Tatsachen über Österreich / Facts about Austria

Designed for advanced students of German as a foreign language

Listen to the podcast and learn interesting facts about Austria.

Prelistening Activity
Discuss the following questions:
Have you ever visited a German speaking country?
If your answer is Yes then share your impressions with your classmates.
If your answer is No then discuss which German country would you like to visit and why.
Do you know some interesting facts about the German speaking countries?
Is there anything else that you would like to find out about the German speaking countries?

Listen to the podcast

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During listening Activities

First listening
Listen to the podcast and answer the following questions:
List three bordering countries of Austria?
How many states are there in Austria? How many states does Austria have?
What is the name of the capital city of Austria?

Second listening
Read the text and fill in the missing words. Choose the words from the list below. In case you need help with the meaning of the words click on each word for a link to an online German dictionary where you can see the English translation, German definition, example sentences, and synonyms. Then listen to the podcast once again and compare your answers.

Binnenstadt
Mitteleuropa
Mittelalter
Bundesland

Tatsachen über Österreich

Österreich, amtlich Republik Österreich, ist ein ______________ in Mitteleuropa. Das Alpenland grenzt im Norden an Deutschland und Tschechien, im Osten an die Slowakei und Ungarn, im Süden an Slowenien und Italien und im Westen an die Schweiz und Liechtenstein.
Die Staatsform ist seit der Verfassung einer bundesstaatlich organisierten parlamentarischen Republik, die seit 1922 aus neun Ländern besteht.Eines davon ist die Hauptstadt Wien.
Fünf der neun österreichischen _______________, Niederösterreich, Kärnten, Steiermark, Tirol, Salzburg sind bereits im ____________ entstanden. Oberösterreich wurde unter Joseph II. 1783/84 selbstständig. Vorarlberg war lange Landesteil Tirols und wurde 1861 eigenständig. 1921 kam das Burgenland, das bis dahin Teil Ungarns war, hinzu. Mit 1922 wurde schließlich Wien von Niederösterreich getrennt und zum eigenen ____________ erhoben.

Postlistening Activity
Click on this link to find out more about Austria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria
Discuss with your classmates what you find particularly interesting about Austria. Then write a short paragraph.

Note to the instructor
This podcast is specifically designed for German as a Foreign Language Students who have excellent vocabulary and grammar knowledge, but lack some specific cultural knowledge. The purpose of this lesson is to expand and deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of the target culture. This lesson provides specific cultural information about Austria. Moreover, students are challenged to listen to and learn specific facts about the geography of Austria.

Suggested activities

Pre-listening activities: The prelistening activity serves as schema activation activity. Students make use of their schema when they can relate what they already know about a topic to the facts and ideas appearing in the new lesson.

During listening activities: The purpose of the first listening activity is to give the student the opportunity to get the main idea. The second listening activity focuses students’ attention on very specific target words (not used in the everyday language).

Postlistening activities:The postlistening activity is designed in a way that encourages students to engage in learning activities out of the classroom. The performance of this activity supposes not only that the students are risk takers, but it is a way to connect the class activities to real-life situations.