Kontakte / Edition 8

by Brigitte Nikolai, Erwin Tschirner, Tracy D. Terrell

Overview

Kontakte continues to offer a truly communicative approach that supports functional proficiency, supported by the full suite of digital tools available in Connect German (now including LearnSmart®!). This proven Introductory German program maintains its commitment to meaningful communicative practice as well as extensive coverage of the 5 Cs and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012. In its eighth edition, Kontakte has greatly expanded its digital offering: Connect German now contains the full scope of activities originating from both the white and blue pages of the student text and the Arbeitsbuch. Furthermore, the program now offers LearnSmart®, an adaptive learning program that helps students learn grammar and vocabulary more efficiently by tailoring the experience to individual student needs.·


Communication in meaningful contexts: Students read and listen to comprehensible German and have ample opportunities to use it in interview, information-gap, role-play, autograph, writing,and other personalized activities that are theme-based. The video segments—Interviews and Perspektiven—feature interviews with a variety of speakers that allow students to hear authentic German in context. They provide models for talking about topics using authentic language, guiding students in communicating with one another. In the Connect activities for the student textbook and Arbeitsbuch,students can also take advantage of the audio and video live chat tool to communicate with their classmates online. In Connect German, students have full access to the digitally enhanced eBook, the online Arbeitsbuch activities, LearnSmart®,and all of the accompanying audio and video resources, giving them the ability to interact with the materials (and one other) as often as they wish.


A solid theoretical foundation: Firmly grounded second-language acquisition research, Kontakte also supports the National Standards as outlined in the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. As presented in the Standards, the five Cs—Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons,and Communities—provide a framework for what students should know and be able to do as a result of their language study. The five Cs are present in countless ways throughout the program, particularly in the wealth of communicative activities and cultural content. Students are also encouraged to explore connections by linking their study of German with their own lives and other subjects of study, to make comparisons between their world and that of German-speaking people, and to learn about real-world German-speaking communities. Kontakte also integrates several modes of language, as described in the ACTFL Proficiency Descriptors.The activities, exercises, and tasks offer students a wide variety of opportunities for communication and interaction in interpersonal, interpretive,and presentational modes. For example,the many interviews in Kontakte require students to negotiate meaning and therefore reinforce the interpersonal mode of communication. The diversity of readings, whether literary, cultural, or encyclopedic, requires students to interpret information within context and apply it to new contexts.


Tools for Digital Success: Connect German and LearnSmart®, McGraw-Hill’s digital teaching and learning environment allows students to engage in their course material via the devices they use every day.The digital tools available in the Connect German platform facilitate student progress by providing extensive opportunities to practice and hone their developing skills. These include online communicative activities, instant feedback, peer-editing writing tools, sophisticated reporting, and a complete eBook with embedded audio and video. LearnSmart® is the only integrated learning system that empowers students by continuously adapting to deliver precisely what they need, when they need it, and how they need it, to make your class time more engaging and effective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781259307423
Publisher:	McGraw-Hill Education
Publication date:	01/11/2016
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 10.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

(First and Second Staatsexamen, Göttingen and Fulda) is Oberstudienrätin (German, English, Physical Education) at the Werner-von-Siemens Gymnasium in Bad Harzburg, Germany. She taught German at all levels of instruction at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and she was a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. She is co-author of Assoziationen: Deutsch für die Mittelstufe and the series Lextra – Englisch Grund- und Aufbauwortschatz nach Themen. Her main interests are: the role of vocabulary in language learning, reading strategies, and the role of art in language teaching. She has been a certified ACTFL OPI tester since 1989.

(Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) is Gerhard Helbig Professor of German as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of Leipzig and President of the Institute for Test Research and Test Development in Leipzig, Germany. Before joining the University of Leipzig, he taught at the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1990-1998) and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1988–1990). His main research areas are: second language acquisition, corpus linguistics, language testing and assessment, and language policy. He is (co-) author of over 150 books, book chapters, and journal articles. He has extensive experience in test research and development for all language modalities (speaking, listening, writing, and reading). He has been a certified ACTFL OPI tester since 1989 and tester trainer since 1993. He has been a major contributor to the internationalization efforts of the University of Leipzig, establishing and directing joint BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs with universities in the Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S.

Tracy D. Terrell (late) received his Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and published extensively in the area of Spanish dialectology. Professor Terrell’s publications on second-language acquisition are widely known in the United States and abroad.

Table of Contents

Kapitel 1 Wer ich bin und was ich tue

Themen

Freizeit

Schule und Universität

Tagesablauf

Persönliche Angaben

Wortschatz

Strukturen

The present tense

Expressing likes and dislikes: gern / nicht gern

Telling time

Word order in statements

Separable-prefix verbs

Word order in questions

Kulturelles

Kapitel 2 Besitz und Vergnügen

Themen

Besitz

Geschenke

Kleidung und Aussehen

Vergnügen

Wortschatz

Strukturen

The accusative case

The negative article: kein, keine

What would you like? Ich möchte …

Possessive determiners

The present tense of stem-vowel changing verbs

Asking people to do things: the du-imperative

Kulturelles

Kapitel 3 Talente, Pläne, Pflichten

Themen

Talente und Pläne

Pflichten

Ach, wie nett!

Körperliche und geistige Verfassung

Wortschatz

Strukturen

The model verbs können, wollen, mögen

The model verbs müssen, sollen, dürfen

Accusative case: personal pronouns

Word order: dependent clauses

Dependent clauses and separable-prefix verbs

Kulturelles

Kapitel 4 Ereignisse und Erinnerungen

Themen

Der Alltag

Urlaub und Freizeit

Geburtstage und Jahrestage

Ereignisse

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Talking about the past: the perfect tense

Strong and weak past participles

Dates and ordinal numbers

Prepositions of time: um, am, im

Past participles with and without ge-

Kulturelles

Kapitel 5 Geld und Arbeit

Themen

Geschenke und Gefälligkeiten

Berufe

Arbeitsplätze

In der Küche

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Dative case: articles and possessive determiners

Question pronouns: wer, wen, wem

Expressing change: the verb werden

Location: in, an, auf + dative case

Dative case: personal pronouns

Kulturelles

Kapitel 6 Wohnen

Themen

Haus und Wohnung

Das Stadtviertel

Auf Wohnungssuche

Hausarbeit

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Dative verbs

Location vs. destination: two-way prepositions with the dative or accusative case

Word order: time before place

Direction: in/auf vs. zu/nach

Separable-prefix verbs: the present tense and the perfect tense

The prepositions mit and bei + dative

Kulturelles

Kapitel 7 Unterwegs

Themen

Geografie

Transportmittel

Das Auto

Reiseerlebnisse

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Relative clauses

Making comparisons: the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs

Referring to and asking about things and ideas: da-compounds and wo-compounds

The perfect tense (review)

The simple past tense of haben and sein

Kulturelles

Kapitel 8 Essen und Einkaufen

Themen

Essen und Trinken

Haushaltsgeräte

Einkaufen und Kochen

Im Restaurant

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Adjectives: an overview

Attributive adjectives in the nominative and accusative cases

Destination vs. location: stellen/stehen, legen/liegen, setzen/sitzen, hängen/hängen

Adjectives in the dative case

Talking about the future: the present and future tenses

Kulturelles

Kapitel 9 Kindheit und Jugend

Themen

Kindheit

Jugend

Geschichten

Märchen

Wortschatz

Strukturen

The conjunction als with dependent-clause word order

The simple past tense of werden, the modal verbs, and wissen

Time: als, wenn, wann

The simple past tense of strong and weak verbs (receptive)

Sequence of events in past narration: the past perfect tense and the conjunction nachdem (receptive)

Kulturelles

Kapitel 10 Auf Reisen

Themen

Reisepläne

Nach dem Weg fragen

Urlaub am Strand

Tiere

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Prepositions to talk about places: aus, bei, nach, von, zu

Requests and instructions: the imperative (summary review)

Prepositions for giving directions: an … vorbei, bis zu, entlang, gegenüber von, über

Being polite: the subjunctive form of modal verbs

Focusing on the action: the passive voice

Kulturelles

Kapitel 11 Gesundheit und Krankheit

Themen

Krankheit

Körperteile und Körperpflege

Arzt, Apotheke, Krankenhaus

Unfälle

Wortschatz

Strukturen

Accusative reflexive pronouns

Dative reflexive pronouns

Word order of accusative and dative objects

Indirect questions: Wissen Sie, wo …?

Word order in dependent and independent clauses (summary review)

Kulturelles

Kapitel 12 Die moderne Gesellschaft

Themen

Politik

Multikulturelle Gesellschaft

Das liebe Geld

Kunst und Literatur

Wortschatz

Strukturen

The genitive case

Expressing possibility: würde, hätte, and wäre

Causality and purpose: weil, damit, um … zu

Principles of case (summary review)

Kulturelles