From Nothing to Something

The German subject I'm taking at the moment is promoted as being an introductory course for beginners who have never studied German before, but it is based around a text-book programme that is not ideal for such a course. Especially in regards to distance learners

Deutsch: Na Klar! is a programme for beginners, but not for "true" beginners. The information it covers is basic, but not introductory.

The book/programme seems to be working on two assumptions:

1. It assumes students have had some exposure to German previously

Or at least some sort of language learning. It's undeniable. If you've never done anything with German in the past, you will struggle with this book. The Introduction is supposed to ease you into the course, instead it clearly works on the assumption that you already know something about German or language learning. Not much, but more than nothing. This is particularly obvious when you look at the explanations offered for many of the concepts covered in the Introduction and first chapter. It's just not sufficient to support someone who has no experience with the language or with language learning.

Which brings me to the second assumption:

2. It assumes you have regular class time and can consult with teachers and students

Once again, you can't avoid this fact. For one thing, the explanations are pretty sparse - if you have a teacher to elaborate on them and go into more detail, then this is fine, but when you are studying on your own it's a bit of a handy cap. Also, a large number of the exercises given in the book are for classroom activities. You need to undertake an activity with one or more classmates, and then discuss the activity with the rest of the class.

Neither of these assumptions make this a good programme to use with distance students who are learning German for the first time. I have a slight advantage in that I intentionally took an evening course in Basic German last year to prepare for this Diploma. If I hadn't, I think I'd be having a very rough time of it. I know some of the other distance learners who tune in for the Monday night online class are struggling. One hour a week with someone you can't see is not sufficient to make up for the short-falls in the programme.

Now, I'm not saying it's a bad programme. It has it's good points, and isn't too difficult. The problem is that it can't stand on it's own. You need the classroom environment to support it, and you need to have had some exposure to German ahead of encountering it.

I also have the advantage of being a librarian who has just completed a Master's project on using resources to support language learners, and I've been reading all about autonomous language learning techniques. As a result, I've been making up for some of the programme's short-falls by actively using other books and resources. For a while now, I've essentially been using two textbooks (not to mention a whole pile of other things, when I can get my hands on them).

Deutsch Heute is probably a better book for distance learners, in my humble opinion, as it gives more thorough explanations of the grammar and vocabulary points. I've been using the eighth edition of this book to augment the fifth edition of Na Klar. It has, in a way, become my classroom. When I want to get more explanation of something, or see a different range of examples, I turn to this book.

I've been using the eighth edition because that's what we had in our library. I'd say it was probably the text book used at the university back in 2005. I tried to buy a copy of that edition, but could only order the ninth. I'm hoping the ninth edition is not radically different from the eighth, and hasn't decided to move more information from the book to the Internet. I'm all for hypermedia augmentation, but I don't like it when you have to use the Internet because you can't get what you need from the book.

Now, having said all of that, I don't think Deutsch Heute is a suitable programme for absolute beginners, either. Neither of these books really work on the assumption that the student is starting from nothing

I've noticed this in other "introductory" text-books as well - especially those aimed at "academic" learners. They never seem designed to take you from nothing to something.

Books aimed at children or "life-long-learners" (in other words, people who aren't studying with any serious purpose) are much better at this. In fact, the best book I've found, so far, for taking someone from nothing to something (in German) is a book called Learn German by Nicole Irving.

Now, this is a very interesting book. For one thing, it's a book that knows its theory. The use of an adventure story to carry the dialogue; the way the dialogue is used to illustrate key grammar points; the use of simple charts and tables to describe language points; the comic-book style use of pictures to help comprehension; the use of "exercises" that bear a strong resemblance to games... These ideas were all in the "top of the pops" for the design of language material in the 1990s (at least at the school level). The book was, quite obviously, written to take advantages of all of the latest and greatest ideas that had been discussed in the literature of the time. There's also a tape that goes with the book, but my library didn't have a copy of it, so I can't comment on what was on it - besides, you don't need the tape to use the book.

For another thing, it's actually three books. Sort of. Perhaps it's better to describe it as a shell. The plot of the story, the illustrations and the design and layout of the book were used for three separate books: Learn German, Learn French and Learn Spanish. No aspect of the story or illustrations is particular to a given culture, so the dialogue and grammar descriptions could be converted to any language and the book would still work. The name of the town and characters is changed to be more typically French or Spanish (or whatesver), and away you go.

This book was specifically designed to take someone from nothing to something - and something decent, at that. It isn't focused on teaching you conversational German/French/Spanish, but rather give you a foundational knowledge about the language and its grammar - something you can then build on. And all while telling a story that was reasonably fun.

I found this book to be a great help when I started this whole German schtick last year - it pushed me ahead of what I was learning in the evening course and put me in a better position for understanding the material in these so-called "introductory" German courses. It was truly introductory.

Academic language courses need to consider starting with something like that when dealing with complete beginners. They need to give that first chapter or section over to those of us who need the basics introduced and elaborated, rather than just "covered" or "touched on".

Anyone designing an introductory language programme needs to start with the concept of taking people from nothing to something before trying to build on foundations that haven't been adequately laid.

I'd recommend Nicole Irving's Learn German/French/Spanish books to anyone who is thinking of learning that language... but they're out of print. You may be able to get a second hand copy, or borrow one from a library, but Usborne (the publisher) never reprinted them. I guess they just weren't as popular as the First Thousand Words in Something-Or-Other books that have been in print for ever. More's the pity.

I've ordered something by Irving from Usborne that I hope will be a kind of later edition of this book. I'll let you know if it's any good.