Kontakte: A Communicative Approach Student Prepack with Bind-In card (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Erwin Tschirner (Author), Brigitte Nikolai (Author), (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This best-selling German text is based on and inspired by the Natural Approach, pioneered by Tracy D. Terrell. With it, students learn German through communicative contexts with an emphasis on the four skills as well as cultural competence, with grammar functioning as an aid to language learning, rather than as an end in itself. The abundance of interesting activities and readings in Kontakte ensure that students are exposed to rich language input, critical to language acquisition.

About the Author

Tracy D. Terrell (late) Received his Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin and published extensively in the areas of Spanish dialectology, specializing in the sociolinguistics of Caribbean Spanish. Professor Terrell’s publications on second language acquisition and on the Natural Approach are widely known in the United States and abroad.

Dr. Erwin Tschirner received his M.A. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is Professor of German as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics at the Herder Institute of the University of Leipzig, Germany, and Adjunct Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona. He is an internationally recognized authority on foreign language learning, methodology, testing, and materials design, including multimedia materials, and has taught in universities in the United States, Cuba, and Germany. He has lectured and consulted in North America, Europe, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Professor Tschirner is coauthor of Kontakte: A Communicative Approach and Assoziationen: Deutsch für die Mittelstufe and has published numerous articles, book chapters, books, and edited volumes in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. He has been a tester and tester trainer for the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview since 1989 and 1993, respectively.

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; 5 edition (January 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072956437
• ISBN-13: 978-0072956436
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #309,517 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars NOT HELPFUL AND VERY UNORGANIZED!, March 23, 2008

By	Ginger_Ale - See all my reviews

I love to learn foreign languages and I enjoy the German language and culture very much. Some foreign language textbooks that I've come across, including the German ones, have been helpful and easy to understand. However, Kontakte is very, very poorly structured. Unfortunately, it's the only German textbook that's currently being used at my college. All the grammar pages, culture sections and classroom and communication activities appear to be misplaced in the book. The vocabulary list is also placed in an awkward position in each chapter. Unlike better language textbooks that are used out there, Kontakte does not list the conjugations of most irregular verbs that it introduces. There are some irregular verbs that are introduced in every chapter. They are usually found in the vocabulary section. This weird textbook is already overly priced and you have to spend even more money on buying books that provide conjugations of irregular German verbs. Additionally, the first few chapters of Kontakte goes way into depth in the German language too soon, confusing my classmates, peers and myself even more. Some of the activities in the book, which we've done so far, are time-consuming and somewhat advanced for our introductory German course. And, even the grammatical structure of some vocabulary words are too advanced for us to learn in our class because of how kontakte expects and pushes students to learn more than what they can handle and comprehend. Our tutors are not even happy with Kontakte because they get forced into explaining things that we haven't learned in our class yet. Our professor, who is a native speaker, is thinking about switching to another German textbook next year because of the difficulties in Kontakte that has caused her to give us a couple of take-home exams. We all believe that if we were using a different German textbook (that was more well-structured), we could have been speaking and writing much better German by now. It seems apparent that Kontakte's purpose is too make the learner struggle and not too make him or her speak German any quicker as it claims it can. I'm glad that I'm not the only one who's critical of Kontakte and that there could be even more students from different schools out there who are not satisfied with Kontakte. I just can't wait to sell back this awkward and worthless textbook. I am glad that I'm even finding some people here on amazon who are critical of the Kontakte textbook. There seems to be more complaints about Kontakte than positive comments about it. The grammar pages in each chapter don't provide sufficient details on the proper usage of the language. I'll take German at another college that doesn't use Kontakte because this book isn't beginner-friendly. On one side, two thumbs up for German! But on another side, two thumbs down for Kontakte! Shame on Kontakte for making a great and interesting language difficult to learn!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Option for Classroom Study, February 10, 2007

By	BatMaster - See all my reviews

Put together very well. The book is meant to be used in a classroom instruction setting, not for personal study and is the best class German book I have used yet. Covers basic-intermediate grammar and extensive vocabulary and listening exercises meant for a two-semester undergraduate course. Due to the course-oriented format, I would not recommend this book for individual study or as a reference.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Starter book, September 6, 2006

By	Dunham "Dunham" (Barrington, NH United States) - See all my reviews

I got this book for my first German book in college. This is currently my third year and I am still referring to it sometimes. Everyone in my class still uses their copy. I certainly recommend this book as a great way to help with a beginner learning German.