Zach Duvall and Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Kelling, Humanities

My original intention for my first research project was to fill a gap in the scholarship related to marriage problems in German resulting from and during the aftermath of World War II. Specifically, we wanted to add to the literature a source that discussed how these problems were overcome. We planned to answer questions such as: Which marriages were successful and why were they successful? What factors contributed to the ability to overcome problems caused by war-time changes? Through understanding how these problems were solved over sixty years ago we hoped to help contemporary persons cope with and resolve difficulties caused by present war-time situations and/or related problems caused by external circumstances.

Inherent to this project was the Berlin Study abroad, which was headed by Dr. Hans-Wilhelm Kelling. While on the study abroad, I planned to create and carry out an interview with multiple German war veterans in regards to their marital situations after the war and how and why they were successful or not abortive. Sadly, I was ultimately unable to attend the study abroad due to outside circumstances. Because of the change in plans, I needed and wanted to find a new project on which I could work with my mentor professor.
After much searching, questioning, discussing and prayer, I had a conversation with another professor in the German Department, Dr. Laura Smith, who had a salving idea. She told me about a project she was working on in conjunction with Dr. Kelling, with which they still needed help. I suggested it to Dr. Kelling and he was similarly excited to recognize this possibility. I have since become an integral part in the carrying out of this research and look forward to reaching our goals.

Auspiciously, the new project also concerned the 2010 Spring/Summer study abroad. Dr. Kelling, Dr. Smith and I administered pre- and a post- tests to the 31 participants of the study. The tests each consisted of three short answer questions. By means of analyzing the grammatical errors (in relation to attempts of specified grammar principles) and improvements between the two tests we hope to quantify the progress. With this longitudinal study we anticipate the ability to re-establish the credibility of a study abroad amidst the economic difficulties of the time. We hypothesize that we will find statistically significant improvements in the abilities of the students and learn valuable facts in regards to second language acquisition. The knowledge we acquire will be beneficial for both the German Department and the general realm of study abroads.

So far I have spent many hours transcribing and marking the pre- and post-tests. This is the preparatory work before the actual analysis of the findings. In addition to that, we created unequivocal definitions for attempts and mistakes for each of the almost 60 chosen grammar functions. We hope to present our findings at the 2011 GLAC conference next April. We may also potentially have the article published in Unterrichtspraxis. The research thus far has helped me become more adept at categorizing mistakes made by students in their writing. It also

realized in what ways I can pay more attention in helping others learn German (in my German-teaching job for example). I also recognized multiple mistakes in students’ texts that I made in the past, which helps me remember what it was like to be in their shoes.

I will continue with this research project up through April. I notice that it may take significantly more time to gather the information than we had anticipated. The next steps will be finish counting and recording all mistakes and attempts for the pretests, and finally do the same for all the post tests. After that is complete we can move on to more analyzing and interpreting of the data. Finally we will organize our findings into a presentable article.

I greatly appreciate the support of the Office of Research and Creative Activities and the willingness of Dr. Kelling and Dr. Smith to allow me to work and learn with them.