Jacqueline Vansant Miami University Oxford, Ohio

Transkript

1 BLICKWECHSEL Jacqueline Vansant Miami University Oxford, Ohio Janet Swaffar University of Texas, Austin Katherine Arens University of Texas, Austin Sandra D. Shattuck University of Southern Mississippi Marie-Luise Gattens Southern Methodist University HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON Dallas Geneva, Illinois Palo Alto Princeton, New Jersey

2 Text permissions and credits for photos may be found on pages Cover art: Paul Klee, Der Graue und die Kuste, Kleisterfarbe auf Jutte. Privatsammlung. Schweiz ARS N. Y./Cosmopress, Geneva Illustrations by Linda Deming, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fraktur print style for Die Nachbarn (pp ) and exercises (pp ) set with Fraktur Modern Software, by Steve Tischer, Kontex International, Atlanta, Georgia. Copyright 1990 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Houghton Mifflin Company unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Address inquiries to College Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, One Beacon Street, Boston, MA Printed in the U.SA Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: ISBN: ABCDEFGHIJ-H

3 Contents Preface v Acknowledgments xv Einfiihrung in Lesestrategien 1 EinfOhrung in Lesestrategien 2 Film: Ruimtevaart 3 TV-Osterreich 6 Heiratswunsche/Bekanntschaften 1 O War Oma kluger als wir? 14 WeiterfOhrende Lesestrategien 17 Drogenubersicht 20 Die zweisprachige Welt Oral Yilmaz 26 Waldsterben 32 Die Nachbarn Marie van Ebner-Eschenbach 41 Beziehungen 49 Katrin Angelika Mechtel 50 Alie Kinder sind 'nice' Pinar Boztepe 60 Eine Obie Gewohnheit Franz Hohler 72 Lebenstraum Marie Hamacher 80 Das Fenster-Theater Ilse Aichinger 88 Die unwurdige Greisin Bertolt Brecht 96 Der Mango Marianne Gruber 107 Die kleinen grunen Manner Gunter Kunert 117 Ferngesprache Marie Luise Kaschnitz 126 Contents iii

4 Der arbeitende Mensch 151 Ohne Vorurteile Ernst A. Ekker 152 Netter Nachmittag Angelika Mechtel 162 Aschenputtel die Bruder Grimm 171 Aschenputtels Erwachen Iring Fetscher 184 Fragen eines lesenden Arbeiters Bertolt Brecht 192 Zusammenfassung 202 Gestern und heute-generationen 205 Kapituliert oder befreit? Max von der Grun 206 lnventur Gunter Eich 215 Oas Eiserne Kreuz Heiner MOiier 221 Die blasse Anna Heinrich Boll 230 Die rote Katze Luise Rinser 241 Oas Schilfrohr Anna Seghers 255 Meine Zukunft Nina Achminow 275 Oas Interview Herrad Schenk 280 German-English Vocabulary 298 lnformationen Ober die Schriftsteller und Hinweise zu weiterer LektOre 330 Permissions and Credits 333 iv Contents

5 Preface Text Selections suckwechsel is a collection of non-glossed authentic or unedited texts written for native speakers of German, with accompanying comprehension-based exercises. The exercises were designed with third- and fourth-semester college students in mind. Divided into four units, the anthology opens with a unit on general reading strategies. The remaining three units are organized around the themes of relationships, work, and historical issues. The texts in suckwechsel have been chosen on the basis of their presentation of interesting life-style and cultural issues in the German-speaking countries. Several criteria guided the selection of these texts. First, we selected texts written for native speakers of German, authentic both in language and message. Second, we wanted texts dealing with topics familiar to American students in their late teens and twenties. Third, we looked for three or four different texts, primarily fiction, that represented a variety of views on those topics. Fourth, we sought texts that would provoke discussion. These criteria were guided by current thinking in research about second- and foreign-language reading. Students understand and remember texts better when the topics are familiar and of interest to them. When readers already know something about what they are read ing, they possess schemata that facilitate comprehension of the passage. 1 A story about parents who are concerned about their child's lifestyle has features that young adults are able to predict on the basis of their own experience or that of friends: disagreements about career choice, concerns about money, concerns about social standing, reflections about the nature of feelings for one another. If text episodes reflect feelings or experiences shared by readers, lack of familiarity with vocabulary and even unknown grammar features are often compensated for. 2 This explains why we have tried to choose topics students will be familiar with. Success in comprehension leads to a sense of accomplishment. One way to instill this sense is to let students experience the practical application of their language skills to reading authentic materials. Texts and,exercises that capitalize on what students know should ensure successful comprehension. These positive reading experiences will encourage them to take the plunge into independent reading. The goal of this book is to prepare students for extensive reading-either for pleasure or to learn about other fields. For this reason, we have chosen to use authentic texts. 1 Schaller!, D. C. "Improving Memory for Prose: The Relationship between Depth of Processing and Context." Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 15 (1976): Wolff, Dieter.»Unterschiede beim muttersprachlichen und zweitsprachlichen Verstehen." Linguistische Berichte 106 (1986): , or "Some Assumptions about Second Language Text Comprehension." Studies in Second Language Acquisition 9 (1987): Lee, James. "Comprehending the Spanish Subjunctive: An Information Processing Perspective." Modern Language Journal 71 (1987b): Preface v

6 Multiple texts about a single topic have also been included. Texts about related topics let students practice vocabulary and schemata in one reading that will apply to other texts with similar topics. 3 Variety in genres and viewpoints foster vocabulary review without repeating story structures and messages. Finally, in addition to serving as a stimulus for differing opinions among students, multiple text perspectives offer classes an opportunity to confront multi-cultural differences between the United States and the German-speaking countries: differences in common assumptions or practices, and differences among various social, generational, and ethnic groups. About the selections suckwechsel is divided into four units. The first unit in the anthology, EinfOhrung in Lesestrategien. emphasizes practice in a range of reading strategies from encoding gist to decoding individual words. The non-fiction texts such as ads. personals, and charts focus on one primary idea each. The fiction texts, a poem and a short story, each have one main theme that is elaborated on. The remaining three units (Beziehungen, Der arbeitende Mensch, and Gestern und heute-generationen) vary in length and language level. Many of the selections offer different perspectives about a similar story or theme. Aschenputtel, for example, is the traditional fairy tale from Grimm's collection. Aschenputtels Erwachen is a revision, one of the growing number of "modern" fairy tales popular among contemporary writers in German-speaking countries. In this same sense of rewriting traditional genres, Kunert's Die kleinen grunen Manner presents a chilling new look at the escapist stories of science fiction. Several selections offer the perspectives of older women. Two stories in particular reflect female lifestyles prior to women 's liberation: Katrin, a wife and mother's retrospective of a life lived for her family; and Lebenstraum, a mother's reassessment of her values in light of her daughter's lifestyle. Both are tough-minded stories, but hardly without parallels in contemporary American society. The other fictional account dealing with an older woman, Oas Interview, conveys a very different sense of dislocation, one that transcends issues of gender. Motifs in one section can be linked with those in another. The child 's perspective links Der Mongo and Alie Kinder sind 'nice'. Problems of alienation play a role in those texts, as well as in the poem Die zweisprachige Welt. The innocuous Oma in the advertisement War Oma k/uger als wir? also contrasts starkly with the feisty Oma in the final story of the book. Texts dealing with the immediate postwar situation in Germany will have relatively unfamiliar schemata for most American readers, but the fact that these stories are told from a young person's perspective (Die rote Katze, Die blasse Anna) helps bridge the gap between story and reader backgrounds. Many young Americans are aware of the dislocation experienced by the Vietnam veterans. Similarly, most American students have heard of the patricidal suicides of German families at the close of World War II. Muller's story Das Eiserne Kreuz gives the legend of Nazi fanaticism a startling, cynical twist. While popular appeal was one consideration in putting together this collection, we also wanted to include materials that would give students a sense of the unique issues in German history. Texts dealing with World War II have been included to encourage 3 Salling, Aage. "Essays in Comparative Vocabulary Studies." Modern Language Journal 42 (1958): vi Preface

7 insights into the events of that time rather than to reaffirm negativity. Kapituliert oder befreit?, the first text in Gestern und heute-generationen, explains the importance of examining the impact of the Nazi years. Today, with the emergence of nationalist parties in the Federal Republic and self-styled Nazi '.'skinheads" in the United States as well as Europe, we feel a case can be made for taking a look at a range of literary responses to the unbewaltigte Vergangenheit-the German term for their own ambivalence about the years under National Socialism. Since the relatively unfamiliar schemata of this cultural experience place greater demands on language-based strategies, these selections appear late in the collection. In addition to questions of seriousness, the extent to which different types of texts should be included was also considered. After Unit 1, variotjs types of literary texts have been included for two reasons. First, newspaper and magazine articles date quickly. Second, it is relatively easy to find short selections on the topics in BLICKWECHSEL in current German magazines or newspapers. We encourage users of this book to apply the strategies in BLICKWECHSEL to authentic readings from other sources. Students need to discover that they can create their own strategies for meaning-based reading beyond textbook activities, if they are going to continue reading German outside the classroom. Selections have varying levels of difficulty and were not graded according to readability scales. Different students will understand some stories better than others. The range of difficulty ensures that all students in a class are challenged; readers experience the fact that, as long as the context of the passage is clear to them, they can understand the gist even of parable-like writing such as Die Nachbarn or largely descriptive stories such as Oas Fenster-Theater. Exercises Background information The exercises in suckwechsel attempt to address those language features that pose problems for German students at the novice high or the various intermediate levels as suggested on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines: vocabulary acquisition and use, tense shifts, joining sentences, connecting ideas, expressing personal views, and negotiating. 4 To develop these skills, grammar exercises emphasize using subordinate and coordinate clauses, relative pronouns, and modal verbs; vocabulary activities stress student output as well as input or comprehension. 5 What processes or reader orientations exhibit a positive influence on comprehension? Research findings support the notion that a primary focus on meaning will result in better comprehension for second language readers than a focus on individual words or the pronunciation of words. 6 Recall and comprehension of a tex,t has been shown to be significantly higher for meaning-centered students than for readers who equated good reading with accurate pronunciation or word identification. 7 Omaggio, Alice C. Teaching Language in Context: Proficiency-oriented Instruction. Boston: Heinle and Heinle, Swain, Meril l. "Communicative Competence: Some Roles of Comprehensible Input and Comprehensible Output in its Development." Input in Second Language Acquisition. Eds. Susan M. Gass & Carolyn G. Madden. Cambridge, MA: Newbury House, 1985: Hosenfeld, Carol. "A preliminary Investigation of the Reading Strategies of Successful and Non-Successful Second Language Learners. System 5 (1977): Devine, Joanne. "ESL Readers' Internalized Models of the Reading Process." On TESOL '83. Eds. Jean Handscombe, Richard Orem & Barry T?ylor. Washington: TESOL, 1984: Preface vii

8 The exercises in our anthology focus on text meaning. The progression of activities works from emphasis on schematic (or top-down) processes to attention to details of schema reflected in language usage (or bottom-up) processes. The progression attempts to account for comprehension of gist and story episodes in conjunction with letter, phoneme, word, and sentence meanings. Currently theorists suggest that successful readers combine these top-down and bottom-up factors in a parallel or interactive process. 8 To assist interactive reading, exercises try to capitalize both on what the reader already knows (to speed the comprehension process) and on those text features and language which the reader can figure out. The way the reader organizes and acts on textual information can also affect performance. 9 Just as neither bottom-up nor topdown reading is the sole means to comprehension, no particular strategies for comprehension work for all students. Our goal in these exercises is to develop a range of strategies in students. The instructor's attitude is important in encouraging students to try different techniques. When the instructor is relaxed about mixed results in readers' initial attempts students respond with a greater persistence in their efforts. Persistence itself is correlated positively with reading performance. 10 At the beginning stages of reading, students who persist in their development of strategic processes deserve positive feedback from instructors, whether those initial strategies result in accurate responses or not. Exercise sequence The exercise sequence in BLICKWECHSEL is generally as follows : 1. Pre-production (Vorschau, Einstieg in den Text) 2. Reproduction and manipulation of textual information (Information, Textverstandnis, Vokabe/Qbung, Satzubung), and 3. Free production (Denkaufgabe, Kommunikation) The exercise sequence begins with activation of student schemata about the text topic (Vorschau, Einstieg in den Text). Student schemata are then compared with illustrations, titles, format, and the initial paragraphs of a text to narrow the field of speculation about the topic and treatment in this text. Vocabulary related to the gist or global concepts of the text is stressed at this point. If the text is longer than one or 8 Samuels, S. Jay and Michael I. Kami I. "Models of the Reading Process." Handbook of Reading Research. Ed. P. David Pearson. New York: Longman, 1984: For research on how perception of rhetorical organization affects L 1 reading, particularly for adults, see Bonnie Meyer, David M. Brandt & George J. Bluth. "Use of Top-level Structure in Text: Key for Reading Comprehension of Ninth-grade Students." Reading Research Quarterly 16 (1980); Bonnie Meyer and Roy 0. Freedle. "Effects of Discourse Type on Recall. " American Educational Research Journal 21 (1984): : For similar research and positive findings with ESL students see, Carrell, Patricia. "The Effects of Rhetorical Organization on ESL Readers." TESOL Quarterly 18 (1984): ; "Facilitating ESL Reading by Teaching Text Structure." TESOL. Quarterly 19 (1985): For L2 research on the benefits of strategy training, see Kern, Richard G. "Second Language Reading Strategy Instruction: Its Effects on Comprehension and Word Inference Ability. " Modern Language Journal 73 (1989): ; Barnett, Marva. "Teaching Reading Strategies: How Methodology Affects l,.anguage Course Articulation." Foreign Language Annals 21 (1988a): Carrell, Patricia. "Metacognitive Awareness and Second Language Reading." Modern Language Journal 72 (1989): viii Preface

9 two paragraphs, students may also be asked to scan for changes in text topics or episodes. In the -next exercise phase, textual details are linked to global concepts in a chart {Information). Students are asked to fill in the chart with text language to organize the ideas of a particular passage (e.g., feelings before and after a career decision). Completing such a chart necessitates rereading the text and close scrutiny of language use. In subsequent exercises (Erklaren Sie die Information), this chart is the basis for grammar and sentence work designed to help students appreciate the communicative function of specific structural features. Throughout all stages, vocabulary exercises (Vokabe/Obung) guide students in contextualized guessing, attention to details of usage (e.g., definite articles and plural forms of nouns), and the learning and manipulation of key words. In the free production activities students articulate their views about what they have read based on prior practice in the first two stages with language from or about the text. In the Denkaufgabe section, students are asked to express opinions and develop their ideas in connected sentences. Although these activities appear to stress reading and writing tasks, most lend themselves well to small-group discussion, thereby maximizing opportunities for speaking and listening practice. Since these opinions refer to text topics reviewed and practiced in previous exercises, students have some control of semantic and syntactic features, combined with a textual reference. Consequently, they should be successful in expressing their ideas. The degree to which the free production activities are assigned as homework or serve as classroom activities is completely within the discretion of the instructor. We do recommend that at least two of the exercises for each reading be undertaken by small groups or dealt with as a class. Vocabulary Most foreign language readers provide glosses and vocabulary lists. This anthology does not have either of these features because we think that they encourfige students to rely on word meanings (bottom-up processing) rather than textmeaning: suckwechsel offers practice in using text schema to establish meaning through exercises that illustrate how to use textual context, parts of speech, textual definitions, redundant features, or contrasts to assign meaning to individual words. In traditional foreign language readers, students have no part in creating vocabulary lists. Although students with low ability levels in the foreign language have limited vocabulary, the assumption that those limits are shared is unsubstantiated. The likelihood that the same words are unknown by the same students may be no greater than fifty percent. Consequently we encourage students to create their own vocabulary lists of words important to them for comprehension and expression of meaning. Studies on the effectiveness of glosses have yielded mixed results. We believe that in-class vocabulary preparation is preferable to glossing for many reasons. First of all, vocabulary should be more readily remembered if it is linked to ideas in the text. Secondly, if they understand words in context, students should develop flexible responses to changes in word definitions and will be less inhibited if they don't have the precise definition or English translation for a particular phrase or word. Glossing and lists also interrupt the reader's focus on text meaning. Preparation linking vocabulary to text-meaning can free readers to concentrate on the message of a passage. Finally, practice in reading without glosses and lists renders the transition to authentic materials easier than the transition from dependency on translation or foreign language explanations of vocabulary. Preface ix

10 Guide to the Exercises VORSCHAU The preview is a vital pre-reading activity. We recommend as a first step in this exercise that teachers ask students what they already know about the topic discussed in the text. This should involve no more than five to ten minutes before assigning the read ing. Once these concepts have been established, the instructor can record suggestions on the blackboard, preferably in a visually organized form such as semantic or idea mapping. 11 Students then skim the text to establish key nouns, verbs._ and adjectives in the initial paragraphs of the text-the wer, was, wo, wann. After a few minutes, the class compares the language they have selected from the text with their ideas about the text prior to reading it. It is essential that text-extraneous language be discouraged once the text is introduced. Students should feel free to ask about meanings of words, but should avoid speculation about what they think the text says. Instead, responses should be limited to the paragraphs (Absatz eins), sentences (Satz zwei), and the actual words they choose. The purpose of this exercise is to establish what the text does and does not deal with. This practice links text schemata with student schemata, introduces key vocabulary, and forestalls the danger of misreading based on faulty schematizing. 12 EINSTIEG IN DEN TEXT Vokabular Depending upon time factors, the instructor can begin this exercise immediately after the Vorschau (adding on another five minutes) or can assign it as homework for a subsequent class hour warm-up. The objectives here are two-fold. First. to identify the vocabulary of global ideas, students are asked to choose key words or phrases that pinpoint the concepts established in the Vorschau. Next; students scan a larger segment of the text, noting or jotting down words and phrases to fit those categories. The list is not meant to be exhaustive. Two or three items for each category is sufficient because small groups or the class as a whole will share results. Textstellen After the class is experienced in reading for text meaning, they can complete this exercise as a homework assignment, skimming the text and jotting down pages and line numbers where shifts of meaning occur. For proficient readers such work may eventually prove superfluous. Most beginning readers of foreign languages, 11 Armbruster. Bonnie B. and ifhomas H. Anderson. "Idea Mapping: The Technique and Its Use in the Classroom." Reading Education Report No. 36. Urbana: University of Illinois, Center for the Study of Reading, Heimlich, Joan E. and Susan D. Pittelman. Semantic Mapping: Classroom Applications. Newark, DE: International Reading Association Bernhardt, Elizabeth. "Cognitive Processes in L2: An Examination of Reading Behaviors." Delaware Symposium on Language Studies: Research on Second Language Acquisition in the Classroom Setting. Eds. James Lantolf and Angela LaBarca. Norwood, N.J. : Ablex, 1986: x Preface

11 however, tend to rely on dictionary use or word meanings, despite the fact that these aids seem to hav.e negligible influence on reading performance. 13 For novice readers these exercises demonstrate that in less than five minutes most students skim a text and distinguish major changes in plot or introduction of new ideas. Initially the exercise is useful as a classroom activity in pre-reading, particularly with longer texts. It reinforces interactive strategies, confirms episodic structure in a story, and forestalls misreading at the level of gist or main meaning. The exercise senes as a "road map" for further reading. INFORMATION The focus of exercises up to this point has been on the main meaning of the text. Now students are ready to read for detail-how ideas and facts are organized and developed. Most textual information has a pattern of rhetorical organization that reveals the substance of its messages. Patterns such as lists of people, objects, institutions, ideas and descriptions of their attributes, comparisons, problems and solutions or events and their impact can be realized in chart form-a two-column list of a particular topic of the text and comments found in the text about that topic. The language for each list should be 'drawn only from the text-phrases may suffice. The list is not intended to be exhaustive. Rather than representing a complete inventory, entries provide indicative samples of textual information. After completion of this assignment, either in class or as homework, sample patterns can be put on the board by the instructor or by a student. Completing the chart involves rereading to choose facts or developments that are important and fit into the global pattern in a logical and consistent way. Results should differ among students, and it is fruitful to compare these differences for insight into different reader perceptions or problems with language. Often formal features such as plural forms, verb tenses, or case endings change meaning in the chart. Consequently at this point, content questions can be used td review and clarify brief grammar functions (Waren es zwei Frauen oder eine? Meinen Sie. das Gesprach van gestern oder das Gesprach van heute?). I I SATZUBUNG The grammar included in the text is not an exhaustive coverage of the issues in German grammar. Instead, the SatzObung section presents frequently occurring structures that are important for self-expression. Exercises stress the value of measuring student accuracy against the grammar of the text. With this strategy, students can self-correct by,checking their production against an authentic standard-the German text. By reviewing text language, they develop an awareness of structural options for self- ' 3 Bensoussan, Marsha, Donald Sim & Razelle Weiss. "The Effect of Dictionary Usage on EFL Text Performance Compared with Student and Teacher Attitudes and Expectations." Reading in a Foreign Language 2 (1984): Preface xi

12 I I correction and of variety in expressive options. This helps counter tendencies toward production of fossilized errors. The goal of the exercises is to prepare students to write connected sentences that express coherent ideas in accurate German. Schauen Sie sich den Text genauer an! Students are asked to locate grammar featl.ires in the text that express a particular message in the reading. This exercise and the related production task that follows (Erklaren Sie die Information!) can be undertaken as individual homework or as small group work. Since the recognition exercise seeks to reinforce students' precise understanding of details, it focuses on repetition of specific features of sentence grammar as functions of sentence meaning. The sentences selected in this exercise will oftentimes serve as a model for the contextual writing in the assignment that follows. To build recognition and control of these features, these same grammar functions are emphasized in the sentence production stage. Consequently the instructor may want to assign the two activities jointly. Erklaren Sie die Information! Along with the foregoing sentence recognition task, this exercise should be linked directly to the charts developed in the Information exercise. Students build sentences based on their information charts to organize and express textual information. TEXTVERST ANDNIS These exercises focus on elements such as the perspective of different characters, possible statements they might have made, evidence for assertions made about the text, the chronology of events as opposed to a story sequence, or cohesion markers such as pronouns and their antecedents. < VOKABELUBUNG The text-based vocabulary exercises include choosing appropriate paraphrases, doing dictionary work, establishing the relationships between words (opposites, intensification, synonyms, etc.), and recognizing appropriate prepositions for particular German verbs. Although most of these exercises are very short, first-language evidence suggests that spending a few minutes every class hour reviewing five or six words enhances overall vocabulary learning. 14 Suchen Sie Worter aus dem Text! Students are asked to put together a vocabulary list based on words they need to know to discuss the story and those they would like to learn. At this point, they are responsible for accuracy in use of articles, plural forms of nouns, and principal parts of verbs. As with the previous vocabulary exercise, five to ten minutes of class time can be used to compare lists, or to have the 1 Westfall, Alfred. "Can College Students Expand their Recognition Vocabularies?" School and Society 73 (1951): xii Preface

13 students retell the story using the words on the list. This can be done either in small groups or as an all-class exercise. Denkaufgabe A homework assignment that can be read aloud or paraphrased in class, the Oenkaufgabe gives students an opportunity to talk about what the text says to them. The essay questions encourage the class to activate the vocabulary and structures of the Information and Satzubung exercises. Students might, for example, agree or disagree with observations made in the story. Kommunikation Communication exercises are problem-solving activities the solutions to which can be discussed or acted out in front of other small groups and/ or before the entire class. They are best done in class, preferably in small groups, and should last approximately twenty minutes. The instructor acts as a consultant to help resolve problems and questions. The last two exercises in the series are production or output exercises that encourage use of appropriate discourse markers. The Denkaufgabe activity involves markers that indicate a particular logic in written discourse (e.g., comparison and cause/effect). In the Kommunikation exercise, the students learn important discourse strategies such as turn taking, interrupting, arguing, and so on. 1 s Overall, the Denkaufgabe and Kommunikation exercises illustrate how texts can be the basis for language production. These exercises provide students with an opportunity to practice accurate formal usage of language structures for specific communicative purposes. In this sense the orientation of the book reflects current thinking in the ACTFL proficiency movement Kramsch, Claire. "Discourse Analysis and Second Language Teaching. " Language in Education: Theory and Practice 37. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics Byrnes, Heidi. "Proficiency as a Framework for Research in Second Language Acquisition." Modern Language Journal 71 (1987): Preface xiii

14 I/ A Word about Testing If reading exercises are to be effective learning tools, classroom tests should reflect their format and goals. Standardized tests test reading comprehension with multiple choice items that tend to focus on the matching of specific words, phrases, g.r grammar points. When students are given the opportunity to confirm their answers by actually selecting text language that seems relevant to them (Bestatigen Sie lhre Meinung!), the instructor has insight into reading processes as well as comprehension. For this reason we suggest that so-called objective testing is not as useful in assessment of classroom performance as the diagnostic style characteristic of the exercises in this book. For example, a student may not recall a precise English m eaning for Schadstoffe, but in a chart question the student puts Schwefeloxide and Stickoxide under the category labeled Schadstoffe. This student's multiple choice or true/false answer about the definition of this word could easily be incorrect or imprecise. A chart-based answer, on the other hand, reveals that the concept of the word is sufficiently understood to enable partial comprehension. If the student can complete the chart with text terms such as Entschwefelung der Kraftwerke or weniger Autos + sauberere Motoren under the category GegenmaBnahmen, that person reveals comprehension of the text and the imrlications of Schadstoffe at the meaning level. Another form of diagnostic testing is the recall protocol. 17 Students read a text and then write a statement in English about what they have understood. Without a possible communication barrier from German to express comprehension, recalls in English reveal that students derive meaning even from texts thought to be too difficult for their learning level. 18 Like other diagnostic work, English language protocols pinpoint misunderstandings and provide valuable feedback to the teacher about which input to clarify or repeat. First-language reading work has an established tradition for many of the exercise types and diagnostic techniques found in this volume. 19 The exercise types in suckwechsel and the recall protocol are not yet widely used in second language assessment. Besides their diagnostic value, such techniques reaffirm a learner-centered approach: reflecting concern about how students arrive at answers and how they get the right answers. They also stress the interactive nature of reading. While vital for reading comprehension, knowledge of individual words or particular factual details of 11 Bernhardt, Elizabeth. "Testing Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: The Immediate Recall Protocol. " Die Unterrichtspraxis 16 (1983): s Allen, Edward D., Elizabeth B. Bernhardt, Mary Therese Berry, Marjorie Demel. "Comprehension and Text Genre: An Analysis of Secondary School Foreign Language Readers." Modern Language Journal 72 (1988): For L 1 books with practical suggestions for in-class reading practices and the diagnostic assessment of reader difficulties, see Tierney, Robert J.. John E. Readence & Ernest K. Dishner. Reading Strategies and Practices: A Compendium. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1985; Gillet. Jean Wallace & Charles Temple. Understanding Reading Problems: Assessment and Instruction. Boston: Little, Brown. 1982; Orasanu, Judith. ed. Reading Comprehension: From Research to Practice. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 1986: A spectrum of useful exercises for ESL and L2 readers that are designed to promote interactive reading with authentic texts can be found in Fram; oise Grellet. Developing Reading Skills, A Practical Guide to Reading Comprehension Exercises. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, and Christine Nuttal, Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Practical Language Teaching Series No. 9. London: Heinemann, xiv Preface

15 a text is no guarantee that the passage has been comprehended. Indeed, students can read a text and recognize its language, yet still be unable to apply the information conveyed by that languagew The approaches in th is book attempt to meet both language mastery and the conceptual goals of reading comprehension. Diagnostic tests provide vital reinforcement of those objectives. The History of This Anthology suckwechsel began as a book for fourth semester college German. The course was developed in 1982 by Jacqueline Vansant, Sandra Shattuck, and Marie-Luise Gattens, graduate students in the German Department of the University of Texas at Austin working with Janet Swaffar and Katherine Arens. The resulting materials proved popular with students. Even after Vansant, Shattuck, and Gattens graduated, the course continued to be taught for some years by other teaching assistants, notably Stephanie Ortega. In 1986 Jacqueline Vansant undertook major revisions of the anthology, broadening its offerings to include a spectrum of societal issues. Consulting with Janet Swaffar on reading and vocabulary exercises, and with Katherine Arens on contextualizing practice in language features with their functional use in texts, Vansant added selections, deleted others, expanded existing exercises, and created new ones. Credit, then, for implementing the ideas of her co-authors in this volume goes largely to Jacqueline Vansant. Janet Swaffar 20 Perrig, Walter and Walter Kintsch. "Propositional and Situational Representations of Text." Journal of Memory and Language 24 (1985): Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Stephanie Ortega and Diane Shoeman who offered insightful comments after teaching with our materials. A most hearty thanks to the people at Houghton Mifflin for their careful editing, excellent suggestions, and encouragement and enthusiasm throughout the project. The authors and publisher would also like to thank the following people for their insightful reviews of the manuscript: Sibylle Bolton, formerly of Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) Leon J. Gilbert, California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, CA) Helga W. Kraft, University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) Ingeborg Roberg McCoy, Southwest Texas State University (San Marcos, TX) Lana Rings, University of Texas (Arlington, TX) Gerhard F. Strasser, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) Preface xv

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17 EINFUHRUNG in ~LESESTRATEGIEN

18 -:. ' ~ '/" :? -'l:~. "..,,""':'~ t," '"~-,~' /«; ':./ <.,,!': :.. ::.;t Einfuhrung in Lesestrategien In the first half of this introductory chapter there are four short texts with accompanying exercises designed to make you aware of useful reading strategies. These strategies, which you probably use automatically in your native language, facilitate the transition from reading first-year simplified texts to reading and enjoying authentic texts. Through the application of these strategies, the read ing of texts written for speakers of German becomes a rewarding, not a frustrating, experience. General Reading Strategies I I Before you begin to read, ask yourself what kind of text it is you are going to read. Look at clues such as pictures, bold-faced type, and natural divisions in the text. You should be able to make a general assumption about the text. Is it a newspaper article that might offer information? Is it a menu that will tell you what types of food you can order? Is it a short story that will give you a fictitious account of something or someone? Skim the text to help you decide on its intent. Making a hypothesis about what you are going to read will focus your reading. In reading the text, do not read word for word. Skip unknown words. Use preceding and succeeding sentences to help you infer the meaning of words you don't know. Evaluate your guesses as you continue reading. Are they confirmed or not? Continue on even if you cannot figure out a certain section. The next paragraph may be easier and might clarify earlier material. Moreover, some material is less important than other material. Use the dictionary only when absolutely necessary. Not every word is important for understanding a text. By the time you finish with a text, you will have read it several times in different ways. In the beginning you will ski m and scan the text and later you will read it more carefully, gleaning more information as you go along. Reading in this manner is less frustrating and will bring better results than if you try to read word for word and translate the text. The first text you will read is in Dutch. Use your knowledge of the world and. draw on your skills in English and German to help you understand the text. The other three texts in this first section are in German. They focus on various reading strategies, preparing you for longer texts. 2 Eintuhrung in Lesestrategien

19 Film: Ruimtevaart ''Star Trek II, The Wrath of Kahn'' You may be surprised to find a Dutch text in a German reader. You will see that you can get the gist of a text without knowing every word. Relying on your knowledge of the world and your ability to recognize cognates, you will be able to make some general statements about the text even though you don't read Dutch. Remember this later when you are reading German and are tempted to read word for word! ' PREVIEW Look at the title of the text and the picture. Then glance briefly at the text. 1. This text is: a. an ad for the TV series Star Trek. b. a movie review of a Star Trek movie. c. a history of the TV series Star Trek. 2. What led you to your decision? A CLOSER LOOK Vocabulary 1. Skim the text and make a list of words that are similar to Eng lish. 2. Skim the text and make a list of words whose meaning is fairly clear from the context. Film: Ruimtevaart "Star Trek II, The Wrath of Kahn" 3

20 Identification Look over the text, searching for the specific information listed below. Note key words, and the column and line numbers where you found your information. Column/Line Key words when the TV series started who the main characters in the film are how the end of the film is described INFORlVIA TION I I I One way to look at this text is that it is about people and their characteristics. Read the text again keeping in mind that you are looking for the following specific information. a. Participants in the film a/le figuren Description uit tv-serie b. c. d. I» 4 EinfOhrung in Lesestrategien