External Resources
Recommendations for German Language Teachers and Learners
The Challenge of Teaching Language
Recommended Resources
Introducing German
This collection of free courses covers Basic, Independent, and Proficient levels of German language through videos, vocabulary guides, and review quizzes. The Deutschtrainer section provides bite-sized lessons for real-world interactions, while Nico's Weg introduces language through the story of a German language learner.
This quick list of German greetings is a great way to start your German course. It gives students a wide variety of greetings along with descriptions of their appropriate social contexts.
The G-FOL dictionary uses social frames to help students learn new vocabulary through situational context. The complete list of thematic frames gives a wide variety of starting points for nouns and verbs.
Teaching Foreign Languages
Online modules to guide foreign language teachers through effective classroom methods. The section on Foreign Language Learners can help better understand the challenges that students face.
German OER Textbooks
A comprehensive online textbook that includes chapter handouts, video interviews, and recommended grammar exercies from Grimm Grammar. Note: Many of the hyperlinks in this textbook are not formatted separately from the plaintext paragraphs. You'll need to click on the individual people or vocabularly titles under the orange headings.
Proficiency Levels
The ILR scale is used by the U.S. government to gauge language proficienty across federal agencies. The ILR scale goes 0-5, and it has specific standards for Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing.
A guide to the necessary skills for foreign language levels on a 0-5 scale. The Oral Proficiency Levels poster provides direct comparisons between ACTFL proficiency levels and ILR.
The Common European Framework of Reference provides a gauge of individual language comprehension for Basic (A1, A2), Independent (B1, B2), and Proficient (C1, C2) language users. The English and German scales can be used to help students see where they are.
More Resources
AATG offers high school language testing, international exchange programs, and teacher resources.
Online and international programs in German language and culture. Although many of these are paid programs, the Kostenlos Deutsch üben (Free German Practice) page offers a variety of free resources, though registration is required.