German (B.A.) (2 subjects/teacher training)

About 130 million people speak German as their first or second language. For them, language is a living medium of everyday communication, but also a means of expression for diverse literary texts. How is language used in a communicative context to achieve goals of action? Is there a particular aesthetic of literary texts? To what extent are the structures as well as the use of a language and the type of literature time-specific and determined by the respective media environment? How have language and (literary) culture changed over the centuries? If you would like to become an expert on these questions and inspire students in the classroom, a German teacher training programme is the right choice for you. In addition to a qualified handling of the subjects, you will acquire didactic competences for teaching German, in which the language is both a learning medium and an object of learning.

Göttingen German Studies is characterised by diverse research foci, which are also reflected in the courses offered: the spectrum ranges from language history to psycholinguistics, from historical aesthetics to pop literature, from the study of the profession of German teachers to literary writing in German classes - and this is not an exhaustive list!

So: In Göttingen you can study the subject in all its facets. The subject-related study programme is divided into three areas:

• Germanic Linguistics: deals with structures and the use of today's German and its historical precursors, as well as with the cognitive foundations of language.
• Germanistic Medieval Studies: deals with the entire German-language textual tradition of the period from the 9th to the 16th century and its specific medial and cultural conditions.
• Literary Studies (Modern German Literature): deals with the German-language literatures from the Baroque to the present, furthermore with the mediation of literature, literary theory, subject history and edition philology.

There is close cooperation between the subject area and the didactics of German language and literature, which empirically examines subject-specific teaching and learning and researches concepts of the acquisition and teaching of linguistic-literary education.

The B.A. programme offers you the chance to acquire basic competences in all three sub-areas and to develop your own questions on this basis. The seminar library with its extensive holdings, the collection of historical children's and youth literature and the linguistic laboratories (on sign language, among other things) offer excellent conditions for your own initial discoveries in research. Comprehensive study counselling, a grammatical propaedeutic course and tutorials make your start easier.

The subject studies in Göttingen offer you a broad basis (language and literature, historical and systematic) for individual interest formation. In the specialisation area of the subject studies and in the Bachelor's thesis, you can set your own focus in the areas of linguistics, mediaeval studies or Modern German literature. In addition, the optional area offers you the opportunity to further deepen your subject studies or subject didactics studies (LehramtPlus) or to choose from the broad key competencies offered by the University of Göttingen are at your disposal. In addition to taking individual courses, you can earn a wide variety of certificates here, including ,German Sign Language',Theatre Practice' or the ,Additional Qualification Interculturality and Multilingualism / German as a Foreign and Second Language (ZIMD)'.

For the teacher training programme, you should definitely have an interest in didactics. Use the 'Online Orientation Guide' to find out whether studying to become a teacher is right for you! In any case, you should have a keen interest in intensively studying literary works, the structure as well as the use of language(s) and making classifications in the respective cultural, social and historical contexts. For the degree programme, you not only need a certain 'reading mania', but also the willingness to think your way into the theories and methods of the subject, which range from literary theory and aesthetics as well as formal theories of language analysis to cultural studies and media-historical approaches and experimental procedures of language and literature analysis. A very good knowledge of the German language, both spoken and written (native or near-native), is indispensable for the study of German Studies. A good knowledge of English is helpful.

The B.A. programme in German with a teaching profession profile initially has a predominantly subject-specific component, but also includes initial subject didactics and educational science components. It qualifies for the Master of Education (M.Ed.) in German, in which higher subject didactic and educational science components prepare students for the profession of teacher at comprehensive and grammar schools. With the subject-specific and didactic knowledge and competences that you acquire in the B.A. programme, however, you also have the option of completing a subject-specific Master's programme or entering directly into fields of activity in which linguistic sensitivity or the teaching of German language and literature are in demand, from adult education to literature festivals to public relations work.