Abstract

Das Leben: Deutsch als Fremdsprache A1 is a textbook well suited for novice learners at the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and first-semester German college classes. This modern, engaging textbook is designed for communication-oriented classrooms. The book arrives as a paperback and includes a code to access a fully realized e-book, including additional audio, video, and text files. A separate glossary booklet is available for an additional $10.00. The textbook is entirely in German, including all descriptions, explanations, and instructions. As a result, the textbook could work in global classroom contexts. Each of the 16 chapters has a theme and contains short texts, brief grammatical explanations, and exercises, as well as audio–visual components through the e-book. The themes center around realistic communicative situations: studying abroad, going to the post office, working in a café, eating in a restaurant, making plans with friends, visiting cities, working in different offices, discussing hobbies, apartment hunting, talking about families, considering careers, learning about local cuisine, implementing healthy habits, chatting about trends, celebrating holidays, and going on vacation. The students practice interacting and communicating with different people, in different locations, at different levels of formality and familiarity. Exercises include staged conversations between classmates on the chapter's material, listening comprehension in response to filmed interactions relating to the chapter's topic, and group writing activities that allow students to try out new vocabulary in the context of the chapter. The focus is on collaborative learning and active exchange rather than on drilling grammar or word lists. At the end of every chapter, there are several pages of Übungen (exercises), which can be completed in class or done for homework. The Übungen sections practice all skills—reading, speaking, writing, listening, grammar, and vocabulary. They use many different kinds of learning tools—videos, images, written exercises, spoken exercises, and more creative exercises like crossword puzzles, among others. The textbook also comes with an answer key so students can correct their work themselves. At the end of the Übungen section, there is also a checklist (Fit für Einheit x? [Are you ready for Unit x?]) of the previous chapter's lexical, grammatical, and conceptual topics so that the student may confirm that they have understood the prior unit completely before moving on. Other checkpoints for students are the four Plateau sections, which cumulatively test everything from the past four chapters. This system ensures that confusion regarding any communication concept or element of the language is identified and addressed immediately. Das Leben A1 comes with many supplementary materials. In addition to the interactive e-book platform, there is also an online library of additional interactive exercises the students can do, organized by chapter so that students can review specific areas that they would like to better understand. Also noteworthy is that the online platform for Cornelsen is very user-friendly. There is an affiliated mobile app that allows students to review on the go, and the video and audio supplements are well-designed and well-produced. Cornelsen's online platform also includes sample tests, handouts, and activities that the teachers can print and use in their classes. Finally, the book integrates Nico's Weg (Nico's Journey)—a short television show, available on YouTube, about a Spanish student living abroad in Germany. This series allows students to see the communication situations they are learning about play out in episodes. The textbook has the following strengths. It has images, storylines, videos, and other content that reflect diverse families, backgrounds, identities (materials reflect racial diversity of the characters, types of work across class lines, and figures from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres)—though it is lacking in its portrayal of ability diversity, as well as of LGBTQIA+ people and non-heteronormative families. The chapters and exercises prepare students for a wide range of communicative engagements. They focus on culturally and situationally appropriate language, that is, determining when to use formal or informal address, standards of politeness, and idiomatic expressions. The audio–visual materials that accompany the book are well-made and useful for teaching and learning. The supplementary materials are extensive, well-organized, and provide genuine, fun engagement for students. While the book is largely focused on Germany, there is also consistent mention of the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) area, including unit sections and activities about the linguistic and cultural variations of Austria and Switzerland. The textbook has the following weaknesses. The written and audio–visual materials of the textbook are not authentic but rather created directly for pedagogical purposes. From an accessibility standpoint, the supplemental materials are not easily accessible for anyone with vision or auditory problems. From a pedagogical standpoint, the greatest issue with the textbook is that likely due to its intense focus on the communicative approach, grammar topics are introduced either implicitly in exercises or cursorily in small text boxes. In a recent talk at Yale University, textbook author Hermann Funk cites Elizabeth Gatbonton and Norman Segalowitz's ACCESS-Model, which suggests that creative automatization in communication can be more successful in achieving fluency (Funk, 2023). This may be sound theoretically but seems to me to result in a textbook that is too perfunctory in its coverage of grammar for the A1 level. As a result, instructors may wish to supplement the textbook with more in-depth explanations of new grammar concepts when they arise and to build grammar-focused partner exercises, worksheets, and group activities into their lesson planning to ensure students understand the rules of the language. Das Leben A1 is successful in teaching language as a tool of communication. When combined with instructor-led augmentation regarding grammar topics, this textbook successfully educates students at the novice/A1 level in German and prepares them thoroughly for a wide range of communicative situations. Zoë Burgard is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at Yale University. Her research focuses on Early Modern and Modern German, Italian, English, and French literature; narrative form and fiction as trauma responses; self-fashioning; nation building and collapse; translation theory; and disability studies.