German Skills Research Articles

Foreign language skills for employability in the EU labour market

To confront rising unemployment, skills of the labour force must be improved. With the aim to find out how foreign language skills impact employability, a study was carried out, in which 61 undergraduates, 33 master's students and 33 doctoral students from the Latvian University of Agriculture participated. The findings testify that 38% of the undergraduates, 30% of the master's students and 30% of the doctoral students were willing to work in the EU labour market and are ready for mobility. The respondents whose foreign language skills were at basic level were not willing to work in other countries because they were aware that for successful employability in the EU labour market their foreign language skills were critical. The data reveal perceptions of the respondents concerning the necessity of English, German, Russian and French skills for the Latvian labour market as well as forecasting how, in the middle-term, the necessity will change in Latvia and the EU. These findings can be useful for educators when designing modules for acquisition of professional foreign language skills with the aim to enhance future graduates’ employability prospects in the EU labour market.

Introducing a second foreign language in Swiss primary schools: the effect of L2 listening and reading skills on L3 acquisition

In German-speaking Central Switzerland, French used to be the only foreign language (FL) taught in primary schools (from Grade 5 onwards). According to the ongoing school reform, a second FL should be introduced in primary schools. Some cantons have now implemented a programme including English as the first FL to be learnt at school (from Grade 3 onwards), followed by French as the second FL (from Grade 5 onwards). To examine the impact of this school reform, children of both programmes (with and without previous English instruction) were compared with respect to their French competencies. During this 3-year longitudinal study (N=928), children's listening and reading skills in English and French as well as their reading skills in German were assessed. After 1 year of French instruction, students with previous English instruction showed higher French listening and reading skills than students without previous FL learning experience. Both learners' English skills and their reading skills in the local language of instruction (German) exert a positive influence on the acquisition of the third language (French). A wide range of other contextual and individual factors were included in the analysis to examine if they contribute to the explanation of students' L3 skills.

Speech Development After Cochlear Implantation in Children From Bilingual Homes

The aim of this study was to investigate whether exposure to a second language in bilingual families influences the spoken German skills after cochlear implantation. A further question was how many children with migration background are bilingual. Retrospective case review. Tertiary referral center; cochlear implant program. Ninety-three profoundly hearing-impaired children; 52 of these children reside in bilingual and 41 in monolingual homes. Cochlear implantation before the age of 6 years, speech and language skills assessments. Standard speech perception and receptive and expressive language measures. Data on used primary and secondary languages were obtained by questionnaire. Children growing up in bilingual homes performed worse than children from monolingual homes in all performed speech tests. Almost all children with bilingual parents indicated German as their main language. In some cases, the second language is used actively, but in most children, the use is limited to single words and expressions. However, some children from bilingual homes achieve high skill level in German language and, furthermore, develop competency in second spoken language. Advanced language skills including the learning of a second spoken language are possible for children with cochlear implant living in bilingual homes, but that is the exception rather than the rule. It seems that other factors, such as spoken German language skills of the parents, integration of the family, and compliance with the rehabilitation program, play an important role. Therefore, a special support for children with cochlear implants from bilingual homes is needed.

KEMAMPUAN MENULIS SISWA KELAS XI SMA NEGERI 8 MAKASSAR

This study aims to obtain data on essay writing skills in German of the students at SMA Negeri 8 Makassar. The population was the students at grade XI of SMA Negeri 8 Makassar. It used total sampling technique and data were collected by using tests and questionnaires. The tests were administered to measure the writing skills in German and the questionnaire was intended to obtain information about the factors that influence the writing skills in German. The data obtained were statistically analyzed by using percentage. The results showed that the average score obtained by the students in essay writing in German were 58.63%. There were 2 students (5.25%) failed, 21 students (55.26%) predicated poor, 11 students (28.94%) were categorized as adequate, and 4 students (10.52%) predicated as good. The factors that influence students’ writing were that writing is very difficult, the way of teacher present the lesson, students were lazy to write, lack of writing guidance given by the teacher.

How much German in German Studies?

MARGIT M. SINKA Clemson University In an effort to promote an exchange of ideas and more collaboration between the AATG and the German Studies Association, the AATG Executive Council requested and received a special time slot for an AATG session at the fall 2003 GSA convention in New Orleans. As Chair of the AATG Research and Scholarship Committee, I moderated the panel discussion on much German in German Studies? Sabine Gross (U.of Wisconsin), Robert DiDonato (Department Chair, Miami U.), Hal Rennert (U. of Florida, and William Donahue (in 2003 Department Chair at Rutgers U.; as of fall 2005 member of the German Department at Duke U.) presented prepared statements which were followed by a lively, forty-minute discussion between presenters and an audience numbering around fifty. By offering brief summaries of the comments given by the first three panelists, we wish to share with the readership of German Quarterly some of the issues discussed during the GSA panel. Donahue's position paper, included in its entirety after the summarizing statements, represents recent reflections on the GSA panel. Though all panelists were aware of enrollment dilemmas and attendant curriculum concerns, DiDonato emphasized these as he advocated the retention of a substantial array of English courses among the course offerings of German departments. German Studies, DiDonato stressed, should not be blamed for the erosion of the use of German in advanced German courses and, by implication, of German skills in general. Rather than looking for scapegoats for our dissatisfaction with the fact that many students' language abilities to do not enable them to read and discuss level-appropriate texts in German, we should consider wider adoption of content-based instruction, assuring that students acquire higher levels of language proficiency at the same time that they are acquiring more sophisticated knowledge/content and are moving to higher level thinking skills. Intentionally departing from a balanced view focused on how to assure the survival of departments of German, Gross urged us to view language knowledge not as an obstacle (a stance frequently underlying discussions about foreign language teaching) but as an opportunity to foster inherent student fascination with foreign languages. Regardless of the course level, Gross insisted, language is inseparable from knowledge-that is, language is not simply added on to knowledge; it, in fact, constitutes knowledge. In a similar vein, Rennert challenged those who argue that an insistence on German proficiency had the effect of isolating German Departments, and who advocated a shift of the discipline towards Cultural/German Studies as a way out of this isolation (cf. Peter Hohendahl, The Past, Present and Future of Germanistik, Stanford Humanities Review, vol. 6.1, 1998). How can German not be central to German cultural studies, Rennert wondered. And he went one step further: Since culture is transmitted via language, German Studies without German is simply meaningless. Donahue's recent thoughts on the GSA panel raise additional issues and may serve as an invitation to GQ readers to continue the discussion on much German in German Studies? WILLIAM COLLINS DONAHUE Duke University question posed to the GSA roundtable-How much German in German Studies?-seems to presuppose that German Studies is to blame for a perceived decline in German at US universities. Yet attributing the undeniable downturn in student enrollments in German programs to the rise of the German Studies model may be too hasty a conclusion. Obviously our colleagues working in history, political science, or other disciplines with an interest in things German are off the hook entirely. What people who make this charge-and they were certainly well represented at this session -really mean is that the move toward German Studies in what were once traditional German language and literature programs has gone hand in hand with greater use of English in the curriculum. …

The organisation of innovation: collaboration, cooperation and multifunctional groups in UK and German manufacturing

Marked differences exist between the institutional and social context for innovation in the UK and Germany. The question addressed here is how these different contexts affect the objectives and organisation of innovation in UK and German manufacturing. In particular, the paper examines the extent to which UK and German plants engage in inter-plant collaboration and cooperation and multifunctional working as part of their innovative activity, and explores the reasons for differences in these patterns of involvement. The investigation is based on a large-scale, comparative survey of manufacturing plants in the two countries. In Germany, institutional and social norms are found to encourage collaborative inter-plant innovation, but aspects of the German skills training and industrial relations systems make the adoption of more flexible internal systems more difficult. In the UK, by contrast, the more adversarial nature of inter-firm relations makes it more difficult to establish external collaborations based on mutual trust, but less restrictive labour market structures make it easier for UK plants to adopt multifunctional working. This is linked to differences in attitudes to the property rights and transaction cost problems inherent in innovation.

Outsourcing, Imports and Labour Demand

This paper examines the effects of purchased services and imported intermediate materials on the labour demand for different skills in German manufacturing sectors. We derive and estimate a factor demand system based on the generalised Box–Cox cost function nesting both the normalised quadratic and the translog functional form. We find that the impacts of output and capital growth are more important in explaining the demand for heterogeneous labour than substitution effects between labour and non–labour inputs. Similarly, the increasing use of both imported materials and purchased services is a consequence of output growth rather than input substitution. JEL classification: J23; O33

Serving Two Masters: Moravian Brethren in Germany and North Carolina, 1727-1801

Serving Two Masters: Moravian Brethren in Germany and North Carolina, 1727-1801. By Elisabeth W. Sommer. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000. Pp. xvii, 234. Illustrations, map. $39.95.) Elisabeth W. Sommer joins recent writers on Moravian experience in seeking to bring a scholarly perspective to a group too often viewed through a religious or sentimental lens. Sommer focuses her study on two communities-Herrnhut in Germany and Salem in North Carolina-and traces change over time in those communities from founding of Moravian community on estate of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf in 1727 to synods of 1801 and 1818. She compares German to American experience within these communities and argues that experiences diverged over the American freedom (xi) and over interpretations and uses of Enlightenment. The strengths of Sommer's work are several. She has crucial skills in reading German and uses them effectively, giving occasional original German for benefit of those who also read language but not including so much German as to overwhelm rest of us. The comparison between Germany and North Carolina, possible only for someone with such language skills, allows this work to reveal a great deal about Moravians while also contributing to broader historiographical debates. For example, Sommer explores ways in which lack of feudal tradition and broad availability of land influenced experiences and beliefs of Moravians in Salem, while continuing influence of European social hierarchies and German patterns of town settlement helped to determine experience of German Moravians. Sommer also recognizes that Moravian use of lot provides insight into larger issues of community and freedom. The lot involved raising a question-should a particular individual be allowed to take communion? should two people wed?-and finding an answer by drawing a slip of paper out of several on which were written yes, no, or nothing at all. Moravians perceived lot as a way of discovering will of God. Conflicts over authority and values found expression in disputes over use of lot in both Germany and America. Over time, Sommer finds, both arguments over lot and use of lot changed. Finally, in 1818, synod eliminated use of lot on questions of marriage-a change that Sommer presents as both a turning point and a decision that revealed long-developing tensions within community. The place of Sommer's book can perhaps best be understood by comparison with other works on Moravian experience. Gillian Lindt Gollin's 1967 book, Moravians in Two Worlds, showed way for comparative work by examining Herrnhut and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. …

Knowledge among German and Turkish Women about Specifically Female Bodily Functions, Contraception, Preventative Medical Examinations and Menopause

The legally binding consent of a patient to surgical operations of certain diagnostic measures during hospitalisation is actually guaranteed only in cases where the medical information is oriented to the individual level of understanding of the patient. The real extent of actual knowledge about health relevant aspects is not always known. Immigrant women constitute a large portion of the patients in big German cities. In most clinics the difficulties in communication caused by persistent language barriers are not presently being solved in a satisfactory manner. In light of this situation, it seemed necessary to ascertain the knowledge of German and Turkish women with respect to specifically female bodily functions, contraception, preventative medical examinations and menopause. The study included a total of 320 German and 262 Turkish patients of both gynaecological units at the Virchow Women's Clinic in Berlin during the 1 ½ -year inquiry period (1997/98). The questionnaire we used was laid out in multiple choice format, whereby each question weas provided with a list of possible answers (level of significance p < 0.05). Only a small portion of the general female populace (approximately 13% of the study population, 22% of German patients) is well-to-very-well informed about 'specific female bodily functions, anatomy, preventative health care and contraception', and this proportion is even smaller among Turkish female patients (3% of Turkish women surveyed). While the understanding demonstrated by immigrants who possessed strong writing skills in German is nearly as great as that of the German group, the proportion of patients who demonstrated less sophisticated understanding was still twice as high with 32.5% as compared to that of the German group (15%). According to the opinion of approximately one-third of the Turkish immigrants (German women 8.2%) surveyed, there are no (increased) health risks associated with menopause.

Le Courrier Électronique: Un Outil d'Enseignement en Milieu de Travail

This paper describes an experiment aimed at using e-mail to improve the written language skills in German and Spanish of Canadian Foreign Service officers working in various countries. Little literature exists on the use of e-mail in distance learning outside the university environment. There is, however, considerable literature documenting the very high attrition rate in distance-learning courses. The course described in this paper was developed by the Canadian Foreign Service Institute to take into account the published analyses of the reasons for high attrition rates in and for completion of distance-learning courses. Because attrition rates have been found to be much lower when course participants feel that the course will be of direct use to them in their professional life, the author and her colleagues designed the program to require the completion of authentic professional tasks. These tasks were (1) to check the correctness of a text translated into the targe t language; (2) to check the accuracy of a translated text; and (3) to write a number of short texts in the target language, such as a thank-you note, a request for information and a letter making a suggestion. The course aimed to expose the participants to formal language, in the form of official documents, technical language, through linguistic explanations and descriptions of the way the course would function, and informal language, through spontaneous interaction among the participants and with the instructor. A number of pre-course activities were required. These were (1) a pre-test to determine the participant's linguistic level; (2) a questionnaire to evaluate the participant's level of computer skills and (3) a questionnaire aimed at eliciting the participant's attitude towards the use of a computer for word-processing, the use of e-mail for interpersonal communication, the use of e-mail for learning, co-operative learning, and writing in the target language. Initial interest in the course was very high. However, the attrition rate in all groups was also very high. This latter result seems to be attributable in part to the fact that participants were paired and required to correct each other's work. It appears that participants had little interest in correcting other participants' assignments, but would have preferred an opportunity to rework their own in the light of the instructor's comments and corrections. This will be incorporated into future versions of the course. Given the initial high interest, it appears that it is worthwhile to repeat and refine the experiment.

The future of the high-skill equilibrium in Germany

Is the celebrated German skills system in peril? Western German employers have cut apprenticeship places since the 1980s, while the institutional supports of the ‘high-skill equilibrium’ (HSE) analysed by Finegold and Soskice (Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 4(3) 1988) are threatened: the globalization of equity markets menaces the ‘patient capital’ on which German companies depend; lean production techniques have rendered strategies of incremental innovation vulnerable on international markets; and German employers and labour face mounting organizational difficulties. This article derives implications from the HSE-model to assess these challenges against existing evidence. In fact, only the declining capacity of employers’ associations and unions constitutes an empirically verifiable threat to the German apprenticeship system, the magnitude of which depends on questionable assumptions of the HSE-model. Of potential future salience, though, is the growing importance of service-sector jobs and the further training system in Germany, which may eventually undo the political compromise on which the HSE has historically rested.

An Encomium to Richard Raack, Historian-Filmmaker

An Encomium to Richard Raack, Historian-Filmmaker | Rollins Peter C. Rollins Oklahoma State University An Encomium to Richard Raack, Historian-Filmmaker Film & Historyhas known Richard Raack for twenty years, beginning our relations with him in the late 1960s when "The Historian as Filmmaker" theme was very popular at American Historical Association meetings. Both Richard Raack, and his colleague, Patrick Griffin, were the center of much discussion because of their historian-made documentary entitled Goodbye Billy: America Goes to War, 19171918 (1972). This short historical compilation ignited considerable excitement because of the philosophical position behind the film—that historians should wrest the researching and making ofhistorical films away from the showbiz folks. John O'Connor, Editor of Film & History opened the pages of the journal to these two pioneers, allowing them to explain their reasons and methods. The call to action was electric! Raack and Griffin were endlessly generous with their writings, bibliographies, and other advice to novices—to include a graduate student named Peter Rollins. Both were willing to talk on the telephone and to share their thoughts for revolutionizing methods in making historical films for the classroom. Alas, the revolution never occurred. But R.C. Raack has shared his insights and writings with a whole generation of historians. Richard, Pat, and I worked together to make Will Rogers 1920s: A Cowboy's Guide to the Times (1976), an experience which changed my life as a scholar and artist. During the project, I was shown how to research filmic materials in archives; how to record the materials; how to process the film; and how to edit and mix. A number of crises also taught me how to handle the tensions and vicissitudes ofproduction and post-production. We really got our hands dirty with that project and I have been a better scholar—and filmmaker—as a result. At the same time, Richard Raack was tapping his language skills in German, Polish, and Russian to conduct both film research and major historical research in the archives of Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow. His revolutionary book of 1995, Stalin's Drive to the West: The Origins ofthe Cold War has profited from Richard's language skills and his willingness to expend his own savings in the search for truth. At a recent conference at Salisbury, Maryland, a number of filmmakers (with no training in history) presented themselves to the assembled scholars as "historians." One of the British producers got up at a very elaborate, evening session and said directly, "I am a historian." Only Richard Raack was curmudgeon enough to challenge these claims; indeed, Richard has exemplified the kind of scholar and filmmaker we were promised in the 1960s. Like a scholarly Moses, he stands at the edge of the Promised Land, sipping a glass of California wine and chortling over the absurdities of our fin de siede. He scans the horizon ... Perhaps a new generation will bring along a group of creative people who will fulfill the promise ... Surely, we hope so .... Until then, we celebrate the work of Richard C. Raack— a fine and original scholar, lover of all the arts, and one of the first historian/filmmakers. May there be many more and may Film & Historyhelp to promote that movement! Cover for Raack's film resource material workbook for Goodbye Billy. Vol. 28.3-4(1998) | 57 ...

Developing German writing skills by way of Timbuktu

This paper reports on a pilot project which examined the effects on essay writing skills in advanced German of computer-based teaching which allowed a co-operative approach to writing and the pmvision of immediate teacher and peer feedback through the interactive display and networking of student work.Third year German students were assigned to computer-based or conventional teaching groups taught by two different teachers using common materials and the same task-based approach. Prior to implementation of the project and again at the end, students were given a standard writing task to allow the level of their writing skills to be evaluated structurally and linguistically. The major focus was on the development of arguments, together with appropriate intmductions and conclusions. Grammar and expression were also measured to check whether the absence of an explicit focus on grammar had a detrimental effect on accuracy.The students in these two groups along with all other third year German students completed a questionnaire that elicited information about their abilities and interest in German and their attitude to the use of computers. Teacher evaluation and qualitative data were obtained from participating students at the end of the project. Results indicated that the experimental students achieved significantly higher ratings for the logical linking of ideas in the body of their essays and were positive about the technology.

Acquiring Oral Skills in German through Stereotyped Speech Forms

Since the development of communicative competence has become one of the principal objectives of second language teaching, language teachers have turned their attention to the assembling of appropriate instructional material for promoting colloquial communication. Among this material are stereotyped speech forms (henceforth referred to as gambits) which native speakers have at their disposal as prefabricated parts in the form of words, phrases and sentences.' Examples in German are: Entschuldigung! Meiner Metnung nach, ... Soviet ich we. ....