Kontakte

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.

(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 (19881990). 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.

(First and Second Staatsexamen, Gï¿ttingen and Fulda) is Oberstudienrï¿tin (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 fï¿r 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.

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 Terrells publications on second-language acquisition are widely known in the United States and abroad.