Hints


     Exercise A is a classic appeal to the culture standards, since it requires the student to assemble very specific information about Germany, as a coherent representations of that culture.  Note that it does not require comparison with the home culture -- that would be a considerably more complex operation.  Instead, this exercise looks to have the student practice assembling cultural information, both in linguistic terms (as the "voices" represented), and in terms of content.

     This exercise has the potential to become very complex linguistically, because students, in reflecting upon the content and organization of a website, may well need to bring linguistic resources to bear on the problem that they simply do not possess.  In other words, their German may not be equal to the task without some aids.  Preparation for this exercise might therefore require the teacher to give the students a list of standard questions to respond to (a list which will tacitly act as a guide to the issues on which the students are to reflect, and thus to the kinds of syntax and vocabulary resources they need).  In a technical school, that list of questions may well include a critique of the website's technical design; in an art school, a critique of the layout and aesthetics.

     Exercise B is considerably more controlled than Exercise A, in linguistic terms, but again, the discussion of why certain search terms were chosen may well run students out beyond their linguistic capabilities.  Note that the students should probably actually run the search -- the idea for the culture standards practice is that websites are designed with specific audiences in mind, and that therefore German websites may well be organized around different cultural factors and needs than those designed in the US.

 EXERCISE: Culture Standards