On Advising Prospective Undergraduate Majors: Some Student Misunderstandings and Questions concerning Upper Division Classes

Abstract

One of the most startling experiences many of our students undergo is the sudden realization that an undergraduate major is not made up of a series of courses which are specifically and exclusively designed to teach them to read, write and express themselves in a foreign medium, but rather consists of a series of literature courses. This changeover from the language to the literature may seem quite obivous to those of us who think of ourselves as scholars of a foreign literature, but, I suggest, it is not so obvious to the still quite unsophisticated undergraduate who has arrived at the university with no particular major in mind; who starts his required language course during his freshman year and does exceptionally well because he has an aptitude for languages; then is encouraged by his instructor to consider a language major. I have all too often had students of my Survey of German Literature class appear in my office to bewail the fact that they did so well in the first and second-year classes, but now find themselves at a loss when they are asked to read a few lines of the Hildebrandslied, a play by Schiller or a few poems by H6lderlin, and furthermore are now being asked, of all things, to appreciate the literary quality and value of these works. A ramification of this same problem arises when I find myself talking to the new faculty on the campus from such diverse fields as Mathematics, Physical Anthropology, or, here in Wyoming, Geology or Range Management. These colleagues, in all honesty, are quite surprised when they learn that a language major does not consist of just teaching a student how to speak German. It occurs to me that this may well not be a problem on a campus where the Department of German is quite prestigious, such as among the Big Ten universities. I like to assume that this has to do with the general excellence of instruction at these schools, i.e., the students are faced with some systematic literary readings during their second year, and in some few cases as early as the second semester. In such a program this transition is not so jolting an experience. I suggest, however, that there is a correlation between the degree of prestige a department has and the general understanding students and faculty have for what goes on in these department. In any case, there are