Mapping Memory and Historical Literacy onto the German Curriculum

Abstract

AbstractMore than ever, faculty need to ensure that undergraduate curricula not only provide students with tools to gain linguistic proficiency but also teach them to analyze both written and visual information to attain historical literacy. Developing both intercultural proficiency and insights into various historical memorialization processes ensures that students can identify intertextual references, appreciate how their own culture memorializes its past, and understand how the past relates both to personal identity and collective identity formation. This article outlines how German programs might integrate historical inquiry into all levels of the curriculum and how language students learn to apply a cultural memory framework to the analysis of literature, film, and architecture from German‐speaking countries. Since linguistic and cultural competence are linked, it also examines how to advance both through historic content, how to sequence activities, and how to engage learners more deeply. Ultimately, this article concludes that students develop an interest in history and advance their linguistic and cultural literacy through scaffolded, interdisciplinary, and relevant instruction.