German - Instruction 1

COURSE STRUCTURE

Basic Sentences to provide a body of natural German conversation as a source for

subsequent drills and exercises.
Notes to the sentences are provided to clarify occasional difficulties in vocabulary
and idiom and to provide additional background on some cultural features
unfamiliar to Americans.
Notes on Pronunciation provides explanations and pronunciation practice drills to
develop proper pronunciation of German vowels and consonants.
Notes on grammar explains the grammar used in the dialog.
Drills of 7 different kinds - each type is unique and designed for a specific purpose:
1. Substitution drills to manipulate forms by substituting specific items in
fixed sentence frames. They are intended to build habits of association, so
that in a given syntactic environment the appropriate grammatical form
automatically comes to mind. As the German vocabulary is all familiar, no
English equivalents are given in these drills.
2. Variation drills to manipulate larger syntactic patterns. In each group a
model sentence, underscored, serves as a guide. Associated with it are
additional sentences incorporating the same syntactic pattern but in which
most of the individual word items have been replaced. English equivalents
are given to serve as cues for recall of the German variant sentences.
3. Vocabulary drills provide both practice in the use of new vocabulary items
and also allow for manipulation of sentence elements whose particular form
and arrangement depends upon their association with that vocabulary item.
The manipulation of both variation and vocabulary drills depends on the use
of English equivalents.
4. Translation drills helps to quickly translate from English to German and
vice-versa.
5. Response drills to practice using basic sentences in an interactive context,
so that the language is learned to communicate, and not merely for reading
or translation.
6. Conversion drills require the conversion of one or more elements in a
sentence from one form to another - singular to plural, present tense to past
tense, etc.
7. Expansion drills for practice in expanding a given sentence frame by the
addition of a descriptive modifier.
Conversation Practice to further practice pronunciation, translation, etc. in a
communicative context and to bridge the gap to free conversations with small pieces
of supplementary dialog.
Vocabulary displays all the new vocabulary that occurred in the unit.

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 German - Instruction 2

HOW TO USE THIS COURSE

This course has been designed to help students reach a level of proficiency which will enable
them to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations. For beginning
students, the twenty-four units (Level 1-4) are designed for a six-month intensive training
program of six hours per day.

At the beginning of each unit are the basic sentences. Try to repeat the dialog
several times until you know it very well (either by memorizing or learning).
Knowing the dialog well will make the following drills much easier.

The requirements for each kind of drill should be obvious after reading the
description of the specific drill and doing the first couple of sentences.

Always try to say the drills out loud.

The drills are meant to be done over and over again until your response is
automatic and natural, just as your mother tongue.

After mastering a unit you should review it periodically (after 1 week, 3 weeks, 6
weeks etc.) to make sure you don’t forget it.

Later, after you've assimilated the material to a degree, you can run through the
drills without the book to see how you do without the visuals.

The key to this course is repetition. Don’t rush through the course too quickly.
Most people need to work through each unit several times before they have fully
assimilated what’s there.

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