Teaching Business German at Wenzao Ursuline College Teaching Methods and Curriculum
Business German becomes more and more an important part in German language teaching, because language students with a broad knowledge in German are more eager to look for a career in the field of business. Teaching Business German therefore has to be orientated on the practical work in the field of business. In order to achieve this goal new teaching methods have to be introduced. In the first part of this contribution an overview is given over experiential methods in the classroom like role-plays, simulation and project work. The material being used in this course is introduced. The methods are based on a curriculum especially designed for teaching Business German at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. In the second part the curriculum for Business German with its underlying objectives and goals are explained and discussed.
Culture as Information and Culture as Affective Process: A Comparative Study
: This paper describes an application of the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory or CCAI (Kelley and Meyers 1995a) to measure the effects of two ways to teach about German culture in beginning language courses. A first language (L1) process-oriented approach and a second language (L2) knowledge-based approach were implemented in separate classes. Students filled out the CCAI in pretreatment and post-treatment conditions. Quantitative analyses of results established that the treatment group, taught with constructivist, process-oriented tasks as articulated in the National Standards (1996), experienced significantly positive results on the CCAI composite score and on two out of four subscales that assess cultural sensibilities. Conversely, the control group, which spent commensurate time working with knowledge-based orientations characteristic of many textbooks on the market today, experienced a nonsignificant decrease in cultural receptivity in those same CCAI measures.
A New Vacuum Pressure Infiltration CFRP Method and Preparation Experimental Study of Composite
In order to prepare a carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer composite (CFRP) with ideal microstructure and properties, a new vacuum pressure infiltration CFRP method is proposed based on an analysis of existing CFRP preparation process methods. Research on composite material preparation systems was carried out by using this new method principle. The system mainly includes a fiber pre-forming module, a vacuum heating infiltration module, a hot-press curing molding module, and a data acquisition control module. Under the conditions of natural curing at 0 MPa + 6 h + 25 °C, vacuum heating curing at –0.05 MPa + 30 min + 80 °C, and hot-press curing at 0.7 MPa + 5 min + 50 °C, a two-dimensional (2D) CFRP with excellent microstructure and properties was successfully prepared. Observing the microstructure of the prepared composite material, it can be found that the inside of the composite material was sufficiently and uniformly infiltrated, and common preparation defects such as holes and delamination were effectively controlled. Through the performance test, the bending strength of the material reached 790 MPa.