- Docente: Eva-Maria Christina Charlotte Thune
- Credits: 9
- SSD: L-LIN/14
- Language: German
- Teaching Mode: E-learning
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Foreign Languages and Literature (cod. 0979)
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from Sep 26, 2025 to Nov 07, 2025
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course the student will have an extensive knowledge of the metalanguage and key concepts of a descriptive linguistic approach to the German Language; in addition the student's practical competence (in all four language abilities) will have reached European level B2.
Course contents
The course has two parts:
1. - 30 hours of formal classes during the 1st semester
2. - A language learning course through the whole year (responsible: Enrico Mina)
The course German Linguistics and Language 3 carries 9 credits. These 9 credits are registered as a block (they cannot be broken up) at such time as the student has completed all sections of the exam (i.e. those relating to the lecture course and those relating to the practical language component (see below)). Students are reminded that they have to undertake all parts of the exam irrespective of their linguistic level: no exemption is given on the basis of certificates issued by other institutions. The only exception concerns students who are native speakers of German or who did their school-leaving exam (maturità, Arbitur) in the German language. These students are exempted from the practical language component of the course.
Groups for language classes 3rd Year students:
Gruppo A: Enrico Mina (A – L)
Gruppo B: N.N. (M – Z)
Gruppo C: Sandro De Martino: maintenance course for level B2+ for students with a level higher than B1 or after an Erasmus stay in a German speaking country
1.) The aim of the main course (formal classes) is to give a sociolinguistic description of contemporary German and to introduce students to some basic concepts in this field.The course will start by reviewing the distribution of German worldwide as an official language and as a minority language, and will introduce the concept of German as a pluricentric language with the focus on its national varieties. The concept of Umgangssprache (colloquial language) will be analysed as a diaphasic and a diatopic sub-standard.
Special attention will be given to 1) the distribution of German as first language and its multi-modal use in different situations, 2) the notions of standard language, of variety and register, 3) certain phenomena of language contact between German and other languages.
Language learning course (esercitazioni di lingua) The part language course aims to develop the student's linguistic pragmatic, and sociolinguistic competence in German. All German language courses are based on the theoretical and methodological principles described by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR). At the end of the third year, students should have reached at least B2-level:
Oral production (speaking): He/she can give clear, systematically developed descriptions and presentations, with appropriate highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail. Oral reception (listening): He/she can understand standard spoken language, live or broadcast, on both familiar and unfamiliar topics normally encountered in personal, social, academic or vocational life. Only extreme background noise, inadequate discourse structure and/or idiomatic usage influences the ability to understand. Written production (writing): He/she can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest, synthesising and evaluating information and arguments from a number of sources. Visual reception (reading): He/she can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively. Has a broad active reading vocabulary, but may experience some difficulty with low frequency idioms.
Readings/Bibliography
Main course
Reading
Eva-Maria Thüne/Simona Leonardi: "Das Deutsche aus plurizentrischer Perspektive" – unpublished Reader 2022
Further readings
1) "Aspekte der des deutschen Wortschatzes" kap. 1
2) Ammon, Ulrich / Bickel, Hans & Lenz, Alexandra Nicole. 2016. Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen, Berlin/München/Boston: De Gruyter, selected pages
all texts will be available on-line (in Virtuale)
Videos of the MOOC 'German in a pluricentric perspective' available on the platform https://www.federica.eu
Lezione 1, Lezione 2 Unit 1, Lezione 3 Unit 1 e Unit 2, Lezione 5
Web-sites
• Atlas zur Aussprache des deutschen Gebrauchsstandards (AADG) <http://prowiki.ids-mannheim.de/bin/view/AADG/>
• Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (AdA) <http://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de>
• Variantengrammatik des Standarddeutschen http://mediawiki.ids-mannheim.de/VarGra/index.php/Start
Language learning course (esercitazioni di lingua) The chosen textbooks follow the CEFR's theoretical and methodological principles and are suitable for university students. Each learning group will adopt a book corresponding to its initial competence level.
Teaching methods
The main course is part of the project of innovative didactics of the University of Bologna and will combine place-based formal classes with online educational materials and opportunities for interaction.
Students unable to attend the lectures (lezioni frontali) of Lingua e linguistica tedesca 3 (German language and linguistics 3 - BA degree course) can find information about a self-study programme (didattica integrativa) in Virtuale.
Language learning course (esercitazioni di lingua)
Language learning courses (esercitazioni di lingua) take place in seminar form and therefore involve the active and continuous participation of students both individually and in group activities. In order to meet the different individual proficiency levels, three groups will be formed. One of these will start at level B2+, with the aim of offering even students with very advanced knowledge (entry to university with pre-knowledge at level B1 or higher, or Erasmus stay in German-speaking countries) the opportunity to maintain and deepen their practical language skills.
Assessment methods
Exams are the same for both attending and non-attending students. The exercises include a written and an oral test. Passing the written test is a condition for taking the oral test.
Main course
Written exam at the end of the course (75 min.) test with different types of questions based on the analysis of German as a pluricentric language. Assessment criteria: capacity of expression (completeness and accuracy of contents), coherence of presentation. A prototype of the exam will be available on-line in "Materiale didattico" (Insegnamenti On-line). The final grade will also take account of the result the practical language part (50%)
Language learning course (esercitazioni di lingua)
The written examination (150 minutes) consists of two parts:
Part 1 ("Grammatik und Wortschatz"):
30 questions, each with a missing part. The student must complete the missing parts (marked either by gaps or by dashes replacing the missing letters) or choose the correct solution from the 4 alternatives proposed (only one of the alternatives is correct). The grammatic test lasts 30 minutes. The questions assess grammatical and lexical competence.
Part 2 ("Textproduktion"):
Consists of reading an article (which will serve as basis for the written production) and writing two texts. The first text (approx. 100 words) concerns the content of the article (summary, ‘Zusammenfassung’ and/or open questions) while the second (approx. 200 words) is of the argumentative type (‘Stellungnahme’).
The student has 120 minutes to complete these tasks.
The use of a German monolingual dictionary in paper form is permitted.
The following criteria are taken into account in the assessment: lexical adequacy, grammatical correctness, textual coherence and pragmatic adequacy.
N.B: An example of the written test is available on the "Virtual" platform (virtual.unibo.it).
The oral examination consists of an interview of approximately 15 min. The student must have prepared a topic of his or her choice and present a Reader with three articles (excluding texts from textbooks and texts from Wikipedia), three statistics/tables and three photographs relating to the chosen topic during the test. The list of topics and further information on preparing for the interview can be found on Virtuale. The following criteria are taken into account in the assessment: lexical adequacy, grammatical correctness, phonetic correctness, expository fluency and the ability to use suitable strategies to overcome communicative problems.
Further information:
https://virtuale.unibo.it/pluginfile.php/1790532/mod_resource/content/1/2023-04_pruefung_esercitazioni-di-llt3.pdf
Students with SLDs or temporary or permanent disabilities: we suggest that you contact the relevant university office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and your professor immediately to work together to find the most effective strategies for attending classes and/or preparing for exams.
Any requests for accommodations must be made at least 15 days before the date of the exam, by sending an email to the lecturer and copying (Cc) the email address [disabilita@unibo.it [mailto:disabilita@unibo.it] ](mailto:disabilita@unibo.it ) (in case of disability) or [dsa@unibo.it [mailto:dsa@unibo.it] ](mailto:dsa@unibo.it ) (for students with Specific Learning Difficulties).
The final mark of the course “Lingua e Linguistica Tedesca 3” will be the average mark between the lezioni frontali exam's result and the esercitazione mark.
Teaching tools
power point presentations, videos, texts, internet resources
Office hours
See the website of Eva-Maria Christina Charlotte Thune