WPG Englisch
Main goals
- Improvement of fluency
- Critical approach to various media
- Use of basic academic methods
Methods
- Discussion and debate (if possible with an English/American assistant teacher)
- Literary analysis (media texts, books, movies, TV or radio programmes….)
- Research work in the library and on the internet
- Presentations
- Group and project work
- Translations
Topics
Topics are chosen in accordance with the interests of the respective students and teachers. Topics in recent courses were:
- Cultural Studies
Christmas in Britain and the US (Spotlight Magazine)
- Countries
Australia: Aborigines, History, Geography and Wildlife, Economy, Political Parties, Present Day Life (group work, research work in library, presentation) Canada: Flora and Fauna, Geography, History, Famous Canadians, Politics, Economy (group work, research work in library, presentation)
- History
The History of the United States from the Colonial Period to the Civil Rights Movement (with DVD)
- Literature
The Development of the American Short Story. Reading and analysis/interpretation of selected American Short Stories of the 19th and first half of the twentieth century
Washington Irving: “Rip van Winkle”
Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Young Goodman Brown”
Ambrose Bierce: “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
Edgar A. Poe: “The Fall of the House of Usher”
Francis S. Fitzgerald: “The Rich Boy”
Ernest Hemingway: “Old Man at the Bridge”; “Soldier’s Home” (video); “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
Short Story Theories: E.A.Poe’s review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Twice Told Tales”
Methods of text analysis
- Movies
Soldier’s Home
A Beautiful Mind
- Politics
Basic principles of government in the US (the system of “checks and balances”)
- Newspaper articles
Reading and analysis of selected newspaper articles