The Use of Color Codes in Teaching German

Abstract

Audio aids for the teaching of German have been numerous since the end of World War II. The results obtained with their use have varied with the aids themselves, the effectivenss of the instructor, and the aptitudes of the individual students, but excellent results have been achieved in schools like Louisiana State University and Purdue, where the audio materials have been carefully adapted to the basic course. With visual aids, however, the German teacher has not been so fortunate, chiefly because the commercial market for them has not been large enough to warrant their preparation. There are far more seventh-grade students of social studies in America than there are students of German, and so the catalogues of film-strip makers teem with items about glassmaking, bird-watching and comma-placing rather than with ones for German instruction. Little by little the situation improves. Jose Sanchez's excellent list of filmstrips and slides (GQ, XXV, 153-9) points to a useful body of cultural materials on Germany. Such materials serve as a useful adjunct to linguistic instruction, but it is important to note that these items are no more organically related to the basic firstyear course than are most commercially produced language records. Nevertheless, such materials certainly have their place in the classroom, and can be easily supplemented with excellent graphic materials describing travel and industry that have come out of Germany in the last year or two. The nearest German consul New York, New Orleans, or San Francisco will be glad to send some of them to you, and the nearest office of the U. S. Department of Commerce usually has a supply of them. While they may find no immediate industrial customers among our students, they will at least help banish the illusion that all Germans wear Bavarian costumes and carve elaborate cuckoo-clocks. When we speak of visual aids to instruction, quite possibly we automatically think of something ready-made and fairly elaborate. Everyone has heard of the splendid results of the training films put out during World War II by the U. S. Office of Education, the Air Force, the Navy, and others. But who could afford to