Because of their presumably familiar plot lines and character tropes, the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales are often included as one of the earliest literary selections in German language and culture curricula. However, for learners to engage more critically and interpretively with fairy-tale genres, it is exactly their assumed familiarity with the…

German fairy tales have an established history of appropriation in popular media, from oral traditions to mobile media. The mimetic quality of fairy-tale motifs and tropes provides ideal conditions for intertextual adaptation. In this article, I demonstrate that German fairy-tale themed music videos are powerful vehicles for culture, parody, and…

Cultural awareness is essential in foreign language education. This paper explores two projects that exemplify the integration of cultural elements into foreign language learning involving both first language (L1) and second language (L2) cultures. The first project was initiated in the course "German Cinema". It focuses on the legendary…

Second language (L2) learners comprehend more when they are prepared for novel vocabulary that they encounter in a text. Input-based incremental (IBI) vocabulary instruction (Barcroft, 2012) provides L2 instructors and learners with a means of achieving this goal by (a) presenting optimal input to learners at the right time during a…

This article describes an advanced German course focusing on the German fairy-tale tradition. Course components are summarized and the themes and selected fairy tales for each unit are outlined. Additionally, 12 creative assignments are explained that were designed to foster students' engagement with the language and content of the fairy tales.…

This chapter bridges theories of social justice (e.g., Osborn, 2006) and intercultural citizenship (e.g. Byram, 2008) to classroom practices in an introductory German course at a research university. By interpreting a fairy tale [Cinderella], 16 university students reflected on issues of gender roles and (in)equality both in historical and current…

This article describes a fourth-year German course on fairy tales that focuses on the integration of academic content with linguistic skills through technology-enhanced course modules. Situated in the discussion of the language-literature gap and the benefits of computer-assisted language learning, the proposed online course modules may prove…

Suggests the use of fairy tales in German foreign language instruction at the intermediate level. This suggestion is established using features of the Grimm genre and clarified using concrete examples. (Author/DMK)

Three German modern "fairy tales" are presented in a radio play format with exercises based on the tales. Detailed suggestions for the exercises and other class activities based on the manual are included. While serving as a comprehension exercise of the preceding text, the exercises and other activities recommended to accompany them depart from…