In November, several of our graduate students, Kathrin Frenzel, Caro Müller, Sarah Larson, Dennis Schäfer, and Gina Wrobel, attended the annual TA workshop hosted by the Goethe Institute Chicago and funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). In the Windy City, the Ohio State GTAs were joined by fellow students from institutions across the Midwest.

Conducted by Nicholaus Euba from the University of California-Berkeley, Ingrid Zeller from Northwestern University, and Kimberly Vinall from De Anza College, the workshop focused on the implementation of authentic texts in the second language classroom and notions of symbolic competence. As our own Kathrin Frenzel has pointed out, “It was great to have the opportunity to collaborate and communicate with TAs from other institutions. I found the presentation on symbolic competence especially valuable since it contributes to my research interests.”