ABSTRACT
Every undergraduate German program in the United States today must grapple with questions of viability and vitality. As fewer and fewer students arrive at college with a background in German, faculty in German programs must find ways to attract students to the study of the language and inspire them to continue with German courses beyond the completion of a language requirement. This can be achieved with a literacies-based German curriculum that places texts, along with level-appropriate tasks, at the center of every course at every level. In an effort to reinvigorate a small German program, the faculty members at Franklin & Marshall College embarked on a multiyear revision of its German curriculum, bringing it into line with literacies-based approaches. By engaging intensively with texts through level-appropriate tasks, students sharpen their interpretive skills, become literate members of a German-speaking community on campus and beyond and acquire a critical understanding of issues that have shaped the German society of the past and present. This chapter outlines the curricular revision process and its results, including themes and texts for each level of the curriculum and specific strategies for developing students’ linguistic and cultural proficiency.
