German (B.A.)

Program Overview

The German Major encompasses a wide variety of courses to study the language itself, as well as the history, literature, culture, and civilization of German-speaking people. Introductory level courses focus on grammar, phonetics, conversation, composition and culture and are taught with an emphasis on oral proficiency. Intermediate and advanced courses are taught in German.

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates from Messiah’s German program can:

1. Identify relevant historical (political, religious and economic) events in the geographical areas in which the target language is spoken.

2. Describe cultural trends for the geographical areas in which the target language is spoken.

3. Recognize syntactic phonetic structures in the target language.

4. Define important literary periods and genres.

5. Engage in purposeful reading and textual interpretation of literary and informational texts in the target language.

6. Find, assess and utilize secondary sources.

7. Engage in literary analysis and critical interpretation of texts in the target language.

8. Document according to MLA standards.

9. Write thesis driven essays about topics pertaining to language, literature, linguistics and culture.

10. Communicate in spoken form with native speakers of the target language.

11. Communicate in written form with native speakers of the target language.

12. Identify and locate career/employment options and opportunities.

13. Identify and locate continuing education options and opportunities as graduate programs.

14. Articulate the integration of their Christian Faith with the academic and professional field of Foreign Languages.

Major Requirements

Complete the following for your major:

Twenty-seven credits of approved German courses beyond the 206 level, including the following:

18 credits of approved German courses at the Ludwig Maximillians-Universität in Munich, Germany

Students may select among courses in grammar, literature, history, or political science.

Note: Students must complete a minimum of 33 credits in German (GERM).

QuEST Requirements

The writing requirement for this major is distributed among courses within the major.