Kontakte: A Communicative Approach (Student Edition + Listening Comprehension Audio CD) [Hardcover]

Tracy Terrell (Author), Erwin Tschirner (Author), Brigitte Nikolai (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 007234217X | ISBN-13: 978-0072342178 | Publication Date: March 29, 2000 | Edition: 4

This best-selling German text is based on the Natural Approach, pioneered by Tracy D. Terrell. Students learn German through communicative contexts with an emphasis on the four skills and cultural competence, with grammar functioning as an aid to language learning and not an end in itself. In the Natural Approach, students develop language in stages, with the comprehension stage preceding the production stage. For that reason, Kontakte focuses first on the receptive skills (listening and reading) before asking students to produce the language (speaking and writing).

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

School affiliation was listed as University of Iowa---Iowa City. Replaced by the University of Leipzig on 5/27/99.

School affiliation was listed as the University of Iowa---Iowa City. School status cleared 5/27/99.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 4 edition (March 29, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 007234217X
• ISBN-13: 978-0072342178
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.2 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,075,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Kontakte: A Communicative Approach, November 25, 2000

By 

Annette Randell (Taos, NM, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kontakte: A Communicative Approach (Student Edition) (Hardcover)

As a native German, I'm teaching German with this book for the second year at the University level. Neither me nor my students like this book - in fact, I consider it quite bad (I have taught with 3-4 other textbooks before, any of which was much better) : The "approach" is totally scattered, it tries to be so hip, while it's rather gimmicky with all its cute pictures and cartoons. Like a "lets get away from grammar"-kind of badge of honor, the book introduces a minimum of grammer, but in a confusing, incomplete, and at times faulty manner while expecting the student to "know" or understand lots of things that were never properly introduced. The students would be helpless without a teacher to untangle the mess for them. Also, the reading sections and vocabulary are rather inappropriate, containing words that are neither widely used nor easy to pronounce. This book hinders more than it helps the process of learning German in an enjoyable manner. I only use it to a bare minimum, just to stay on course with the units it introduces.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good book, but not for self-teaching, November 28, 1999

By 

Al Kihano (Iskandria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kontakte: A Communicative Approach (Student Edition) (Hardcover)

I learned first-year German with Kontakte and was generally pleased with it. There is a good amount of cultural context, and the design is lively enough to maintain visual interest.

Do not buy Kontakte a self-teaching text or if you want a structural approach to language acquisition. For Kontakte to work at all, you absolutely must have a German speaker to lead you through speaking and conversation.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent for communicative, in-class learning, August 29, 2001

By 

DH (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kontakte: A Communicative Approach (Student Edition) (Hardcover)

I'm a native speaker of German and have taught first year German with this book - I love it, and so did my students. I think the communicative approach works great, the book offers a multitude of topics for interaction and communication. It explains the basics of grammar and allows the student to learn by using the language, rather than by memorizing rules. It is, as I mentioned, a book for beginners (first year) and not appropriate for any other level, and it is a book to be used in a class setting, not for self studies. It will not work for other learning situations, but there are other books for those settings. I have learned Spanish with the "Dos Mundos" book from the same series and with the same approach and found it the most effective language learning I have ever experienced. Used in a classroom applying a "natural approach" to language learning, this book is wonderful and an extremely effective way of starting with a new language!