The History of the Language as an Instructional Aid

Abstract

The historical development of German has left behind a residueof irregularities, exceptionsand other oddities which often go unnoticed by the native speaker, but which are quite noticeable to students learning the language in the formal setting of the classroom.1 Unfortunately, these odd features of the language usually go unexplained, especially in the lowerlevel grammar and skills courses, even though it is precisely to beginning students that they are most apparent. And even if the instructor or the text does happen to mention them, it is usually only to cite them as exceptions to some otherwise general rule, and as exceptions they are soon recognized by the students as being responsible for a fair amount of the pain involved in the process of learning German. Nor are things much different at the upper-division level, for only a small minority of our undergraduates ever take a course in the history of the language, where such items can be covered in detail. Accordingly, it is not surprising that for most of our students these strange aspects of the language remain simple givens--sometimes curious, sometimes irritating and problematic, and always mysterious. As instructors we find that these features oc-