Native Speakers

Native speakers who can document completion of the 10th grade in the German educational system (or who obtain special permission from the department) may satisfy the departmental requirements of 30 credits for a BA degree in German as follows.

Of the 30 credits, 18 credits must be of courses in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and must include:

• German 1052: Major Cultural Periods (3 cr)
• German 1102: Advanced Structures of German (3 cr)
• Four of the German literature/culture seminars (taught in English or German) at the undergraduate or graduate* level (12 cr)

*Students must obtain professors’ permission to register for courses at the graduate level.

Up to 12 credits may be earned in courses with German content taught in other departments when approved by the departmental advisor (e.g., art history, history, philosophy, political science, and music).

Students may not receive credit toward the major for German 1000, German 1001, and German 1002 (unless they are pursuing a career in pre-collegiate teaching).

Native speakers interested in obtaining Pennsylvania instructional certification for instruction in the public schools may wish to include the following courses in their academic program because of their direct relationship to language teaching:

• German 1002 (Phonetics), a requirement for Pennsylvania certification or an appropriate course in the linguistics department
• German 2970 (Methods of Teaching German)