Reviews for A second course in German

The average rating for A second course in German based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-22 00:00:00 William ROberts In my humble opinion one of the absolute best German grammar reviews on the market, Gerda Dippmann's and Johanna Watzinger-Tharp's A Practical Review of German Grammar is conceptualised for intermediate and advanced German language college and university students whose mother tongue, whose first language is English (hence the grammar rules and explanations are ALL presented only in English, but with German examples and exercises, of course). And although the grammar analyses are presented in a clear and concise, easily understood manner, A Practical Review of German Grammar is nevertheless still not really a suitable reference guide for novice and elementary German language learners, since it does assume at least some basic language fluency and/or previous instruction (for especially the above mentioned exercises and examples are generally not basic level). But that all having been said, the lack of a similar type of extensive/intensive grammar analysis manual for beginning, novice level German students is actually a major and personal academic frustration to and for me, since beginning level German language students also more often than not would both need and actually likely much appreciate a concise and geared to their level of language acumen and expertise presentation and description of the German language's not always all that easily comprehended and internalised grammar points and rules (and while my personal go-to suggestion for novice students, English Grammar for Students of German, is a decent and solid enough offering, it is also and sadly by no means either as extensive or as intensive as A Practical Review of German Grammar). Now it is a known and often unavoidable instruction scenario that college and university students enrolled in intermediate and advanced German language (and by extension German literature) courses often and even usually present much variety of grammar and writing skill levels (from major grammatical shortcomings to near fluency), but that there is generally only limited class time available for specific and targeted grammar reviews (and also, considering the variance of skill levels, any such in-class grammar reviews often tend to not go far enough for those with limited grammar skills whilst at the same time being potentially monotonous and frustrating for those students who are basically or nearly fluent with regard to their oral and written German language skills). And A Practical Review of German Grammar is thus arranged so that a college/university German language instructor can readily assign the major portion of the textbook for outside of class, for at home study (or he/she might also simply suggest A Practical Reviews of German Grammar to students as a helpful but not mandatory learning adjunct). Self-study is therefore both promoted by and really the main selling point of A Practical Review for German Grammar with the featured grammatical concepts presented in easily understood, uncomplicated chunks of knowledge (and the accompanying exercises are also basically and generally meant for individual practice and not partner work, thus making this here grammar review more useful and meaningful for study at home than other similar tomes which exercises often do seem to require two of more participants, thus at the very least limiting potential solo application and practice). Highly recommended (and not only for language learners either, as even instructors should find A Practical Review of German Grammar a handy and quick reference for questions of German grammar and correct word and expression usage). Now my personal copy of A Practical Review of German Grammar is the third edition of 1999, and I especially appreciate the fact that not only have the new German orthography rules been incorporated into the text proper, they are also meticulously and clearly explained in the Appendix (which also includes verb forms, adjectives that add an umlaut in the comparative/superlative and other interesting and necessary nuggets of grammar knowledge). And if someone is actually considering purchasing a copy of A Practical Review of German Grammar, I would and most definitely ONLY suggest the third or later editions, as any editions prior to 1999 would obviously and of course NOT as yet feature the new orthography (die neue deutsche Rechtschreibung) and would therefore basically be presenting what are now considered erroneous spelling forms (and while the 2000 edition, which I guess would likely be the fourth edition of A Practical Review of German Grammar is indeed listed and included on the GR book page, I am not really sure if the 2000 edition is the last edition or if there have, in fact, been subsequent ones to date, for there appear to be no post 2000 editions of A Practical Review of German Grammar in the GR database).

Review # 2 was written on 2014-07-17 00:00:00 Derrick Jordan ngl this was far from comprehensive and pretty much useless for anything except a quick reference or checking what a certain german grammatical concept is officially called? also my edition was apparently published before the end of the berlin wall so there's some mentions of "the two germanies".... wild