Text Set #2

Text Set #2

Anton van den Berg

REED 461

Topic: The German Government and Political System

1.      http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/Startseite.html

This site is for the German Missions in the United States. It contains links to the state department here in the U.S., the embassy, consulates, and other institutions in the U.S. It also contains information about Germany’s foreign policy. This website is at about a 9^th grad reading level.

2   http://www.economist.com/topics/german-politics

This is from the Economist. It contains current, up-to-date information about Germany, including: current events, stocks, politics “this week”, news, foreign policy and agenda setting. This website is at about an 11^th grade reading level.

3.    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/guide-to-german-political-parties-a-886188.html

This article comes from a very renowned magazine in Germany der Spiegel (the mirror). It contains a list of each current German political party and a few of their stances, policies they have made, and other information on their affiliation within the German political system. 10^th grade reading level.

4.     https://www.btg-bestellservice.de/pdf/80201000.pdf

This is a PDF straight from the German Bundestag. It lists the basic law for the Federal Republic of Germany. This would be a great resource for anyone wanting to compare German and American laws in dept. This source would be at a college reading level when translated into English.

5.    http://www.cdu.de/

This is a direct link to Germany’s Christian Democratic Union party. The current chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, belongs to this party. It has links to their policies and stances on certain issues as well. This website, when translated into English, would be at a 9-10^th grad reading level.

6.    http://www.spd.de/

This is a link to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (Sozialedemokratische Partei Deutschlands). It also has links to their stances on issues, legislation they have passed, and news. This would also be at about a 9-10^th grad reading level when translated into English.

7.     http://www.die-linke.de/die-linke/aktuell/

This is a direct link to the Germany party, Die Linke (the left). They stand for democratic socialism, and they are a prominent party in Germany, but not the most prominent (the previous two are the leading parties). This link also provides information about their legislation, involvement in the German government, and causes. 9-10^th grade reading level.

8.     http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09644009708404464#.Upvq02Tk-JM

Here is the link to a book entitled, German policy towards the European Union: The effects of historical memory. This book looks back at German policy making and how the evolution of the German government plays a role in the way they act today. This book would be at a 12^th + reading level.

9.     http://www.gruene.de/startseite.html

Here is a direct link to Germany’s political party, Die Grünen (the greens/green party). This site allows access to all of their initiatives, policies, and influence on the German government. This party plays a much bigger role in their government than our version of this party. This site in English would be at about a 9-10^th grade reading level.

10.  http://www.npd.de/

This is an interesting site, because I would bet that the majority of the general public would either assume that Nazis did not exist in Germany anymore, or they would at least not be allowed representation. Both would be correct in some way. The NPD (Nationalsozialistische Partei Deutschlands-Nazi Party) is not allowed representation in the Bundestag (at the national level), but due to free speech and diversity in their constitution, the party is allowed to be heard at state levels. So this site lays out their policies and anything they have been a part of. This site is at about a 9-10^th grade reading level.

11.  http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Europa/DeutschlandInEuropa/entscheidungsfindung_node.html

This is a link to the Federal Foreign Office of Germany. It deals mainly with policy making in Germany and how they go about it. There are also links to the European Union policymaking sites. 9-10^th grade

12. http://www.bundestag.de/kulturundgeschichte/architektur/reichstag/

Every nation has a building that is synonymous with their government, and in Germany it is no different. This is a link to the German Parliament building (der Reichstag). It has links to the history of the building, the architecture, its use and effectiveness in the German government and what goes on in the building. 10-11^th grade reading level.

13. http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/24356

Germany is a pretty liberal country compared to the United States, and its political system shows that in its diversity of party representation. This is a link to an abstract for a book titled Alternative Politics: The German Green Party. This book takes an in depth look at the party itself, its policies, and formation. This book would be at a 12^th grade reading level.

14. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~trin1631/texts/religionpolitics.pdf

This is a link to a PDF that compares the relationships and involvement of religion in politics in Germany and the United States. This is interesting for anyone curious to see how the government makes a governmental system without a clear separation of church and state work effectively. This would be at about an 11^th grade reading level.

15. http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Startseite_node.html

This is a link to the German Foreign Affairs Office. Here you can find information about Germany’s foreign policy and their influence economically and socially around the world. 9-10^th grade reading level.

So What?

Anton “Xandy” van den Berg                                                                        December 1, 2013

REED 461

So What?

Ware, P., & Kramsch, C. (2005). Toward an intercultural stance: Teaching german and english through telecollaboration. The Modern Language Journal, 89. 190-205.

Purpose of article:  Ware and Kramsch want to depict the challenges of Web-based teaching for language teachers, and they want to highlight this depiction through a misunderstanding between learners of German in the United States and learners of English in Germany. They say that discussions of such misunderstandings can be valuable learning opportunities for students and teachers.

What was studied/discussed:

Important terms: telecollaboration, technology-mediated learning contexts, intercultural growth

Results: Ware and Kramsch’s findings came out of a qualitative study of telebollaborative project involving 9 university students in the southwestern United States studying German and 12 students in northeastern Germany studying English. The students interacted for 3 weeks by writing on an asynchronous discussion board, to which they were require to post messages at least twice a week. They found many instances of misinterpreted words such as “little”, colloquial speech that had many topics get lost in translation, and the lack of face-to-face interaction left some of the subjects realizing that some misunderstandings would have been avoided if the tone or inflection of certain phrases could have been heard. Kramsch and Ware realized after conducting the study that the blame can often be thrown on the teacher for some of these misunderstandings. The results can leave them feeling anxious or at fault, but with in making assignments like these, it is important to know that clearly, carefully constructed assignments that are made pedagogical precautions, taken in order to reduce misunderstandings is important. Also, clear instructions and guidelines are necessary.

So What? I chose this specific article, because it fell directly in line with issues and discussions that I have everyday in my school. I work in a 1 to 1 school (Bearden High School), and we are being challenged daily to come up with ways to involve technology and telecollaboration as it is defined by this article, communicating with other language learners or speakers of the target language using technology. This article critiques the traditional role of the teacher and notes that it is coming in to question in this current day and age. What should the teacher do with all the resources that they have available to them, and how should they facilitate the instruction using those materials? In the 21^st century it is becoming more common to have students using all kinds of technology in schools, and it is even becoming a norm to have schools instructed in large part using technology. This means for certain subjects, especially foreign language, teachers are finding ways to communicate with technology and find ways to reach out to native speakers of the language they are teaching. Some teachers see it as a respite from teacher-led instruction, and a way for the students to be independent and control their learning. What episodes of misunderstanding can occur in a telecollaborative, technology-based learning environment? What might that do to a students’ ability or willingness to learn new things in the target language? In the project designed by Ware and Kramsch, the objective was to examine how participants on both sides of technology-based exchanges engaged with language learning online and how they evaluated experiences in the exchange.

I am left wondering after reading about this study if a face-to-face technology-based interaction could work better in the future. This study was conducted before Skype or FaceTime became tools that teachers could use in their classroom. But, with these things available to us, is it more beneficial to allow students to have these telecollaborative interactions in a face-to-face technological environment?