German: My best Friend, the Dictionary

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pre-req/co-req: GERM 2202 PACE students with permission and override Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations

My best friend, the dictionary - Lexikographie und Wörterbuchkompetenz Have you ever wondered how dictionaries are made—or how to use them more effectively in the age of AI? This course, taught by an instructor with 30 years of dictionary-making-experience, takes you behind the scenes of German lexicography and equips you with the analytical and practical skills to navigate modern dictionary resources and make them work for you. You’ll explore how dictionaries are conceived, compiled, and structured—from traditional print reference works to cutting-edge digital platforms, learner’s dictionaries, and specialized corpora. Through hands-on projects and guided exploration, you’ll learn how to use a wide range of lexicographic tools, including bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, terminology databases, and, yes, AI. You’ll experiment with how these systems use and reinterpret lexicographic data, and critically assess their strengths and limitations for reading, writing, and translating advanced German texts. By the end of the course, you’ll not only understand how dictionaries and AI systems shape our view of language, but also how to use both to enhance your linguistic competence, academic work, and professional communication in German.

Course goals: At the end of the course students will be able to 1. explain key concepts and terminology in lexicography 2. distinguish between different types of dictionaries (monolingual, bilingual, specialized, historical, digital) 3. analyze the macrostructure (overall design) and microstructure (entry details) of German dictionaries 4. evaluate the reliability, authority, and usability of reference works 5. apply dictionary strategies to improve comprehension of complex texts 6. use dictionaries effectively to support precise academic writing and translation 7. reflect critically on the role of dictionaries in language learning, teaching, and research 8. understand the nuances of the German language and widen their contemporary German vocabulary according to their own interests 9. reflect critically on how dictionaries represent linguistic norms, variation, and cultural knowledge

25% Class participation (includes attendance, preparedness and participation) 1% EXTRA CREDIT for attending a German related event on campus 5 % 1 Oral Presentation 5 % 1 Oral exam 30% 10 short texts (1 page of written homework each) 10% 1 essay of ~ 600 words 10 % Midterm 15% Final