Since June 2005 the German faculty of The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University has been engaged in a comprehensive curriculum renewal project.  The curriculum which we develop will present a new integration of culture, literature and language-building activities in every course in the undergraduate program.

The curriculum project, "Developing Excellence and Coherence in the German Curriculum" spans the entire four-year period of undergraduate study and is conceptualized to enable learners to become competent and literate non-native users of German who can employ the language in a range of intellectual, professional, and personal contexts and who can also draw from it personal enrichment, enjoyment, and formation.

This web site provides an overview of the project.  It outlines a three-level curricular progression: the first two levels focus on intensive language learning coupled with an introduction of a variety of cultural and literary texts from present-day Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Level three (courses beyond GERM 312) then introduces students to a wide variety of cultural and literary periods from Medieval times to the 20th century.  Some of the courses are synchronic in nature, that is, they explore a particular cultural period in some depth.  Other courses are more diachronic in nature, allowing students to explore specific themes or genres as they shift and change through the centuries.  Throughout Level Three -- and this is new to our curriculum -- all courses will feature intensive language learning in the hopes that our minors and majors will become increasingly more fluent and accurate in speaking, writing, listening and reading. 

The need for curriculum renewal in college foreign language departments has recently been amply acknowledged in publications and in an array of professional discussions.  These discussions take account of the dramatically changed goals for language learning and reflect shifts in the world's multicultural, multilingual, and global environment.  We are invited ever more to focus on the meaningful contexts of language use, rather than on more formal approaches to grammar and texts. 

We realize now that curricular change is a dynamic, ongoing process.  A truly vital curriculum needs constant creativity, refined assessments, an eagerness for learning about what the best German Department curricula have to offer, and a deepening understanding of what will motivate our students toward ever greater excellence in their cultural, literary, and linguistic competencies, including the essential skills of critical thinking, listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

We are grateful to to the CSB/SJU Committee on Curriculum & Program Development, to the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, and to a local Foundation which have supported these curricular and program efforts beyond our expectations. 

The adventure has begun!

August 2005