The German major curriculum joins advanced language learning with analytical perspectives from literary studies, history, sociology, anthropology, and film and media studies that bring students to a sophisticated and critical understanding of the German-speaking world, present and past.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will demonstrate:
- linguistic competence, entailing:
- language proficiency in listening, reading, writing and speaking German at the ACTFL Intermediate-High level; and
- metalinguistic awareness of language as a system and of the ways in which language organizes thought processes and reflects culture.
- cultural knowledge, entailing the ability to critically interpret specific trends in contemporary German-speaking societies within their broader cultural contexts, considering factors such as national histories, international relations and constructions of power, privilege, and inequality.
- textual competence, entailing the ability to comprehend and analyze a wide range of texts, taking account of factors such as genre, audience, purpose, organization, discourse conventions, rhetorical elements, and linguistic features, as well as historical, geographical, cultural, multilingual and intellectual contexts.
- disciplinary knowledge, entailing the ability comprehend and apply one or more of the major theoretical and methodological approaches to studying German-speaking societies, such as critical historiography, cultural studies, literary analysis, and sociolinguistics.
Requirements for the German Major
A student must complete eight courses above German 112:
- Two 250-level courses, at least one taught by a St. Olaf instructor;
- Two 270-level courses, at least one taught by a St. Olaf instructor;
- One 300-level course taken at St. Olaf;
- Three additional courses of student’s choosing; can include German 231, German 232, St. Olaf Interim abroad, German university exchange program;
- Six courses with minimum grade of C;
- Maximum of two courses from semester of study abroad / four courses from year study abroad. Courses taken during study abroad must be in German to count toward the major;
- Maximum of one course in English. See German Studies Concentration page for list of pre-approved courses. (Note: a 1/4-credit German LAC section does not count as a course taken in German, and some English-language courses must be taken with the German LAC to count toward the major or concentration.)
Students need not be German majors to take upper-division (250-level and above) German courses or participate in a study abroad program in a German-speaking country. Courses taken in German may satisfy general education requirements / Ole Core requirements as well as requirements for some other majors, with department chair approval.