Integrating textual thinking into the introductory college-level foreign language classroom

One of the characteristics of the well-documented bifurcation in collegiate foreign language (FL) instruction is the difficult transition from lower to upper-level instruction. Particularly pronounced are the expectations placed oil readers at the upper level. No longer engaged in surface readings and sentence-level exercises that stay focused on everyday situations with clear intent and unambiguous meaning, learners at the upper level must shift to supersentential and discourse-level processing of texts that contain a significantly higher level of abstraction and anibiguity. Recognizing that preparation for such an approach to reading requires longterm attention, this article explores the pedagogical feasibility Of in beginning instruction the type of textual thinking and reading practiced. upper levels. Implemented in two sections of first-semester German (N = 27) while students read a full-length novel, this pedagogical approach centers on developing beginning learners' ability to see texts as message systems that reveal cultural significance.