In this assignment you will take a tour through the course resources and respond to some questions about them.

Purposes:

 1.   to make sure that you know what your course materials are and how they are organized;
2.   to get you to think about how the course fits - or doesn’t fit - your picture of language learning and your previous language courses, if you have had any;
3.   to begin familiarizing you with the principles and methods of language teaching and learning - a topic that will be dealt with more closely in a later assignment.

Time needed: 1.5-2 hours

Due: Very soon, because we want to give you a strong start in the course, and we need to know who needs help. The due day for a score of 4 / satisfactory on the "on-time" factor that checks when this assignment is received: one week after the day when the assignment was given. Assignments turned in before that are most welcome, and they are eligible for scores of 5 or 6 on the factor that assesses timeliness. The purpose of this policy is to encourage people to do assignments early, so that any serious flaws can be caught early, and so that there will be time for revising later. Timeliness is not weighted so heavily that the difference in score between a 4 and a 6 on that factor will have any major effect on the grade for the whole assignment, much less on your grade for the course itself.

Directions: Do the three numbered activities listed immediately below, taking perhaps an hour for all of them together. Below the questions you will then see a link to the file for the "Language LearningPreferences & Preconceptions Survey". Download the file, fill it out according to the directions on its pages, and give it to your instructor. Doing the survey should take about 1/2 hour.

         1.   Read the “Course Description,” if you have not already readit, and READ IT CAREFULLY. (There is a hidden item that checks whether you have done that.) Then do Assignment 1 (Assignment 1 for GER 101; Assignment 1 for GER 102 & 103), if you have not yet done it already. Students new to the course in GER 102 or 103: The course description is for the Fall Quarter; information about exams and other time-sensitive matters is provided on the course website (link: Schedules and Assignments: 102 or 103).

         2.   Open the "Wie, bitte?" program on the Wie, bitte? DVD (or the version that can be downloaded) and: a) read “The Purpose of This Courseware” (menu “Help”); b) go to each of the “Main Resources” (“Word Search”, “Graphics & Movies” etc.) and try out what they offer; c) do the same with the “Context Resources” and “Context Activities” for Kontext 1, which you’ll find by using the popup menu button “Choose Context” to choose “1 Wie, bitte? Wer? Was?”.

         3.   On the first-year German website, explore each of the links at the left on the opener screen, from “Schedule & Assignments” down through “dictionary & on-line translator policy.” Look closely at the “FAQ” items (Frequently-Asked Questions – some still under construction) and the “Survey of Materials,” which shows how the Wie, bitte? materials on the DVD, and those available to download and print from the course website, compare with each other.

Now download and fill out the “Language Learning Preferences & Preconceptions Survey”. You will probably want to print it, but - unless your instructor says otherwise - we will also accept electronic versions of your replies, IF you insert them into the questionnaire - don't make a separate list of responses. Your response to each item may have up to four parts:

         1.   the information you provide from your “tour;”

         2.   your judgment about how that feature of the course corresponds (or does not correspond) to the view of language learning you brought to the course, and which way you prefer it if there is a difference;

         3.   if you have had some other language course (not necessarily German), how this course and its material compare to it, and which way you prefer that, if there is a difference;

         4.   your comments or questions, especially if there is something we can do to help.

You may use the Scoring Guide for this an assignment to see how to get the score you want. Most of your grade on the assignment will be based on the completeness and informativeness of your responses. When the items deal with actual facts, such as the structure of the course or the content of the materials, we will grade for correct information. But when it comes to your opinions about the course and materials, we are not looking for right or wrong answers, or for a positive - and perhaps insincere - response at the very outset. Instead, we need to know whether you have become familiar with the course and its materials, and whether we need to provide more information about how languages are learned.