104). Diese Formen würden “nicht mehr gesprochen oder geschrieben" (ebda.). Zwar ließe sich darüber diskutieren, ob man tatsächlich selbst im geschriebenen Deutsch “nähme" nicht mehr gebraucht, weil es akustisch nicht oder nur kaum von “nehme" unterscheidbar ist. Doch verweisen die Autoren zurecht auf die Konjunktivumschreibung mit “würden", die auch - trotz der heftigen Proteste einiger Sprachwissenschaftler - in die Schriftsprache Einzug gehalten hat.
Darüber hinaus macht der Band auf den Einfluss der Umgangssprache auf die Standardsprache aufmerksam. Viele Wörter, die in den Beispielen verwendet werden, entstammen der Alltagssprache, was für Deutschlernende natürlich den großen Vorteil hat, nützliche Ausdrücke kennen zu lernen. In welchen anderen Grammatiken begegnet man Wörtern wie “abgetakelt", “bescheuert", oder “daherschwätzen"? Welche anderen Grammatiken weisen darauf hin, dass nicht alle Deutschsprechenden so gestochen und gestelzt sprechen, wie die einwandfrei verständlichen Dialogpartner, denen man im Sprachlabor begegnet? Ein Kapitel in der vorliegenden Übungsgrammatik widmet sich diesem wichtigen Gebiet, das zumeist zu kurz kommt. Darin erfährt man viel Wissenswertes über “Durchbrechungen und Varianten der Regeln im Satzbau". U.a. behandeln die Autoren den nebenordnenden Gebrauch der Konjunktion “weil": “Das verstehe ich nicht, weil du sprichst so abstrakt" (216). Während man diesem Phänomen im gesamten deutschsprachigen Raum begegnet, sind “phonetische und morphologische Abschleifungen" regional unterschiedlich. Im süddeutschen Sprachgebiet wird man zwar den Satz hören “Ich komm gern zu dir und bleib übers Wochenend" (214), während man in den Norden fahren muss, um den folgenden Satz zu vernehmen: “Sie saß an 'nem schönen Abend mit so 'nem Typ in 'ner Kneipe beim Wein" (215). Hier hätte man sich gewünscht, dass die Autoren ein wenig die verschiedenen Dialektgebiete mit deren auffälligen “Abschleifungen" etwas skizziert hätten. Insgesamt jedoch ist die Grammatik mit Sinn und Verstand ein hervorragendes Unterrichtswerk für die Mittel- und Oberstufe, dem man eine weite Verbreitung wünscht. Das für viele hiesige Institute bereits obligat gewordene Handbuch zur deutschen Grammatik hat ernsthafte Konkurrenz bekommen.

Gregor Thuswaldner
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

VII. Grammar: Research

Diehl, Erika, Helen Christen, Sandra Leuenberger, Isabelle Pelvat, and Thérèse Studer. Grammatikunterricht: Alles für der Katz? Untersuchungen zum Zweitsprachenerwerb Deutsch. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2000. Paper, 421 pp., EUR 23.00. <www.niemeyer.de>

This book addresses a question that interests every language teacher and has received wide attention in recent years: how much and what grammar--if any at all--should we teach our students?
Diehl et al. set out to investigate that question by conducting a study of L1 French learners of L2 German in Geneva, Switzerland. Part I of the book describes the background for the study, its scope and goal, German instruction in primary and secondary schools in Geneva, and L2 acquisition theories. German is a mandatory but "ungeliebes Schulfach" in French-speaking Geneva, and German grammar is seen as difficult to learn. Unsurprisingly, general motivation for learning German is low.
Data for the study were collected from 1995-1997. Participants were students from thirty school classes from 4th through 12th grade. For each grade level, at least two classes were selected. Teachers chose ten students from each class, representing weak, average and good students. If a class did not have ten L1 French speakers, other L1 Romance language speakers were chosen whenever possible. Teachers supplied information about the materials they covered in class and their teaching practices. A total of 33 teachers participated, selecting the subjects for the study and doing a preliminary evaluation of the data. Some of the teachers were also involved in the final stage of the project: an adaptation of the study's results for classroom use.
The study focuses on three areas of German grammar: sentence structure (specifically verb position), verb and noun morphology. Several grammatical aspects, e.g., genitive case, were excluded due to too few occurrences in the data. The data consist of (ideally) eight essays written by each subject in class over two years, including the final exam essays for the Matura, the exit exam at the end of 13 years of schooling.
Part II of the book presents the empirical data and results. The following acquisition sequence for sentence structure was found: declarative and conjoined clauses with SV structure > wh- and Y/N questions > sentence bracket > dependent clauses > inversion. If subjects had acquired inversion, they had also acquired everything prior to it, e.g., wh-questions. Short-term training effects appeared but they did not seem to last, and none of the steps could be skipped. For verb morphology, the results show that the subjects underwent a number of phases from verbs without inflection to generalizing specific person markers to the acquisition of irregular verbal morphology, followed by the acquisition of present perfect tense and the preterite. For noun morphology, the acquisition of gender and plural preceded the acquisition of case.
While gender and plural did not pose any particular problems, case appeared taxing to the subjects. Most sentences contained a subject and an accusative object, but there were virtually no dative noun phrases. Acquisition of case followed the sequence: one case system (nominative) > two case system with clear distinction between subject and object > three case system (nominative, dative and accusative). The acquisition of adjectival endings proved almost impossible for these subjects. The dative case appeared regularly and early in prepositional phrases, and they are therefore analyzed separately. One of the surprises in this study is that the six prepositions in, mit, an, zu, nach, für appear in 84% of all prepositional phrases.
Part III contains a summary of the study's results, including a table with an overview of the acquisition sequences and tentative correlations for the verb complex, sentence structure and case. The learning and use of chunks is much more prevalent than had been expected. And there appears to be a correlation between students' motivation and their attained levels. One of the recommendations of the study is for teachers to have more realistic expectations of what students can actually acquire.
This study is unique in that it followed subjects for two years, allowing researchers to examine individuals' language development. At the same time, by looking at the data cross-sectionally, it is possible to establish acquisition sequences for L1 French learners of L2 German. For anybody interested in the formal acquisition of L2 German, this study offers a wealth of data.
Besides well-explained tables throughout the chapters, the appendix contains outlines for analyzing the essays, samples of students' essays, the background questionnaire given to the subjects, and tables with results for Section III ("ce que tu penses de l'allemand") of the questionnaire. There is also an extensive bibliography, but there is no index. The website <www.unige.ch/lettres/alman> contains a brief description of the project as well as a link to another website describing the study and its results in some details, but as of this writing no transcripts were yet available.

Marianne Janko Washburn
Brooklyn College

VIII. Reading German

Roche, Joerg. Reading German: A Multimedia Self-Study Course on Reading German Language for Professional and Technical Purposes. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 2000. CD-ROM. (contains Vols. 1-5), $29.95 (US), $39.95 (CAN). <www.cspi.org>
Vol. 1 - Introduction. Paper, xiv + 268 pp., $24.95 (US), $29.95 (CAN).
Vol. 2 - Humanities. Paper, xvi + 168 pp., $19.95 (US), $24.95 (CAN).
Vol. 3 - Business, Commerce, and Economics. Paper, xix + 240 pp., $24.95 (US), $29.95 (CAN).
Vol. 4 - Musicology. Paper, xvi + 162 pp., $19.95 (US), $24.95 (CAN).
_____ and Peter Willmer. Vol. 5 - Chemistry. Paper, xvii + 160 pp., $19.95 (US), $24.95 (CAN).

Reading German represents the efforts of Joerg Roche and his team to create a CD-ROM-based program for learners interested in acquiring only a reading knowledge of German. The University of British Columbia originally published this work but as of last year Canadian Scholars' Press has assumed the publishing rights.
The program consists of two parts: a general introduction and a subject-specific component. They aim to provide students with the skills to transfer German texts into English. Learners are taught reading and learning strategies and are trained to understand texts rather than to translate them. They must complete the Introduction and thereafter may select one of the other four disciplines that match their interests. All of the topics are comprised of five groups and each group is subdivided into five levels. The levels and groups progressively become more challenging. The Introduction includes a sixth group that consists only of one level, which explains how to use a dictionary effectively. While students do not have to follow the sequence of groups and levels, it is generally advisable that they do.
The program may be used as an in-class (with or without the CD) or as a distance course with the CD. The distance option should be of particular interest to learners and teachers. As the author points out in his introduction, in such an environment learners can work at their own pace and thus enjoy a maximum of flexibility. If students possess German language skills, they may begin at a later point of the program, wherever they feel comfortable. Learners have the option to move through the exercises non-sequentially but it seems advisable that they keep with the set progression.
The CD may form the integral part of the course but students must buy the accompanying shrink-wrapped, hole-punched, loose-leaf booklet, which contains the same texts and questions as the CD. While the latter contains all the volumes, students must purchase the booklets for each volume separately.
Learners should use CD and booklet side by side but could complete the questions in the booklet first and then enter their answers in the software program to check them. In any case, they must write down their answers since, once quit, the program does not retain their input.
Exercises include true/false, multiple-choice, cross-match, short answer, and fill-in-the-blanks questions. Learners must also identify and underline different parts of sentences, e.g., cognates, key elements, nouns etc. The CD contains solutions for the exercises, which the program usually reveals after an incorrect answer is entered a third time.
The program does have minor inconsistencies. For example, the questions are not always clear and while the learners may enter a correct answer it may, as with so many computer programs, be rejected as false. The formulations of the questions on the CD compared with the booklet(s) have slight variances in wording. The formatting of texts and headings on the CD is not always perfect.
The glossary included on the CD is small and the selection of vocabulary appears coincidental rather than strategic. Also, one aspect that the program does not seem to cover adequately is German adjectival phrases. These remained a challenge for my students even after they had completed the introduction and their topic-specific module.
Having used the program in a distance education course, I know it works well. My students certainly learned their material. Of course, learners need to know their grammar but often lack a basic understanding of common terminology, i.e., imperfect, verb, object etc. This meant that they could not always easily explain their problems to me. More than with courses that meet in class, students' success depends on their motivation and time management.
Reading German presents an innovative approach to learning to understand German texts. I recommend it to those interested in self-study, changing the format of an existing course, or introducing a reading German course at their institution. The materials are quite comprehensive and with a proper German-English dictionary and a good supplementary German grammar, students can complete the modules quite independently. While occasional tutorials may be necessary for certain classes, depending on the students' backgrounds, the instructor's main responsibilities are limited to setting and correcting assignments and tests and answering questions as they arise. E-mail, a list-server and/or chatroom are ideal to keep in touch with students.

Ruediger Mueller
University of Guelph

IX. Pedagogy: Articulation

Gascoigne Lally, Carolyn, ed. Foreign Language Program Articulation: Current Practice and Future Prospects. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2001. Cloth, 200 pp., $67.95. <www.greenwood.com>

The last decade has seen much discussion of the issues involved in vertical and horizontal articulation in foreign language study. Consisting of ten articles, Lally's edited volume is a welcome contribution to this research, as it presents a broad overview addressing: the historical treatment of articulation; recent local and statewide efforts to improve articulation; and future prospects in dealing with articulation from a Standards-based approach.
The first chapter, "Foreign Language Placement Examinations" by Luis Latoja, summarizes the various incarnations of the most commonly used articulation tool. Latoja traces the history of the standardized placement exam from its inception in 1896 to recent computerized adaptive testing. In chapter 2, Gascoigne Lally explores "Using the National Standards as a Guide for Local Articulation Efforts." In proposing a Standards-based approach to articulation, she examines the relevance of the 5 C's in dealing with such issues. Communication is considered in terms of greater interaction between educators and administrators. Culture is interpreted with respect to increased collaboration among primary, secondary, and post-secondary teachers.
Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the potential roles of composition and literature in local articulation. Clara Krug discusses various means for improving student writing (e.g. identifying an audience, providing grading criteria). She further argues for student writing portfolios as an evaluation aid in placement. In Chapter 4, Anne Fountain explores the articulation of language study and literature. Using the writings of Cuban author José Martí, she illustrates how literature and can be incorporated into all levels of instruction.
The next four chapters discuss statewide efforts to improve articulation. Darrell Dernoshek reports on institutional efforts at the University of South Carolina to create the first formal placement exam in the state as well as the later expansion of those efforts to crafting an official state instrument. In Chapter 6, Deborah Wilburn Robinson reviews Ohio's Collaborative Articulation and Assessment Project (CAAP), an effort by secondary and post-secondary instructors to improve the transition from high school. Robinson outlines various project components and analyzes CAAP participants' assessment of the program.
Chapter 7 is an examination of "Articulation Efforts in New York State" by Anita Jones Vogeley. In contrast to other chapters, she not only outlines the initial success of efforts toward articulation but also addresses factors behind the eventual demise of many of the initiatives. In Chapter 8, Diane Tedick and Cheryl Alcaya present "The Minnesota Articulation Project," in which they outline its genesis, which divided educators into teams examining assessment, curriculum, and political action. Tedick and Alcaya highlight the project's achievements, including the development of language proficiency assessment instruments and a widely circulated Curriculum Handbook for Teachers.
Looking to the future, Chapters 9 and 10 consider articulation issues on a broader national level. In the article "Foreign Language Articulation and the Social Climate," Winnifred Adolph discusses the greater need for articulation, considering the government's recent emphasis on higher proficiency in foreign languages, the linguistic implications of multiculturalism, and the impact of the National Standards. In Chapter 10, Heidi Byrnes makes the case for approaching articulation through curriculum construction. Byrnes outlines the reasons for such an approach, as well as the importance of curricular context in foreign language learning, and concludes with a sketch for an articulated curriculum.
Given its breadth, Lally's volume is a valuable reference that should interest educators on several levels, program administrators, and researchers alike. Practical and theoretical issues are addressed on local, state, and national levels and from various chronological perspectives. The contributors bring the diversity of their language areas (German, French, Spanish, ESL), their range of professional experience (junior and senior faculty, administrators), and research interests (SLA, FL pedagogy, literature).
Detracting from the book are minor weaknesses that might have been eliminated during editing, such as the omission of subheadings in two chapters. A listing of points for improving student writing would have been more useful as an introduction than as a summary, and it is not helpful that University of South Carolina course numbers are used without course titles. Despite these weaknesses, this is an informative and useful collection.

Susanne K. Hilgendorf
Wayne State University

X. Pedagogy: Background and History

Benseler, David, Craig Nickisch, and Cora L. Nollendorfs (eds.). Teaching German in 20th Century America. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2001. Cloth, 289 pp., $24.95. <bookshop.blackwell.com>

The contents of the volume under consideration here were originally presented at a conference held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 1996. Although the topics discussed are therefore somewhat less unified than one might desire, the papers are of uniformly high quality, making the volume a pleasure to read. Since a thorough discussion of every paper is impossible, given the limits of this forum, I shall outline the contents of the volume and then offer more extended commentary on some papers I particularly enjoyed.
The book contains the following papers: "How to Read our Professional Past: A Modest Proposal" by Peter Uwe Hohendahl; "The Ideology of American Germanics: An Aspect of Its History of Perennial Isolation" by Arthur Tilo Alt; "Recovering the History of Germanics in the United States: An Explanation" by Frank Trommler; "The Roles of History and Public Policy in Shaping Germanics" by Theodore Ziolkowski; "World War I as a Shaping Force in American Germanics" by Clifford Albrecht Bernd; "Three Stages of a Precarious Relationship: German Culture and Germanics in America, 1940-1955" by Jost Hermand; "German History, Jewish History, German Jewish Studies: Old Wine in New Bottles" by David Brenner and Michael Berkowitz; "Toward an American Germanics? Feminism as a Force for Change" by Sara Friedrichsmeyer and Patricia Herminghouse; "Feminist Professionalism: A Brief, Critical History of the Coalition of Women in German" by Margaretmary Daley; "Female Immigrant Intellectuals in Germanics: From Invisibility to 'Women in German'" by Gisela Hoecherl-Alden; "Representations of Women in the AATG, 1850-1950" by Ellen Manning Nagy; "American Germanists and the Holocaust, 1933-1945: The Legacy" by Susan Lee Pentlin; "'An Indigenous and Not an Exotic Plant': Toward a History of Germanics at Penn" by John McCarthy; "Historical Forces, German Departments, and the Curriculum in Small Liberal Arts Colleges in the Midwest" by Helmut Ziefle; "The National Defense Language Institutes: A Benchmark in the Training of Teachers of German" by Gerhard Weiss and Walter F.W. Lohnes; "Control-Alt-Delete: Reshaping Germanics Publication in the Age of Electronic Reproduction" by Jeannine Blackwell; "Publishing in Germanics: Dissemination, Legitimation, and Validation of Scholarly Communication" by Mark Rectanus; and "German Studies as Studies of Cultural Discourses" by Janet Swaffar. There is also a brief preface by the editors, biographical sketches of the editors and contributors, a bibliography, and an index.
Papers I found particularly interesting included those by Daley, Hoecherl-Alden, Blackwell, and Rectanus. Daley sketches the history of the Coalition of Women in German (WiG), which she describes as "a formalized network," and not as "a professional organization." She describes the impact WiG has had on Germanics in the United States, noting that WiG holds conferences, sponsors sessions at other major professional conferences (specifically at meetings of the AATG and the GSA), publishes a yearbook, and maintains both a website and an e-mail list. Hoecherl-Alden describes the careers of some female scholars who immigrated to the United States, including Lilian Luise Stroebe (who founded the German Summer School at Middlebury College) and Agathe Lasch (author of a standard handbook of Low German, who taught at Bryn Mawr, returned to Germany to teach in Hamburg in 1919, and eventually died at the hands of the Nazis in 1942). Blackwell argues persuasively that "the information revolution" requires that scholars of Germanics need to rethink attitudes toward publishing. Among her suggestions are that electronic access to all our texts needs to be available, and that a refereed online site for revised dissertations should be established. Rectanus offers "an assessment of the role of scholarly publishing in shaping Germanics," noting, among other things, that there are a number of paradoxes involving the use of media in Germanics: while electronic communication is widely used in research, the results of such research are often not published electronically, but rather as printed books.
Although this book will not entirely please every reader (I myself would have liked to have seen more discussion of German[ic] linguistics, for instance), it is a thought-provoking, highly readable book, and well worth the necessary investment in time and energy.

Marc Pierce
University of Michigan

Byram, Michael, ed. Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning. London and New York: Routledge, 2000. Cloth, xx + 714 pp., $165.00. <www.tandf.co.uk/books>

Publication of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Language Teaching and Learning (hereafter RELTL) reflects the rapidly growing interest in the field of language teaching. This handy reference manual contains a comprehensive survey of the major and minor approaches and methods in foreign language teaching used from 1800 to 2000, with emphasis on those favored in Europe and North America. Although aimed primarily at university researchers, faculty, and students, RELTL will prove useful to anyone seeking information about foreign language teaching pedagogy. Paging through its 195 entries, a reader quickly becomes aware of the complexity of the language teaching profession and of the varying perspectives present in that field today.
The editor is Professor of Education at the University of Durham (UK) and Special Advisor to the Council of Europe Modern Languages Project, and he is well known for his expertise in the area of foreign language teaching methodology. To help create "an authoritative account of the discipline of language teaching," Byram formed a team of 165 international specialists that included scholars from several continents and academic backgrounds. Articles by contributors from the United States, e.g., Carl Blyth, Judith Liskin-Gasparro, and Sandra Savignon, appear alongside entries by scholars from such diverse nations as Canada, China, and Germany. In his introduction, Byram states that it should be no surprise to readers that numerous viewpoints are represented and that "there is not complete harmony within the text as a whole." He views the diversity of opinion as a strength of his handbook since readers will be challenged to develop their own interpretation and understanding of a particular issue.
The articles in RELTL are arranged in alphabetical order from a (Acculturation) through w (Writing), and Byram supplements his work with fourteen illustrations. The entries fall into nine categories: learners and learning, teachers and teaching/assessing, methods and materials, curriculum and syllabus, systems and organization of foreign language teaching and learning, languages, history and influential figures, evaluation and research, and contexts and concepts. For each category, Byram commissioned scholars to write overview articles. These longer pieces describe in general terms major concepts related to one of the nine themes or categories of the encyclopedia and suggest entries for further consultation if the reader requires more detailed information. RELTL closes with an extensive, user-friendly index.
RELTL includes articles of varying lengths, from two or three paragraphs to three thousand words. For the most part, each entry can be broken down into four sections. The title of the entry appears in boldfaced type and is followed by the first section, an opening paragraph offering an overview of the topic and brief introductory material for quick reference purposes. Some readers will find that this section contains all the information they need. The second section forms the main body of the entry and, in one or more paragraphs, provides the reader with substantial detail in clear, concise prose. The third section contains a short summary statement and a general evaluation of the topic's importance. In the fourth section at the end of each entry, the contributor lists the works cited in the article and supplies titles of books, journal articles, or websites for further reading. Each article is signed with the full name of its author, and a complete list of contributors appears at the beginning of the encyclopedia.
For example, from the entry on Wilhelm Viëtor, the reader learns first that Viëtor was born in Kleeberg, Germany, on 25 December 1850, served as Professor of English Philology at the University of Marburg, and died in Marburg, Germany, on 22 December 1918. This essential biographical information is followed by a narrative survey of Viëtor's life and achievements. His role in the Reform Movement of the nineteenth century is described as well as his view that oral communication should be emphasized in classroom instruction. In addition, Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren!, a pamphlet he wrote while vacationing in Wales, is summarized and its revolutionary character highlighted. The entry concludes with an evaluation of Viëtor's contributions to twentieth-century foreign language teaching and a short list of additional sources that readers might wish to consult. The author of the entry is identified as Werner Hüllen, a faculty member at the Universität Gesamthochschule Essen.
The German language, German-language instruction, and German, Austrian, and Swiss contributions to modern language pedagogy are well represented and fairly treated in RELTL. Besides an analysis of the past and current status of German taught as a foreign language, readers can find entries on the "Goethe-Institut" and the "Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst." Scholars also discuss concepts such as "Fremdsprachendidaktik," "Interkulturelle Didaktik," and "Handlungsorientierter Unterricht." It is important to note that German-speaking academics played a significant role in creating RELTL. Over thirty scholars from Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland wrote articles for the encyclopedia. Only the United Kingdom is listed more frequently as the home of contributors.
Overall, the reference work is well researched, well balanced, and informative. RELTL offers readers a practical treatment of a constantly changing field of intellectual inquiry. Byram and his editorial team are to be congratulated for their attention to detail and for their efforts to provide entries written in a clear, lively prose style and free of unnecessary jargon. RELTL deserves a place in university libraries, and graduate students and teaching professionals will find it to be an invaluable resource.

David V. Witkosky
Auburn University Montgomery

XI. Pedagogy: Teaching Tips

Ur , Penny, and Andrew Wright, eds. 111 Kurzrezepte für den Deutschunterricht. Trans. Barbara Huter and Susanne Schauf. Stuttgart: Klett, 1995 (repr. 2002). Paper, 109 pp., EUR 17.30. <www.klett-verlag.de>

The ideas for interactive learning games presented in this compendium were adapted by the same editors for the teaching of German as a foreign language from two previously published manuals for Spanish language activities. Implementing these 'recipes' requires anywhere from five to fifteen minutes with minimal preparation or introduction time and can be done as warm-up, closing or transitional activities, individually, in pairs or in groups. Usually in the form of games, they consistently promote learner motivation and invite the students' creativity. Structure and purpose are lucid and sensible at all times, and the degree of difficulty may be adjusted to virtually any language level. Many of the activities are accompanied by illustrations or text samples that can be copied for classroom use. In most cases, several suggestions are given for variations or expansion of an activity, and no matter which language skill is covered in a particular exercise (the book does a balanced job to cover all four of them adequately), they all promise to elicit lively participation.
The collection consists of eight chapters, ranging from simple tasks involving letters, words, and expressions to more demanding work with sentences, short texts, and pictures, culminating in such complex practices as reports, discussions, and debates. The main aspect, however, is the communicative value of these activities: simple to implement, playful, and fun-oriented, it is easy to see how they will create a relaxed atmosphere and engage students verbally and at times physically. Another plus is that there is at least one activity for every grammatical structure - be it adjective endings or superlatives, subjunctive or past tense, relative clauses or reflexive verbs, it's all there - and the volume is compact enough to locate an appropriate exercise in little time. The reader will be surprised at the many imaginative ways to encourage student interaction as well as some 'old' ways of which some of us may be in need of being reminded again.
In our digital age where the Internet and high-tech teaching devices are increasingly stressed, it is refreshing to rediscover some of the generic communication-stimulating language games for which the most technologically advanced appliance needed is an overhead projector. Teachers and students alike will no doubt appreciate an occasional return to the basics of productive teaching methods.
This practical handbook is the first in a series of three by the same publisher, the other two being 88 Unterrichtsrezepte (recipes for real food this time) and 66 Grammatik-Spiele, which should be worth reading as well.

Frank Pilipp
Georgia Institute of Technology

XII. Pedagogy: Theory

Becker-Mrotzek, Michael, and Rüdiger Vogt. Unterrichtskommunikation: Linguistische Analysemethoden und Forschungsergebnisse. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2001. Paper, vii + 192 pp., EUR 13.50. <www.niemeyer.de>

This 38th volume of Germanistische Arbeitshefte provides a quite interesting perspective on classroom discourse on the elementary and secondary levels for the subject of German and combines a definition chapter on "Unterricht," a theoretical background analysis of classroom discourse, "Linguistische Ansätze zur Analyse von Unterrichtskommunikation," and a chapter on "Unterricht als geplantes Instruieren" with another one on "Die Organisation von Unterricht." There is a concluding chapter on "Didaktische Maximen", a page with the HIAT (= Halb-Interpretativen-Arbeits-Transkriptionen) transcription conventions according to Ehlich & Rehbein, and an extensive international bibliography for further study and in-depth reference.
Unterrichtskommunikation presents a thorough introduction to the history and the development of the field of classroom discourse analysis in its theoretical and practical aspects. Thus, it can assist current and prospective teachers concerned with more effective and efficient teacher-student and student-student relations in examining the basic assumptions and issues of school as a public institution where teaching and learning needs to take place; furthermore, various styles of communication in the classroom, assumptions, and values are described and compared. Moreover, this work explores the ways the basic parameters of classroom discourse analysis can be applied to one's professional life in varying contexts. Finally, the six methodological rules should be taken into consideration while implementing the proposed methodology: Reflektiere die Bedingungen von Unterricht und mache sie dir bewusst; Stelle für alle Beteiligten Transparenz her; Praktiziere eine bewusste Methodenvielfalt; Mache die Interaktionsverfahren der Klassengemeinschaft regelmäßig zum gemeinsamen Thema; Sei offen für ungeplante und unerwartete Interaktionsprozesse; and Hinterfrage die eigene Beurteilungspraxis. Ultimately, to ensure that the reader is able to obtain an overview and an understanding of the theoretical and practical purposes of classroom pragmatics an extensive bibliography of state-of-the-art classroom discourse projects and experiments is included.
In particular, in Chapter 1: "Was ist Unterricht?," the authors outline the history of modern formal education in Germany since the beginning of the 19th century in contrast to the other privileged form of education starting in the 15th and 16th centuries. Next, various methodological approaches to teaching German from Ickelsamer in 1527 to Winkel in 1986 are briefly discussed. Finally, a classroom is defined as the complexity of a communicative component, an institutional aspect, and a public situation wherein teaching as well as learning are supposed to take place.
Relying on research predominantly by other linguists, the authors describe specific ways of how to transcribe and analyze the internal structure of classroom lessons. First, they introduce the various levels of interactional discourse according to Sinclair & Coulthard: 'lesson,' 'transaction,' 'exchange,' 'move' or 'act' in the grammatical forms of either a 'sentence,' 'clause,' 'group,' 'word,' or 'morpheme,' with each interaction in itself divided into the steps of 'Initiation,' 'Reply,' and 'Evaluation.' Second, the authors provide additional parameters for classroom discourse analysis from the ethno-methodological conversation analysis according to Mehan that focuses on turn-taking systems in each classroom as a reflection of an internal social structure. Third, they describe, discuss, and critique Ehlich & Rehbein's 'Frage-Antwort-Muster,' 'Das Muster Aufgabe - Stellen / Aufgabe - Lösen,' 'Das Muster Rätselraten,' 'Das Muster Lehrervortrag mit verteilten Rollen,' and 'Das Muster Begründen.'
In sum, I believe that, with little or no adaptation needed, several of the models developed by linguists Sinclair & Coulthard, Mehan, and Ehlich & Rehbein might indeed be employed in any classroom situation by teachers or teachers-in-training. However, one always needs to analyze the specific configuration in which the linguistic action occurs - be it between a teacher and an individual student, a small group of students, a large group or a whole class, or between students. This additional aspect is mentioned by the authors in Chapter 3. Therefore, this work will be a practical and invaluable source for those trying to figure out professionally what is going on in their classroom. There is only one obvious shortcoming of the text: It is not intended for German teachers or German teachers-in-training in the United States, but rather for those teaching in Germany.

Claudia A. Becker
Loyola University, Chicago

Brammerts, Helmut, and Karin Kleppin, eds. Selbstgesteuertes Sprachenlernen im Tandem. Ein Handbuch. Forum Sprachlehrforschung 1. Tübingen: Stauffenburg,, 2001. Paper, 207 pp., EUR 24.80. <www.stauffenburg.de>

Dieses Handbuch bietet neben lerntheoretischen Begründungen des autonomen Sprachenlernens im Tandem konkrete Anregungen zur effektiven Organisation und Durchführung von Präsenz- und Distanztandems. Es beinhaltet eine Fülle von Erfahrungsberichten aus verschiedenen internationalen Bildungskontexten, aus denen hervorgeht, dass sich sowohl Lehrende, als auch Lernende in ihre neuen Rollen einfinden müssen, damit das Potential des Tandemlernens effizient genutzt werden kann.
27 Autoren haben die einzelnen Beiträge in Selbstgesteuertes Sprachenlernen im Tandem verfasst. Die Beiträge basieren auf Tandemprojekten, die sie im überwiegend europäischen Raum im Rahmen des ODL-Projektes Telematics for Autonomous and Intercultural Tandem Learning organisiert und betreut haben. Einerseits ermöglicht diese Autorenmenge einen Einblick in viele verschiedene Realisierungsvarianten des Tandemkonzepts, andererseits erschwert sie die Lektüre, da es inhaltliche Überschneidungen gibt und zuweilen die Kohärenz zwischen den Beiträgen fehlt. Insofern präsentiert sich das Buch weniger wie ein herkömmliches Handbuch, dem man gezielt relevante Informationen entnehmen kann, sondern eher wie ein Markt der Möglichkeiten, aus dessen Vielzahl von Perspektiven Handlungsvorschläge abgeleitet werden können. So wird auch den Lesern die Autonomie zugestanden, sich einen geeigneten Organisationsplan zu erstellen, der auf ihre speziellen Bildungskontexte abgestimmt ist.
Wie man den theoretischen Ausführungen von David Little und Helmut Brammerts im ersten Kapitel entnehmen kann, bringt das Tandemkonzept alles auf einen Nenner, was heutzutage pädagogisch, methodisch und didaktisch als erstrebenswert gilt: das autonom-kooperative Lernen im Tandem ermöglicht die authentische Kommunikation in der Zielsprache, interkulturelles Lernen, und erhöht drastisch die Eigenverantwortung der Lerner. Die Tandemlerner setzen sich in gegenseitiger Absprache eigene Arbeitsschwerpunkte, formulieren Lernziele, und reflektieren bei regelmäßigen Beratungsgesprächen über ihre Lernprozesse. In diesen Gesprächen fungieren die Lehrenden als Lernberater und erarbeiten induktiv mit den Lernern optimierende Lernpläne und Methoden, die auf individuellen Lernwünschen basieren. Beim E-Tandem können durch E-Mail oder Chat zusätzliche Computerkompetenzen entwickelt werden. Meines Erachtens hat gerade das E-Tandem im amerikanischen und kanadischen Aus- und Weiterbildungswesen gute infrastrukturelle Voraussetzungen, da immer mehr Schulen, Universitäten, und Privathaushalte mit internetfähigen Computern ausgestattet werden.
Die Kapitel 2 bis 4 enthalten Ideen zur Organisation und Betreuung von Tandems, oft in Form von Beispielen aus der Praxis. Zunächst werden die unterschiedlichen Arten der Präsenztandems und Distanztandems beschrieben, dann mögliche Tandemlernziele erörtert, und schließlich werden erfolgreiche Tandemaktivitäten, sowie schriftliche Hilfen für Tandemlerner vorgestellt, die auch die Förderung interkultureller Kompetenz anvisieren. Umfassend eingegangen wird auf die Konzeption der begleitenden Lernberatung, die gemäß der Autoren nicht bevormundend sein sollte, um eine hohe Lernerautonomie zu gewährleisten.
Die Erfahrungsberichte in den Kapiteln 5 bis 7 zur Integration von Tandems an Schulen, Hochschulen, und in der kommerziellen Erwachsenenbildung zeigen, dass Tandems eine grundlegende Neuorientierung der Lehrer und Lerner erfordern, da beim Tandemlernen mit lehrerzentrierten Unterrichtstraditionen gebrochen wird. Es wird auch deutlich, dass die konsequente Realisierung der Lernerautonomie angesichts institutioneller Beschränkungen ein schwieriger Balanceakt sein kann. Fast alle Berichte erwähnen z.B. das Problem der Leistungsbeurteilung; manche Institutionen erlauben ihren Lernern ziemlich viel Mitspracherecht bei der Notengebung, und manche weniger. Zwar stammen die Erfahrungsberichte größtenteils aus dem Hochschulbereich, viele Erfahrungen sollten aber auch für Sprachlehrer an Schulen von Interesse sein. An allen Institutionen stießen die Tandems auf positive Resonanz seitens der Lerner, das belegen mündliche und schriftliche Umfragen.
Eine sehr umfangreiche Bibliographie und eine Adressenliste europäischer Tandem-Server findet man im Anhang. Bei einem Versuch, die Seiten der Server Anfang Dezember 2002 aufzusuchen, funktionierten die schwedischen und russischen Links nicht.
Die etwas dürftige Aufmachung des Buches und der relativ hohe Kaufpreis überzeugen weniger, wenn man bedenkt, dass Teile des Buches auch auf den Tandem-Servern im Internet abrufbar sind, wie z.B. auf dem oft erwähnten Server der Ruhr-Universität Bochum: <www.slf.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>. Zudem stellt sich die Frage, ob die Erfahrungsberichte, die alle aus den Jahren 1996 bis 1999 stammen, nicht bereits ein wenig veraltet sind. Auch wenn manche Erfahrungen sicherlich zeitlosen Wert besitzen, lohnt sich bestimmt ein ergänzender Blick in elektronische Diskussionsforen für den Fremdsprachenunterricht, um den heutigen Stand der Dinge zu verfolgen. Trotz dieser Schwächen sei das Handbuch jedoch allen als gute Einstiegsliteratur empfohlen, die selbst ein Tandem in ihr Curriculum integrieren möchten. Selbstgesteuertes Sprachenlernen im Tandem bietet differenzierte Ausführungen und inspirierende Praxisbeispiele, die sich durchaus auch auf nordamerikanische Bildungskontexte übertragen lassen.

Deborah E. Szillat
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg

XIII. Business German

Schroll-Machl, Sylvia. Die Deutschen - Wir Deutsche: Fremdwahrnehmung und Selbstsicht im Berufsleben. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. Paper, 216 pp.,EUR 25.00. <vandenhoeck-ruprecht.de>

This is a welcome new addition to the reference material that one can recommend to students of Business German in order to achieve a cross-cultural mindset while studying a foreign language. The author, a cross-cultural trainer, covers two topics simultaneously: how Germans view themselves and others and how others view Germans in business contexts. The overall guiding assumption of this cross-cultural reader with a specific focus on the German workplace is that as globalization becomes more pervasive in everyday life, members of the business community are faced with challenging new situations with cultural differences.
First, the author provides sufficient background information by defining the global concept of 'culture' in the chapter titled "Was sind Kulturstandards?"; then the concept of 'culture' is analyzed in the German context as compared to other national cultures in the subsequent chapter, "Der geschichtliche Rahmen." In the central chapter "Zentrale deutsche Kulturstandards," the seven key concepts of German culture are defined, historically explained, and analyzed in terms of advantages and disadvantages: Sachorientierung; Wertschätzung von Strukturen und Regeln; Regelorientierte, internalisierte Kontrolle; Zeitplanung; Trennung von Persönlichkeits- und Lebensbereichen; Schwacher Kontext als Kommunikationsstil; and Individualismus. In particular, the initial pages for each key concept are fascinating since various reactions from business partners from other national cultures are graphically displayed. Furthermore, the collection of anecdotes following each table "So sehen andere die Deutschen" provide the reader with interesting real-life situations in which a particular cultural concept surfaced.
Finally, the sections "Empfehlungen für Nicht-Deutsche und Deutsche" for each cultural key concept prescribe a variety of options of how to react in certain cross-cultural scenarios in which a particular key concept might become an issue. In the three-page conclusion, the author raises the question of how to overcome the cross-cultural dilemma in the German workplace. Her answer is simple: Be aware of the differences between Germans and Non-Germans and analyze the causes and effects of those differences; and start a cross-cultural dialogue based on the wealth of historical and social background information given in the text to heighten intercultural awareness and understanding whenever there is a question or a problem. Finally, a bibliography containing exclusively European resources enables the reader to sample more studies and readers on the topic.
In sum, the great strength of this volume is its dual perspective, which allows both sides in German business partnerships to collect as much information as possible in order to develop a deeper understanding of the key concepts in order to solve a particular cross-cultural dilemma. However, the book could have profited from an Appendix with cross-cultural exercises, strategies, worksheets, diagnostic tools, and questionnaires for cross-cultural problem-solvers. Despite this caveat, this is a volume that, for its coverage of the cultural and historical background, one can warmly recommend as a new reference tool for German Business undergraduates.

Claudia A. Becker
Loyola University Chicago

XIV. Landeskunde

Kuhne, Berthold. Grundwissen Deutschland: Kurze Texte und Übungen. München: iudicium, 2000. Paper, 168 pp., EUR 10.50. <www.iudicium.de>

Grundwissen Deutschland is an ambitious title for a paperback book the size of a TV Guide (but with fewer pages). But Kuhne comes surprisingly close to providing a sound, comprehensive overview of most of the significant basic information about Germany in the year 2000.
The book's structure is simple: seventy-two single-page landeskundliche Texte (left pages), each accompanied by a single page of exercises of various kinds, all aimed at the student whose German proficiency is on the level of the Zertifikat Deutsch. The texts, grouped under eight headings ('Land und Leute,' 'Gesellschaft,' 'Bildungssystem,' 'Kultur,' 'Feste,' 'Die Bundesländer,' 'Politik,' and 'Wirtschaft'), are, the author suggests, equally useful for the classroom and for the autodidact. But since there is no answer key to the exercises, the independent student will be at a disadvantage.
At first glance, the contents of Grundwissen Deutschland look strikingly like the considerably denser Tatsachen über Deutschland, issued by the Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung and familiar to generations of German teachers and students (but maddeningly challenging for use as a textbook). Grundwissen Deutschland, however, makes do completely without illustrations, apart from its cover, flying directly in the face of much recent textbook publishing. There is a labeled black-white-gray political map of Germany before the table of contents and an outline map of Europe without country, city, or geographical labels (useful for testing, almost valueless as reference) on the closing page.
The cover is very attractive, made up of a mosaic of almost 100 color photographs, some of them of characteristically German subjects (architecture, historical sites, leisure activities, cultural interests, now-dated banknotes), others generic (sunflowers, apples, vegetables, recycled car bodies, a chemistry lab, a violin). There is no key to identify any of the photographs, so if a teacher wishes to do something with them, s/he will probably have to use them as some kind of conversation stimulus.
Quite unlike the current vogue in textbooks published by the leading German houses such as Langenscheidt, Klett, Hueber, and Verlag für Deutsch, Kuhne's book gives no teacher tips, not even an interpretatory key for the symbols which accompany the exercises. However, one quickly deciphers these symbols and is able to see what students are supposed to do. There are both highly structured exercise assignments, many of them related to vocabulary building, even binary true-false exercises, as well as definitions, matching, opposites, completion, fill-in-the-blanks, and grammar manipulation exercises distributed throughout the book more or less randomly, so that the familiar (but somewhat tired) model of every chapter with the same format is attractively disrupted. While there are also occasional "Und nun erzählen Sie" exercises, most of the book's material is gradably correct or incorrect, which teachers may welcome.
Kuhne notes that the length of the texts makes them suitable both as dictations and short listening texts (although there is no recording included), and he also informs us in the one-page introduction that the exercises review "einen Großteil der grammatischen Phänomene" encountered while preparing for the ZD. Tried and tested in Goethe-Institut instruction, the book's texts and exercises were also critiqued by German teachers in Russia, Japan, and Indonesia.
The curse of any book with Landeskunde information is its shelf life; many of us packrats have a whole collection of now outdated Tatsachen über Deutschland editions. And Grundwissen Deutschland will rapidly lose some of its statistical currency, too. The text "Geld und Währungssystem" begins thus: "Die Währungseinheit der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ist die deutsche Mark (1 DM = 100 Pfennige)." Now that most of us have found the Euro key on our computers, there is something nostalgic about this no longer valid information, but it is a trivial fault, one of very few in this book, and perceptive students will pick up on it without any prompting.
Munich's iudicium Verlag is not known for textbooks, but this modest beginning makes one curious to see what's coming next, given their collaborative relationship with the Goethe-Institut. This relatively inexpensive, no-frills book is worth checking out in a time when hardcover American textbook packages are rapidly approaching the $100 mark.

Richard Rundell
New Mexico State University

XV. Teaching Literature

Clay, Gudrun. 1000 Jahre deutsche Literatur: Von den Anfängen bis zur Aufklärung. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2002. Paper, 196 pp., $34.95. <www.pullins.com>

Clay's book is designed to acquaint third- and fourth-year German students with early German literature within its broad historical, linguistic, and cultural contexts. It is divided into seven chapters: Das Germanentum, Frühes Mittelalter, Hohes Mittelalter, Spätes Mittelalter, Das Zeitalter der Reformation, Das Zeitalter des Dreißigjährigen Kriegs und das Barock, and Die Aufklärung. Each chapter consists of four parts: an historical and cultural overview of the period; a language section that examines the linguistic development of German up to that point; a selection of literary pieces or excerpts that best exemplify the literature of the time; and a "Zeittafel" that provides additional biographical and historical background information. Each part, except for the chronological table at the end, is followed by a series of exercises that range from content and thought questions, word studies, and "Nacherzählungen" to "Etwas zum Nachdenken" that require students to react to what they have read by drawing parallels or making connections.
Since most undergraduate students do not have the philological background to read early German literature in the original, the literary selections are presented in modern German translations. Footnotes provide simple German equivalents or explanations for difficult or uncommon terms as well as biographical and historical information. The historical and cultural overviews that begin each chapter are a valuable feature of the text since many of our students come to us with little or no European history in high school.
Clay's book is unique in a number of respects. It is currently the only text on the market that makes early German literature accessible to undergraduates and that at the same time introduces them to a history of the German language. These are areas of study that either do not appear in or at best are underrepresented in the undergraduate German curriculum today.
Unlike anthologies like Bernhard Blume's German Literature: Texts and Contexts (1974), which devoted about one-third of its pages to early German literature and which has been out of print now for some years, Clay's book comes with a variety of useful, classroom-tested exercises. These exercises can be used to stimulate class discussions or can serve as topics for further study, oral reports, or short research papers. This is especially true for the "Etwas zum Nachdenken," which may require further research or reflection. For example, in the chapter on "Die Aufklärung," students are confronted with such though-provoking questions as: "Wie erklären Sie es sich, dass gerade der Nathan das erste Theaterstück war, das nach Kriegsende in Berlin gespielt wurde? Inwiefern können wir Lessing als typischen Vertreter der Aufklärung bezeichnen? Obwohl Nathan der Weise ein Theatererfolg war, wurde das Stück 150 Jahre später verboten. Warum?" There are sufficient readings and exercises in the book so that it can serve as the primary text in a course on early German literature and the historical development of German or for the first half of a survey of German literature.
This work is a well-thought out literary history and anthology that offers undergraduate students a rich introduction to the earliest literary forms and traditions of Germany and fills a significant void in our library of teaching materials.

William E. Petig
Stanford University

Weber, Hans. Vorschläge 1 Neu: Literarische Texte für den Unterricht Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Textband, Kommentarband, 5. Auflage. Audiocassette: with Eva Garg and Bernt Hahn. Bonn: Goethe Institut Inter Nationes, 2002. Paper, 95pp., (Text), 188pp. (Commentary). Transparencies. <www.aatg.org>

More than ten years have gone by since the teacher's edition of Vorschläge 1 first appeared under the sponsorship of Inter Nationes as a thematically organized anthology of poetry and fiction focusing mainly on the 20th century, with emphasis on poetry since l945. The collection has been prized by teachers of German because of its multi-pronged approach: furnished with texts, an audiocassettes, and transparencies of selected texts, it made for easy transfer into the classroom. The text was rendered particularly useful by its pedagogical apparatus: vocabulary explanations (Lesehilfen) in German made the texts appropriate not only for advanced literature/language/culture classes but also for independent study by advanced students; interpretations and contextual explanations set a horizon of expectation, increasing the understanding of the text and the pleasure of interacting with it; suggestions on how to introduce the text to students and sample guided exploratory activities to be carried out by students enhanced the usefulness of the work immeasurably.
Felicitously, Vorschläge 1 Neu has remained faithful to the format that has served teachers so well in the past, with new texts replacing about half of the selection comprising the first edition. All 19th and early 20th century poems have been replaced by selections beginning with World War II and Post-War literature. Changed have been many of the textual selections and the Anregungen for each, as well as the transparencies, which are no longer limited to the texts, but provide stimulating visualized contexts, historical, cultural information, and literary analogues. One cassette has replaced the two; clear and crisp readings alternate between male and female voices.
The new edition presents a selection of thirty-six important literary texts. The thematic organization from the first edition has been pared down to three themes, dropping Merkwürdiges, but retaining Natur, Zeitläufte and Menschenleben.
New poems have been added by Sara Kirsch, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Robert Gernhardt, Thomas Brasch, and Durs Grünbein, as well as prose selections from Günter Grass (Mein Jahrhundert), Martin Walser, and others.
To illustrate: For Enzensberger's poem, "Das, was vorher war," Weber suggests that students approach the text by identifying familiar major historical events in their own country's history to which statements from this poem might apply. What should be preserved in collective memory? By whom? From the known and familiar, students are urged to approach the tragic event of modern German history, namely the question of German responsibility for the Holocaust, an event that is problematized in German collective memory and in the poem discussed.
Weber identifies Walser's speech in l998 as possible stimulus for the poem, but lists, explains, and comments on each one of the positions raised in the poem as ones routinely taken by Germans vis-à-vis the Holocaust, including denial. He urges the instructor to have students respond in a dialogic fashion to the "schwache Stimme" identified at the end of the poem, recommending that students examine the multiple levels of meaning interactively.
Because of its superb selection of modern German poetry and prose, because of its practical, useful, and suggestive pedagogical apparatus, and finally because it assumes that work with these texts needs to lead to "Freude am Text" by the learner in a student- centered learning environment, Vorschläge 1 Neu is potentially of immense value to the German language, literature, and culture classroom. Weber makes it possible to enter into a productive dialogue with each text, i.e., to enjoy the interactive exploration and discussion each text proffers. With this update Weber has enhanced Volume One of the already excellent series of Vorschläge, which deserve a special place on each instructor's desk. The profession eagerly anticipates Weber's Vorschläge 4, which will be devoted to thematically organized selections from Günter Grass, Mein Jahrhundert.

Rosmarie Thee Morewedge
SUNY Binghamton

Phillips, Zlata Fuss. German Children's and Youth Literature in Exile 1933-1950. Biographies and Bibliographies. München: Saur, 2001. Cloth, 318 pp., EUR 110.00. <www.saur.de>

In the short introduction to her bio-bibliographical collection of 101 exile writers and illustrators of books for children and youths, Phillips explains the historical background and the need for this handbook. She responds to the call for more exhaustive treatment of the subject since only a small number of incomplete studies exist, accompanied by two exhibitions in Leipzig (1995) and Vienna (1997/98), and she fills the gap with her painstakingly researched and recorded body of literature that, unlike children's literature in the Third Reich, has not yet received its proper attention. The careful description of her selection criteria and documentation procedures makes it easy for the reader to understand the context for and the layout of her entries.
Phillips includes only authors and illustrators who were born before1918 in Germany and Austria and who worked and possibly published there until 1933. While some of the writers and illustrators were and are known (e.g. Felix Salten, Lisa Tetzner, Hermynia Zur Mühlen, Walter Trier, and Fritz Kredel), most are less known or unknown. She excludes some authors whose books were only occasionally considered reading material for the young (7), who lived abroad but were not persecuted (1), whose lives and works could not be sufficiently reconstructed (4), and who declined to be included (3). Of her 101 alphabetically listed names, slightly more than one half are authors, one quarter illustrators, the rest author/illustrators. She cites all editions of their works written and illustrated in exile from 1933-1950, whether in Europe, Russia, America (about 40 of the 101), Canada, Central and South America, Australia, the Near East, or Asia. She lists books published between 1945 and 1950 only if the authors remained in exile and occasionally lists books published after 1950 if they were created in exile up to 1950. She describes the range of the books (for what age and of what topic; coloring books, alphabet and numbers books, poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, fairy tales, adventure and detective stories, biographies, historical works, works about animals, nature, holidays, customs, etc.) as well as the range of illustrations and materials (pictographs, woodcuts, scratch board illustrations, pen/pencil and ink drawings, watercolors, crayons, photographs, etc.).
Each entry begins with a short biography of the writer or illustrator (based on standard reference books or, in the case of unknown or forgotten authors, on biographical sketches provided by authors who were still alive when she began her inquiries in the late 1980s, and/or by relatives, friends, librarians, archivists) and she takes great care to establish the proper use of birth name versus pseudonym. The bibliographical entries following the biography conform to Library of Congress standards and, in the majority of cases, give further information for three categories: content, illustrations, and location. Often a "special note" is included for information not fitting the previous three categories (for example, information on writers of forewords, translators, book and binding designers, and on honors received, dedications, etc.). Titles are given in the original language first, then subsequent editions, translations, special editions, and/or revised editions are listed.
The book concludes with a bibliography of secondary literature, a name index (including not only the 101 treated writers and illustrators but also translators, editors, book designers, writers of introductions, etc.), and a title index. A photo-collage with 74 photographs of writers and illustrators is displayed on the endpapers.
The handbook, clearly laid out and organized, of absolutely professional quality, significant and sound, is a most valuable basic tool for scholars as well as teachers interested in children's and youth literature written and published in exile. At the college as well as high school level, not only courses on exile literature, but courses on children's and youth literature, on the fairy tale or detective story, for example, can now be enriched with units based on research and source material provided here in summary fashion for the first time.

Sigrid Kellenter
Union College

Neuhaus, Stefan. Revision des literarischen Kanons. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. Paper, 188 pp., EUR 19.90. <www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht.de>

According to the subtitle of Der Siegener Kanon (ed. P. Gendolla & C. Zelle, 2000) discussion of the German literary canon constitutes an "ewige Debatte." Wulf Segebrecht's Was sollen Germanisten lesen? (1994, reviewed in UP 29.2, 1996), the book that seems to have initiated the latest round of discussion, was reprinted in 2000. In 1997 Die Zeit carried out a survey as to what a whole range of people, not just writers and critics, considered to be canonical texts, and in 2001 Marcel Reich-Ranicki put forward in Der Spiegel "einen neuen Kanon lesenswerter deutschsprachiger Bücher" by 74 authors. 2002 has seen the publication of a Text+Kritik 'Sonderband', Literarische Kanonbildung, and the volume reviewed here, published by a junior colleague of Segebrecht at the University of Bamberg.
Neuhaus considers canons to be the work of self-selecting elites concerned with power and influence, rather than aesthetic criteria, and feels that, in the process, important literature of quality is ignored. He then goes on to make the case for authors usually seen as being non-canonical (Wilhelm Hauff, Julius Rodenberg, Ludwig Kalisch, Heinz Erhardt), or for less commonly known works of recognized authors (Fontane's Ellernklipp and Kästner's Die Schule der Diktatoren).
The last author for whom Neuhaus goes to bat, Uwe Timm, illustrates some of the problems with his very loose use of the term 'canon,' as well as, in this case, a certain lack of information. He claims that only Timm's first novel, Heißer Sommer (1974), can be considered to have approached canonical status, while the rest of his work seems generally to be ignored. The claim on behalf of Heißer Sommer is entirely inappropriate; the book is a key document of the Student Movement, but is also the weakest of Timm's work. Works such as Morenga (1978), Kopfjäger (1991) or Rot (2001) are vastly superior and explain his status as a member of the Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung and recipient of numerous major literary prizes.
What Neuhaus is ultimately trying to do is push the envelope as far as he can, arguing for expanding the concept of literature that is at the core of canonical debate, going even as far as to make the case for including pop songs and video clips. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making the case for the value of such ephemera in teaching, and many of us have found them so very useful in generating student interest. But to argue that they should be included in some sort of canon is to ignore what one is all about: the works in it are distinguished by their literary quality and historical importance and collectively they represent the cultural memory of a country. In pushing for the expansion of the canon or the generation of counter-canons, Neuhaus' basic assumption seems to be that there is a hegemonic canon in place that excludes consideration of other works.
In contrast, Die Zeit feels that the recent poor German performance in the Pisa Study reflects in part a severe reduction in the reading by German students of " anspruchsvolle Texte." The newspaper therefore put together a panel of eight: two students, two German teachers, two writers, and two Zeit correspondents that agreed on a list of fifty titles (actually nearer sixty, since some authors are represented by more than one work), in some cases anthologies of poetry (Nr. 42, 10.10.2002). Bettina von Arnim's Die Günderode tops the list, followed by Jurek Becker's Jakob der Lügner. It's a list that is bound to generate intense discussion, but at least Neuhaus should not quibble with the book in twenty-first place: Wilhelm Hauff's Märchen.

Keith Bullivant
University of Florida

XVI. Teaching the Holocaust

Odom, William, tr. Tomorrow We'll Be in Switzerland: Saving the Children of La Hille. (Morgen sind wir in der Schweiz: Die Rettung der Kinder von La Hille), Hörspiel by Klaus Ihlau. Wien: Edition Praesens, 2000. Paper, 53 pp. + CD of Eng. and Ger., EUR 21.60. <www.praesens.at>

Klaus Ihlau's Morgen sind wir in der Schweiz: Die Rettung der Kinder von La Hille is a bilingual text/CD volume that recounts the amazing but true story of one hundred predominantly Jewish children and their escape from Nazi persecution. The children's odyssey begins in 1938 in Belgium and by 1941 they find themselves in a rundown castle just north of the Pyrenees in La Hille, France under the care of the Children's Aid Service of the Swiss Red Cross. While danger is always imminent, the situation worsens in the summer of 1942 as the Vichy government caters to the German occupying forces. The extreme bravery of staff members such as Anne-Marie Piguet and Rosemarie Näf, a Red Cross nurse, ensure that ninety of the one hundred children who found refuge in La Hille survive.
Ihlau weaves together numerous first-hand accounts by La Hille survivors and staff to create a rich narrative. The tapestry of voices is augmented periodically with background information by the chronicler, whose voice serves both to imbed the text in its historical context as well as to shed light on events that directly affect the children, such as the Nuremberg Laws, the Munich Accord, and the Nazi invasion of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union. Ihlau's docudrama moves his audience by individualizing history and historicizing individuality.
Tomorrow We'll Be in Switzerland: Saving the Children of La Hille is William Odom's English translation of the aforementioned text. The German text on the left is wonderfully paralleled with its English counterpart on the right and Odom's translation is both accurate and faithful to the original while remaining fluid. The dual-language format is certainly a pedagogical asset. Indeed the bilingual text/CD could be valuable in a lower level German language classroom as well as an English-speaking classroom with a focus on the Holocaust. In the latter scenario, students with German language capabilities could read in the original language.
The text is accompanied by two CDs: one in German and one in English. A big disappointment is the formatting of the CDs, which are not divided into chapters. Therefore listeners have only one option, namely to listen to the CD in its entirety. While the CD is just shy of sixty-nine minutes in length, the inability to cue to a specific passage remains a drawback and diminishes some of the CDs value for classroom use.
Ihlau's Morgen sind wir in der Schweiz aired as a radio feature in Germany and Switzerland in 1996 and Odom's translation, Tomorrow We'll Be in Switzerland, aired in the United States as a National Public Radio feature in 1999. Everett Frost provides an in-depth five-page introduction to the book in which he describes the radio feature as a genre that has been sadly neglected in the States. While interesting, Frost's lengthy opening detracts from the story that the reader is eager to begin. Yet its placement reveals that the production of Tomorrow We'll Be in Switzerland is twofold: it is not just to share the story of the children of La Hille, but to show both the American public and radio producers the importance of the radio feature genre. As Frost argues, the radio feature occupies neutral ground between highbrow genres and popular culture. The genre has enormous potential and Frost hopes that Tomorrow We'll Be in Switzerland will make an impact on its American audience and, in particular, the radio producers.

Janet Besserer Holmgren
Pacific Lutheran University

XVII. Recommended in Brief

This section provides short reviews of good books that, because of scope, review space, or reviewer availability might otherwise be overlooked.

Schumann, Johannes. Leichte Tests: Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Ismaning: Hueber, 2001. Paper, 147 pp., EUR 8.95. <www.hueber.de>

This is a useful resource for ready-made material that provides both interesting and challenging ways to expand vocabulary. Teachers will find a wealth of easily adaptable exercises for classroom activities or tests by "mining" the rich amount of vocabulary items or by using the format to create materials tailor-made to a specific lesson. Among the 100 tests are over a dozen types, with one-quarter being devoted to Lückentexte, and another one-quarter or so divided between crossword puzzles and, my favorite, analogies (e.g., Ohr : hören = Auge : ___ ). Individuals wishing to improve their vocabulary on their own can do so with ease thanks to an answer key in the back. This inexpensive volume should be in the "toolkit" of everyone teaching German at any level, and it should surely increase the interest of self-learners.

Moore, Suzanne S., and David P. Benseler, comps. & eds. A Comprehensive Index to The Modern Language Journal (1916-1996). Boston: Blackwell, 2000. Cloth, 622 pp., $334.95. <bookshop.blackwell.com>

The first part of this valuable reference is an article index of 4191 items, listed alphabetically by the last name of the first author or editor, and each item is cross-referenced by topic(s). This section is followed by an index to the topics, making it easy, for example to find each of the over 300 articles that deal in some way with German or the three articles on etymology. The third section is an index of book and materials reviews, categorized by language, then alphabetized by author, with the reviewer's name in brackets at the end of the entry. Finally, all names (authors of articles, authors of books, and reviewers) appear in a name index. Spot checking of a small percentage of items revealed minor typographical errors (a missing accent, a misplaced hyphen) and one missing item - a second reference in a combined review, but no errors in references to year, volume, or page.
This index is an outstanding resource for teachers and researchers alike, although the hefty price will likely limit purchases to libraries and institutions.

Phillip J. Campana
Tennessee Tech University

END BOOK REVIEWS

UP 35.2 (Fall 2002)