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7/1980

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES

ANNUAL REPORT 1979

General comments

The position and quality of foreign language teaching under the new A.C.T. secondary school system is a continuous source of concern both to the Department and to teachers in highschools and colleges. The diagnostic test given to all students entering German Language I showed such a wide discrepancy of preparedness that the class was divided into two entirely separate groups, and the same may have to be done for German Literature I in the future. It is hoped that students in the "slower 11 group will catch up with the "advanced" group by means of additional work done during the summer holidays.

What worries teachers most, as became evident in the course of a meeting with college teachers of German arranged by Mrs. Langman in October, is the effect the "statistical average" system of grading has on small classes. In such a situation, one or two outstanding students, maybe native or semi-native speakers of German, or the absence of below-average students (not unusual in subjects considered as hard, as foreign languagea tend to be), can spoil the record for the rest of the group. The result is that academically ambitious students think twice before enrolling in a subject where they run such a risk and that the university language departments, too, will miss some of their brightestpotential students. The matter has been brought to the attention of the A.N.U. representative on the committee reviewing the School Authority's accreditation procedures by Dr. Cull.

Acting on suggestions made at that meeting, the Department sent some material to the colleges which would help students to be better prepared for studying .German at the university.

Courses

German IS and Reading German were not taught,partly because of staff constraints, but will be offered again in 1980. Germanic Linguistics, a second-semester advanced-year course, was taught for the firit ~ime. Icelandic I and Reading Dutch did not attract sufficient enrolments. In a desire to improve first­year language t eaching, both Elementary German and German Language I were divided into two classes each.

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Enrolments and examination results

First-year enrolments were up a little from 1978, ~dvanced-year enrolments fluctuated around the same level. The most unpredict­able group, both in terms of initial enrolments and staying power, were students in elementary language classes. There was a marked drop from Elementary German A to Elementary German B, despite the extra attention and time slots offered, and only a small group of ex-Swedish I students continued with Swedish IIA/ Scandinavian. Our experiende over the years has been that a majority of students take these courses for quite limited purposes and that there is stili no reliable evidence for a

'growing demand by students to major in German on the basis of an elementary course.

A continuous cause for concern is the dwindling enrolment in Science German. The department may have to consider combining that course with Reading German, although it would mean that the specialised material used in Science German could hardly be utilised.

The number of audit students in the Department was very small this year and did not create any problems.

I

There were not many failures among students completing their courses, but there were periods of strain and many extensions of deadlines for written work due to the increasing dominance of continuous assessment over final examinations in many depart­ments. Some of us are of the opinion that essay anxiety besets at least as many students as examinaticn anxiety used to, and that its effects are worse because it tends to poison the whole year rather than a short period at the end.

Student participation

· The Departmental Committee, consisting of all members of staff and a student representative for every course, met once each term .. The impression gained in previous years that active student interest in such formalised bodies of consultation was on the wane, was confirmed this year.

One valuable student initiative resulted in the formation of a subcommittee charged with developing a more informative course assessment sheet to replace the very summary one that had been used. ORAM helped with designing two different forms, one for language and one for literature, and ORAM also took over the collection and processing of information.

The German Student Society was commendably active in arranging outings, social gatherings and opportunities to speak German but they, too, found that only few students responded to their initiatives.

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Work of graduate students

Mr. R. Meier was awarded the M.A. degree. Mrs. Common continued her work on Werner Aspenstrom, with whom she was able to hold discussions during a brief visit to Sweden, and Mrs. McLeod proceeded with her thesis on Thomas Bernhard. Mrs. R. Schrambke reluctantly decided to discontinue her Ph.D. course in Canberra in order to go on working for the Dialect Atlas of Southwest Germany.

Staff

Professor and Head of Department H. Kuhn, DrPhil(Zur)

Senior Lecture:!'."

Lecturer

Temporary Lecturer

Lecturing Fellow

Senior Tutor

Part-time lecturers

Margaret J. Stoljar, MA, PhD(Melb)

C.H. Cull, BA, PhD(Q'ld)

R. Hillman, BA(Syd.h PhD,DipEd(Adel.)

P. Schoenborn, DrPhil(Fbg)

E.A. Langman, BA, DipEd(Natal), MA(ANU)

L. Voorhoeve, B. Stefanik Mrs. I. Rensch Mrs. V. McLeod R. Kiesslich

Drs(Ned) Dutch Swedish

Elementary German A Elementary German B

Science German

Dr. ?toljar was on study leave/long service leave throughout the year. She was based in Paris and paid visits to Germany, Austria, and Denmark.

Visitors, Seminars, Conferences

Dr. W. Butt (Kiel) was a faculty visitor in the Department during Third Term. He took part in the teaching of Scandinavian and conducted a series of three seminars on the contemporary West German writer Gunter Wallraff. Other seminars were concerned with Heinrich Mann (Mrs. Langman, Dr. Hillman, and Professor J. Reddick, Sydney), Trakl (Dr. Schoenborn and Mrs. Goldner, a fourth-year student), and Go~the (Prof. A. Zimmermann, Heidel­berg). Members of staff and some students attended a number of sessions connected with the Humanities Research Centre's drama year. Prof. Kuhn gave a paper on emblems in the Medieval Studies seminar. Dr. Hillman attended a conference on expressionism arranged by the School of German in the University of New SouTh Wales. Prof. Kuhn , while still on study leave, read papers in January to the Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur skandinavische Studien (Nationale Mythen aus Landschaft und Geschichte) and at

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Cambridge University (Emblems), in February in the University of Wisconsin at Madison (Emblems) and· in the University of California at Berkeley (Narrative structure and historicity in Heimskringla).

Other activities

Mrs. Langman and Dr. Hillman taught the German literature component of History · IE. Pr.of. Kuhn gave a series of three seminars on the Jena collection of songs in Medieval Studies II/III(H) and contributed lectures to Fine Art 1 (Grlinewald; Dlirer) and Fine Art 2/3 (Die Brlicke).

An informal reading group in Icelandic was conducted by Professor Kuhn; 19th century texts were studied over the year.

Mrs. Langman organised the annual Goethe Society Competition for highschool and college students in German, in which all members of staff participated as examiners, and the prizegiving function at Burgmann College. Three members of staff visited local schools and addressed students of German: Dr. Hillman (Girls' Grammar School), Prof. Kuhn (Catholic Girls' High School, Bradd on) ,, and Mrs. Langman (School without Walls).

M~s. Stefanik was an active campaigner for the introduction of German in several primary schools.

Dr. Schoenborn continued as Vice-President (and for most of the year, as Acting President) of the Goethe Society, Dr. Cull as President of the Accreditation Panel of German courses, and as a member of the Department of Education's selection committee for scholarships to Switzerland.

Students of Swedish IIA recorded a programme for Radio 2XX's Scandinavian community programme, Prof. Kuhn one for its German communit'y programme.

Prof.·Kuhn continued to be actively involved with the preparation of the H.R.C. 's 1980 progranune on national romanticism, as convener of a conference on Myths and Heroes and co-convener of a conference on the Awakening of Eastern Europe.

Publications

Kuhn, H.

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Der zukunftssichtige Reaktionar: Gedanken zu Hermann Hesse und zur Hesse-Mode. Text&Kontext 6 (Fs. St. Steffensen),1978, 355-371

Extended elements in the kenning. Parergon 22, Dec. 1978, 13-22

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Nationa·1e Mythen aus Landschaft und Geschichte: Dalarria und die Urschweiz. · skandinavistik 9, 1979,21-35

Physiologus-traditionen i emblemb~gerne. Convivium 1979' 108-125

Review of: Sven-Bertil Jansson, Medeltida rimkronikor. Scandinavian Stuqies 51,1979,185-188

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7/1980 THE AUSTRAUAN NATIONAL UNIVEHSI1Y

Department of Gerrranic L.anguages Analysis of Student Perforrrance

Percentage of Nwnber Enrolled Percentage of Nwnber sitting

1 2" 3 , Unit Enrolled Sitting

as at 30 • 4 • I 11 • 8 • 7 9

Elem. German A

Elem. German B

Science German

German Lang. I

German Lit. I

German Lang. II

German Lit. II

German Lang. III

No. 29+3

15+1

10

18

22

11

10

8

German Lit. III 9

German Lit. IIH · 3

Genran Studies IA 4

German Studies IB 4

Ge:rmmic Llnguistics 3

Swedish IA 4+2

Scandinavian 3+2

Dutch IA 9

futch IB 7

% No. % 100 2S+3 86

87

70

100 13+1

100 7

100

100

100

100

100

16x 89

19 86

10 73

8 80

8 100

100 . 8 89

100 3 100

100 4 100

100 . 4 100

100 3 100

100 4+/ 100

100 3+1 100

100 8 89

100 6 86

4 5 Wastage Failure

No. % 4 14

2 13

3 30

2 11

3 14

1 9

2 20

0

1 11

0

0

0

0

0

0

1 11

1 14

No. % 5 17

2 13

0

0

0

1 9

1 10

0

0

0

1 25

0

0

0

1 33

1 11

0

6 7 Sitting High

No. % 25 100

13 100

Dist.

No. 4

1

7 100

16x 100 3

19 100 2

10 100 1

8 100 2

8 100 3

8 100 2

3 100 1

4 100 1

4 100 1

3 100 0

4 100 1

3 100 1

8 100 2

6 100 2

8 9 Distinc. Credit

% 16

8

No. 4

3

19 5

11 2

10 3

25 1

37 2

25 3

33 1

25 0

25 1

1

25 2

33 1

25 3

33 1

% 16

23

No. % 5 20

5 38

31 3 19

11 10 53

30 1 10

12 0

25 , 0

37

33

25

33

50

33

37

17

2 25

1 33

1 25

2 50

1 33

0

0

1 12

2 33

10 Pass with Merit

No. %

4 57

11 Pass

No. % 7 28

2 15

3 43

4 25

5 26

4 40

4 50

3 37

1 12

0

1 25

0

1 33

1 25

0

1 12

1 17

12 Fail

No. % 5 20

2 15

0

0

0

1 10

1 12

0

0

0

1 25

0

0

0

1 33

1 12

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Final Honours B. Litt. ·

Enrolled (as at 30.4.79): 2 Enrolled (as at 30.4.79): 1

1 withdrawn

Nwnbers after + sign: Audit students x: 1 deferred •

Sitting: 2 Results : 1 Hons I, 1 Hons IIA Master ·Degree Enrolled (as at 30.4. 79): 1 M.A. awarded PhD Degree Enrolled (as at 30.4.79): 3 1 withdrawn, 2 courses not

completed

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