Career prospects
The graduates of the MA programme have excellent career prospects. Finishing their studies at their university of origin, students may accept employment in their home country immediately after graduation. So far, all Mexican graduates have found employment in Mexico. Quite a few of the German graduates have returned to Latin America after their studies working at Latin American institutions or for the DAAD.
Twelve German and four Mexican students have successfully graduated from the bi-national MA degree programme of the UL and the UdG. Nine Mexican and seven German students are currently enrolled in the programme, which brings the total to 32 students.
Many of the graduates have been offered positions as DAAD language assistants and lecturers on account of their education, experience, academic skills and intercultural competence. Five graduates worked or continue to work as DAAD language assistants at universities in Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Argentina. One graduate is at present DAAD lecturer in Ecuador. After completing their DAAD language assistantships, two graduates returned to Mexico, one of them to work at the UdG and the other one at the Language Centre of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.
There are excellent career prospects for Mexican graduates, too. One of the graduates is currently employed at the Goethe Institute in Mexico City as GFL teacher and language course coordinator. Another graduate works as a GFL teacher at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and yet another one at the UdG.
Research projects and conferences
The alliance between the UL and the UdG has allowed for the successful completion of several joint research projects. As a direct result of a vigorous faculty exchange, teaching staff from both universities have been able to establish crucial research ties, strengthening the academic network between the German section (UdG), the Herder Institute (UL) and other partner institutions. Some of the most important of these projects include the following:
In November 2007, the symposium Intercultural German Studies in the Latin American Context: Visions and Scenarios was held at the UdG. It was intended to document what had been accomplished in Intercultural German Studies in Latin America and to serve as a sounding board for the implementation of regional bi-national MA programmes. A great number of representatives from major Latin American universities and DAAD lecturers from throughout the Americas (Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Brazil and the United States) participated in the symposium.
In 2010, an international workshop on New concepts on the role of literature in GFL and International German Studies was organized at the Herder Institute. The workshop was attended by 30 representatives of many partner institutions of the Herder Institute including experts from Brazil, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Egypt, USA, Russia, Poland and the Ukraine.
Over the years, a very rich cooperation has been established between the Asociación Mexicana de Maestros Alemán (AMPAL,) and the teaching staff and students of the MA programme at the UdG. Staff and MA students regularly give presentations at AMPAL conferences and publish articles in the journal Info AMPAL.
Since 2011, the German section of the UdG and the Herder Institute have contributed richly to the academic programme of the International Book Fair in Guadalajara (Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara). Representatives of the Herder Institute regularly give plenary papers, lectures and workshops. The events of the academic programme provide a unique opportunity to present research results in the field of German Literature, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. In 2011, Germany was the host country of the Book Fair providing high visibility to the academic programme organised by the German section at the UdG.
An important milestone in the alliance between the UL and the UdG was the ALEG Congress in 2012 in Guadalajara.
The ALEG Congress is the largest congress of German Studies and GFL in Latin America. Before 2012, it had taken place in Mexico only once in the 46-year history of the existence of ALEG, i.e. in Mexico City in 1994. The UdG attracted extensive attention from across Latin America, all German-speaking countries and a great many other countries of the world, thus strengthening its position as a center for GFL and Intercultural German Studies in Latin America and beyond. The alliance between the Herder Institute and the German section at the UdG was essential in organising the ALEG convention in Guadalajara. In turn, the congress provided new impulses to the German section at the UdG, its supporting networks, and the development of GFL in all of Latin America. Both partner institutions are currently preparing the publication of four volumes on the proceedings.
In May 2013, the first edition of the newly founded journal of the foreign language department of the UdG, Verbum et Lingua, was published. The journal discusses topics in linguistics, language teaching and adjacent areas. Several members of the Herder Institute are co-editors of the journal. By providing an outlet to a great number of research activities of the Center of Social Sciences and Humanities of the UdG, this joint effort, again, strengthens the cooperation between the UL and the UdG considerably.
With respect to the future of GFL in Mexico, MA theses and dissertations of young scholars may be the most important element of all joint research activities and collaboration. Three jointly supervised doctoral theses and numerous MA theses dealing with contrastive linguistics or with topics concerning foreign language teaching in Mexico have already been a proud product of the Leipzig Guadalajara alliance. Research projects like these all but guarantee the continued sustainable development and progress in all subfields of GFL/Intercultural German Studies in Mexico as well as continued successful cooperation in education and research between Germany and Latin America for the near and distant future.
Reference
1. Federal Foreign Office (2010). The German Government’s strategy on Latin America 2010.
2. Federal Foreign Office (2012). Promotion of the German Language.
3. Federal Foreign Office (2013). German foreign policy towards Latin America.
Author
Erwin Tschirner
Erwin Tschirner (Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley) is Professor of German as a Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of Leipzig (Herder Institute), an Associated Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona, and an Associated Professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara. His main areas of research include German morphology and syntax, the acquisition of speaking, vocabulary acquisition, corpus linguistics, and test research and development. He has taught in universities in the United States, Cuba, Argentina, and Germany and he has lectured and consulted in North and South America, Europe, Africa, East and South East Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, books, and edited volumes in the field of foreign language teaching, learning, and assessment.
• International Research Collaboration