Throughout the review process, we received valuable input from instructors and students alike. As a result, we have undertaken a number of changes in the seventh edition, without altering the basic concept and approach of Kontakte.

• Connect German (www.connectgerman.com) is McGraw-Hill’s powerful online learning platform that includes the eBook, the online Arbeitsbuch, an audio/video chat feature, all digital resources, a reporting feature, instructor’s resources, and more.
  
  
• The Kontakte team has produced an all-new DVD featuring interviews with young people at the Universität Leipzig. Engaging new Videoecke activities correspond to the new video.
  
  
• In the new song feature, Musikszene, students listen to a German-language pop song from the Kontakte iTunes iMix playlist and complete corresponding activities.
  
  
• In the brand-new activity called Filmclip, students view a short clip of a full-length German-language feature film and complete corresponding activities.
  
  
• The Kultur … Landeskunde … Informationen boxes have been updated to reflect cultural changes since the last edition and to keep abreast of cultural trends in the German-speaking world. A third of the culture features have entirely new and highly relevant cultural topics.
  
  
• Eleven of the Lektüre reading texts are new to this edition. Responding to user acclaim for the film synopsis readings, half of the readings in the book now deal with contemporary German films. Each numbered chapter has one film-synopsis reading (Filmlektüre) as well as one reading in one of a variety of other genres (Lektüre).
  
  
• Many photographs have been replaced to make the material more attractive for contemporary students.
  
  
• Many of the chapter-opening paintings have been replaced with new art.
  
  
• The chapter-opening art now features an art-viewing activity (Kunst und Künstler) which encourages students to develop their skills in reacting verbally to visual imagery in German.
  
  
• The latest official spelling-reform guidelines have been implemented, with specific reference to Duden’s recommendations in the 25th edition of Die deutsche Rechtschreibung (Bibliographisches Institut AG: Mannheim, 2009).
  
  
• The seventh edition of Kontakte has an attractive and inviting new design.