German for Reading; A Programmed Approach for Graduate and Undergraduate Reading Courses

To the Student
You may find it helpful at the outset to know the biases of the authors. We gladly admit them: language is the most significant and fascinating of human phenomena; for the serious scholar it is useful and necessary to read other languages than his own; for everyone it is interesting and enlightening to see how another culture expresses its perception of reality through its language; everyone can learn language; everyone who can learn. his own language can learn a new language; the principles and techniques of programmed learning can significantly increase the efficiency and decrease the frustrations of language study.
We have also assumed that your study time is valuable and that if you have been introduced to this text it is because sometime you seriously wanted to learn to read German. We hilVe therefore made use of new approaches and developments in programmed learning in order to provide you with the most systematic and direct means possible of doing so. We have likewise assumed that the students using this type of text are of mature interests, and we have consequently included passages that will introduce you directly though briefly to some of the thinkers, scholars, authors and political leaders who have given German culture its diversity and impact.
German for Reading presupposes no previous acquaintance with German and can be used with equal effectiveness by graduate students in the arts and sciences who are preparing to pass a reading knowledge examination, or by undergraduates who are beginning to deal seriously with the problems of reading. It may be used before, simultaneously with, or after an aural-oral introduction to German. Its programmed format permits it to be used either as a classroom text or by individuals working on their own.