Graduate Handbook

The UNL Department of Modern Languages and Literatures offers a stimulating environment for graduate work in German. The program emphasizes proficiency in major areas of German literature and Philology/Linguistics; it includes specializations in Philology/ Linguistics, Medieval Language and Literature, 16th-Century Literature, Baroque, Enlightenment, and Age of Goethe, 19th- Century Literature with emphasis on Romanticism and Realism, and 20th-Century Literature including GDR-Literature. Courses and seminars offered represent a spectrum of broad topics and highly specialized themes. Emphasis is placed on discussions, reports, and close work with professors. Special Modern Languages courses are conceived as essential to graduate work in German such as Introduction to Literary Criticism and a course on Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching Methods.

Distinctive Features

The graduate program in German offers the opportunity to take comparative courses in literature and philosophy as well as courses in literary criticism, advanced pedagogy, and women’s studies. The Department sponsors one scholarly journal devoted in part to German, Studies in 20th Century Literature, and encourages graduate student participation in the editorial process. The Department organizes an annual series of colloquia in which faculty and graduate students present papers reporting on their current research in anticipation of participating in regional or national conferences. The German Honorary Society, Delta Phi Alpha, is the University chapter of the National German Honorary Society in Lincoln, Nebraska. The members of the society are interested in German language and culture. They organize events ranging from Nikolausabend, picnics in the park, and sing-alongs to formal lectures about current aspects of German society or drama readings. In addition, the Stammtisch offers students an opportunity to use their German in an informal setting. Both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as some faculty members, take part in the Friday afternoon sessions which are held in a downtown location within walking distance of the campus. Graduate students have a voice in significant departmental matters and elect representatives to the Executive Committee. The Department offers a congenial atmosphere and encourages a close working relationship between students and faculty. Graduate students are encouraged to apply for annual departmental Grants in Aid to assist faculty members with specific projects.

If you are applying to the German PhD program, please contact the advisor first.

The program of study leading to a M.A. degree in German takes two years and includes courses in German literature and Philology/Linguistics, with possibilities for collateral work in other fields. All work required for a M.A. must be completed within six consecutive calendar years. The degree is excellent preparation for either a career in secondary education or for further graduate study at the doctoral level. Two courses are required of every person enrolled in a graduate program of study leading to either the M.A. or Ph.D. degree. These courses, Introduction to Literary Criticism (ML 870) and Applied Linguistics and methodology (ML 880), provide an essential foundation in the intellectual context and the practical application of knowledge in teaching a foreign language. A waiver may be obtained if similar course work has been completed elsewhere.

An M.A. student, supported by the Committee Chair (Graduate Advisor), is expected to complete the degree in four semesters. Any time beyond that requires a petition to the Graduate Committee. A double major without certification is to be completed in two years (four semesters).

M.A. Options

The following options are available for studies leading to a M.A. in German. You will want to discuss these options with youradvisor to determine which option best fulfills your professional objectives. Once you fill your Memorandum of Courses, you may not change the option you have chosen.

Option I requires a minimum of 36 credit hours that culminate in a set of comprehensive exams. Six to ten of these hours are devoted to researching and writing a THESIS. At least eight of these 36 hours must be taken in seminars (900 level courses). Option I also provides the opportunity to take a minor of at least nine hours in a related field. If you have a minor, one member of your committee must be from the department offering the minor. The minor should be in an area offering a graduate degree at UNL, such as, History, Psychology, Sociology, English, or another language. Undergraduate programs when not offered as a M.A. Program cannot be selected as a minor. At least 10-12 hours of require credit must be in regularly scheduled campus courses.

Option II requires a minimum of 36 credit hours that culminate in a set of comprehensive exams. No thesis is included; rather, Option II allows you to pursue more course hours in related studies. Your 36 hours may include 18 hours in the major and nine hours in one MINOR, or your 36-hour total may include at least 15 hours in the major and nine hours in each of two MINORS. At least one member of your committee must be from the department offering the minor. The minor should be in an area offering a graduate degree at UNL, such as, History, Psychology, Sociology, English, or another language. Undergraduate programs when not offered as a M.A. program cannot be selected as a minor. The overall total of 36 credit hours must include at least 12 hours of work in seminars (900 level courses).

Option III requires a minimum of 36 credit hours. Option III does not require a thesis or a minor, but instead calls for increased work at the seminar level. No less than 18 hours of the 36 hour total are required at the 900 level. At least 18 hours must be completed in regularly scheduled campus courses. Like Options I and 11, Option III also calls for a set of comprehensive exams.

M.A. Advisor

When you enter the M.A. program, the first person to contact is the Graduate Advisor for German. The German Graduate Advisor will discuss your interests, previous experience, and the various options available to you, requirements, deadlines, scholarship opportunities, and will advise you concerning your program of studies. In addition to this introduction to the program, the Graduate Advisor for German monitors your progress and keeps you informed about deadlines in order to file your Memorandum of Courses with the Office of Graduate Studies at the appropriate time.

Beginning in the second semester, as you proceed with your course work and constitute your M.A. Supervisory Committee, the person you choose as chair of you committee becomes your primary advisor with regard to the content and completion of your program, which includes course work, comprehensive exams and, with 0ption I, our thesis.

Linguistic competency

We strongly recommend that students pass the Goethe-Institut Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung (ZMP) while in the program.

Duration of Study

Students take two years to complete the program, if they are not getting the teaching certificate.  With certification, the program takes three years to complete the course work, plus one semester for student teaching. 

Support

A limited number of Graduate Teaching Assistantships are available from the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures for the first three years of the program.  Teaching Assistants teach one course each semester in the first-year German language program.

Double Major Masters in German and in Foreign Language Pedagogy
For students coming with a B.A. in German, and a teaching certificate:

The Departments of Modern Languages and Literatures (Arts and Sciences) and the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teaching Education (College of Education and Human Sciences) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln offer a Double Major Masters in German and German Language Pedagogy.  This program offers students the opportunity to pursue studies in content and pedagogy, while gaining hands-on teaching experience.  Participants gain in-depth knowledge of German language, literature and culture while learning the theory and practice of teaching German, including optimal integration of technology in the classroom.

Required Courses
Students are required to take 21 hours in German and 18 hours in Teachers College:

German (A&S)

• 803-Advanced Grammar and Syntax
• 951/2-Seminar in German Literature
• 951/2-Seminar in German Literature
• 951/2-Seminar in German Literature
• 800-level German Literature
• 800-level German Literature
• 800-level German Literature (at least one of 800-courses must be in 20th century)

21 Credits Total

Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (CEHS)

• TEAC 851R-Methods
• TEAC 889-Masters Seminar**
• TEAC 922-Second Language Acquisition
• TEAC 800- Inquiry into Teaching & Learning
• TEAC 922K-GOLDEN Technology (TELI)
• GOLDEN-(Chose one from the offerings below)*

18 Credits Total

*Select one from the GOLDEN (German On-Line Distance Education Network) course offerings:

• TEAC 922A-Reading
• TEAC 922B-Writing
• TEAC 922D-Listening
• TEAC 922E-Speaking
• TEAC 922J-Planning
• GERM 952- GOLDEN: German Children’s Literature

** Students will complete their final masters project (Teaching and Learning Unit Plan) in conjunction with this course (see below, under Double Major Exam):

Teaching Certification
Students may elect to complete courses for Teaching Certification while in the Double Major Masters Program.  The Nebraska Teaching Certificate is recognized by many other states.

Courses required WITH Teaching Certification

German (A&S)

• 803-Advanced Grammar and Syntax
• 951/2-Seminar in German Literature
• 951/2-Seminar in German Literature
• 951/2- Seminar in German Literature
• 800-level German Literature
• 800-level German Literature
• 800-level German Literature (at least one of 800-courses must be in 20th century)

21 Credits Total

Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education (CEHS)

• TEAC 851R-Methods I
• TEAC 852R-Methods II
• TEAC 889-Masters Seminar**
• TEAC 894R-Practicum
• TEAC 897R-Student Teaching
• TEAC 897Y-Student Teaching
• TEAC 897Z-Student Teaching
• TEAC 803R-Mod Lang Seminar
• TEAC 922K-GOLDEN TELI
• TEAC 922-Second Language Acquisition
• TEAC 800-Educ Research
• TEAC 861-Educ for Pluralistic Society
• TEAC 830-Foundations
• EDPS 851-Adolescent Psychology
• EDPS 854-Human Cognition and Instruction
• SPED 801B-Exceptional Learners

43 Credits Total

** Students will complete their final masters project (Teaching and Learning Unit Plan) in conjunction with this course (see below, under Double Major Exam):

Double Major Exam

The exam for the Double Major Masters in German and German Language Pedagogy is administered by members of the German Section and by the foreign language pedagogy specialist in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education.

Administered by the German Section
Two synthetic essays (each at least 2500 words), each covering a different century, one of which must be the 20th century.  Students will meet at the beginning of the final semester of the student's program with the professor responsible for the century covered in each essay, and will agree upon (in written form) a topic and a list of primary and secondary sources to be read.  Students will write the essays over a period of two weeks. Each essay must treat one of the topics below:

• Developments within a literary genre.  Examples: the rise of the bürgerliches Trauerspiel (18th century;) the rise of the Bildungsroman (19th century); the rise of the proletarian novel in the GDR (20th century)
• Literary responses to intellectual or social impulses within society over the course of a century.  Examples: Enlightenment thought and literature in the 18th century; Nationalism and literature in the 19th century; critique of liberalism in literature of the 20th century

These essays will be evaluated by members of the German Section.

Administered by TEAC, with joint approval (TEAC and German Section) of selected work
Unit Plan:  Students will select one authentic or literary work (subject to approval by both Departments), and produce a unit plan based on this work, which integrates theories and methods of foreign language pedagogy.  This unit plan will be completed in conjunction with TEAC 889 (Masters Seminar).

Text and bibliography must be selected and approved during the semester prior to graduation. The project may be completed at any time during the final year of the program; it will be evaluated by the foreign language pedagogy specialist in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education.  Students will give a formal presentation of their unit plan to the foreign language pedagogy specialist in TEAC; this presentation will also be open to faculty members from DMLL.

German 803-804 (Advanced Syntax and stylistics in German)
Advanced Syntax and Style in their application to composition. Exercises, assigned and free topics designed to obtain a sophisticated expository style in German. Midterm and final exam.

German 805 (Linguistics in German)*
Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax as applied to Standard German. Intensive exercises, midterm, and final exam; one research paper and oral report on the same topic.

German 807 (History of the German Language)*
Discussion of language principles in the genetic development of the German language, as well as its interchange with Romance Languages and others. Midterm, final exam, research paper and oral report on the same topic.

German 809 (Morphemics in German)*
Morphemic theory and its application to Standard German. Intensive exercises, midterm, final exam, research paper on the same topic.

German 810 (Applied Linguistics in German)*
Methods and techniques using the application of linguistic theory for teaching German. Broad spectrum of exercises and discussions midterm and final exam, research paper and report on the same topic.

German 842 (Survey of Medieval German Literature)*
Literature to 1500.

German 843 (Middle High German Language)*
Grammar to attain reading knowledge of Middle High German/ translation of excerpts from a variety of Middle High German texts.

German 844 (Middle High German Literature)*
Readings of masterworks of Middle High German literature in the original language.

German 846 (16th- and 17th-Century German Literature)
A survey of 16th- and 17th-century German literature from the Reformation and Humanism through the Baroque. The course examines select works by major authors of the period, considering them in light of the social, political, and intellectual environment in which they were produced. Pertinent secondary literature will also be assigned.

German 847 (18th-Century German Literature)
Overview of pre-classical German literature of the 18th century, including Enlightenment, Sentimentalism, and Storm and Stress. Readings include representative dramatic, poetic, and prose works, and works on aesthetics. Texts are considered in light of literaryhistorical traditions, and in light of the social environment in which they were produced and which they in part strove to change. Pertinent secondary literature will also be assigned.

German 848 (German Romanticism)
Introduction to and survey of German Romanticism from ca. 1796-1826. The course consists of primary texts ranging from poems to novels (A./B. Arnim, Brentano, Chamisso, Eichendorff, Hoffmann, Morike, and Novalis, Jean Paul, A.W./F. Schlegel, Tieck, Wackenroder), theoretical and political writings of the period, and secondary literature. We will do close readings of individual works as well as putting the time period into a socio-cultural perspective, evaluating the role of women in the movement, and the connections to other art forms. Students are to use the “Semesterapparat” in the library; for undergraduate students: two papers of about 10 pages, for graduate students: one 1/2 hour presentation and a paper of about 20 pages are expected. A final exam could be given.

German 849 (Survey of Nineteenth-Century German literature (1820-1848))
A survey of the major literary currents, authors, works, and influences in German-speaking countries in the first half of the nineteenth century, excluding Romanticism, which is treated in German 848. The main concern of the course will be a careful examination of many aspects of Biedermeier and Das Junge Deutschland, the two major movements of the time.

German 850 (Survey of Nineteenth-Century German Literature II (1848-1900)
A survey of major literary currents, authors, works, and influences in German-speaking countries in the second half of the nineteenth century. The main concern of the course will be careful examination of Poetic Realism and Naturalism, the two major movements in this half of the century.

German 851 (From Naturalism to Expressionism)
Critical survey of the major literary currents from the turn of the century to the end of World War I.

German 852 (From the Weimer Republic into Exile)
Critical survey of German literature from 1918 to 1945.

German 853 (History of German Poetry)
Critical survey of the development of epic and lyric poetry from the beginning to the present time.

German 854 (German Literature and Philosophy)
Relationship between literature and contemporary thought from the eighteenth century to the present.

German 855 (Postwar German Literature: The Literature of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)
Critical survey of major literary events since 1945.

German 859 (Works of Goethe and Schiller)
Overview of representative works by Goethe and Schiller, including plays, poems, prose fiction, and works on aesthetics. Through close readings of texts we will analyze literary structures and motifs, noting their development through the Storm and Stress, Classical and late periods. Works will also be considered in light of historical and intellectual movements contemporary to Goethe and Schiller. Pertinent secondary literature will be assigned.

German 860 (Goethe’s Faust)
A critical study. Lectures, assigned readings, and reports.

German 898 (Special topics in German)
Consideration of topics in the area of language, literature, and civilization. Specific topic to be covered in any given semester and credit to be awarded to be determined by the instructor at that time.

German 899 (Masters Thesis)

German 925 (Introduction to Historical Linguistics)*
Broad range of topics from the early Germanic languages, their development, methods of analyses and investigative techniques. Research paper and report on a related topic.

German 926 (Old High German)*
Historical, phonological and morphological relationships in the German dialects of the period. In depth analysis of representative texts. Midterm, final exam and research paper on a related topic.

German 927 ( Gothic)*
Textual, functional and etymological analysis of Gothic texts and the laws of historical phonology, grammar, and etymology from the perspective of Germanic and Indo-European. Midterm, final exam, research paper and report on a related topic.

German 929 (Problems in Advanced Linguistics)*
Functional analysis of modern German texts; colloquial and standard German: research paper.

German 930 (Seminar in German Linguistics)
Modern German topics varying from textual analysis to morphosyntactic developments; research paper.

German 951 ( Seminar in German Literature)
The classical period, Klopstock, Wieland, Lessing, Herder, Schiller, Goethe. Subject to be selected.

German 952 ( Seminar in German Literature)
Tendencies of German literature during the last five years.

German 996 (Research Problems in German)
Individual research projects on a literary or philological problem in areas not covered by seminars or thesis.

German 997 ( Directed Readings in German)
May be repeated for credit since the topics vary.

German 999 (Doctoral Dissertation)
*Courses not currently in the rotation.

MODERN LANGUAGES 870 (INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY CRITICISM)
Aim: To examine the main currents of literary criticism with reference to classical texts that form the basis of contemporary literary theory.
Organization: Lecture and discussion of important figures and movements in the history of literary criticism, reading of major texts, classics of humanistic analysis, historical background, and samples of contemporary literary approaches such as structuralism, semiotics, reader response, deconstruction and feminist theory.
Grading: Class participation, exams and a research paper.

MODERN LANGUAGES 880(APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND METHODOLOGY)
Aim: To introduce the field of applied linguistics and its use in university language classrooms, including the principles of second language acquisition and teaching, and techniques for developing language skills.
Organization: Lectures, discussions, and practice by preparing for each method, approach or technique introduced a mini-lesson to teach to the other members of the class.
Grading: Class participation, a midterm and final exam and assignments.