The German Department is committed to offering students a thorough training in German language, literature, culture, and society at all levels of the curriculum.

Our program stimulates debate, embraces diverse perspectives, and fosters critical thinking and cross-cultural understanding. Whether you major or minor in German or just want to take classes with us, you will gain valuable skills and knowledge for whatever future you envision.

On our Vermont campus and at our study abroad sites in Germany, language learning and the development of cross-cultural awareness and intercultural communicative practices support and reinforce one another. 

Depending on which and how many classes students take with us, they will achieve the following: 

  • Be able to communicate effectively in German both orally and in writing.
  • Develop cross- and intercultural sensitivity that will enable them to function and mediate in a German-speaking cultural environment.
  • Understand major cultural, historical, and social developments that have shaped Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and their places in today’s globalized context.
  • Use close reading and critical thinking skills to analyze German texts and materials.
  • Write documents of sufficient consistency and reasonable clarity to be readily intelligible to an educated outside reader.
  • Successfully complete courses within the regular academic curriculum at institutions of higher learning in Germany.

All courses in the department, be they entry level or advanced, subscribe to an integrated model in which students develop all of these skills progressively, and our pedagogical approach allows students to achieve communicative proficiency as early as in their first year.