Main Entry: rec·i·ta·tion
Pronunciation: "re-s&-'tA-sh&n
Function: noun
1 : the act of enumerating
2 : the act or an instance of reading or repeating aloud especially publicly
3 a : a student's oral reply to questions b : a class period especially in association with and for review of a lecture

Scheint zu stimmen.

I agree that it would be a good idea to get some translations in for this general concept. It comes up fairly often in the forum.

However, there may be several different terms in both languages -- for instance, Tutorium, which basd on past discussions appears to be roughly the same as Übung in this sense.

At my university, we called that a 'discussion section' in the humanities, or a 'lab section' in the sciences. As far as I know, those are fairly generally used, though different colleges could have their own terms.

I had never heard of a 'recitation' in this sense and I'm not sure most AE speakers would understand what was meant by it. Maybe it's a regional thing, but it sounds to me like an archaic term dating back to the era of boarding schools, maybe in the 18th or 19th century.

The person who leads a discussion section, another frequently asked question, is usually a graduate student and in my experience is most often called a teaching assistant (abbr.: TA); that would also be useful to add.

"A recitation is a discussion carried by a teaching assistant (TA) to supplement a lecture given by a senior faculty at an academic institution. During the recitation, TAs will review the lecture, expand on the concepts, and carry a discussion with the students. In classes with a mathematics aspect, the recitation is often used to perform derivations or solve problems similar to those assigned to the students."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitation

"Basically, recitation classes are for courses with a large class size or complicated material (like math or science). Usually these classes will have 1 professor and several student teachers. The professor will teach the large class (also called the Lecture) and cover new material. The student teachers will teach the recitation classes and go over the week's material in more detail. Because there is often a lot of material to cover in the large class, there isn't a lot of time to go over specifics or answer questions. The recitation class gives you the opportunity to address any questions or issues in a smaller classroom environment. Also, quizzes and homework are frequently given &/or collected during the recitation class."

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2...

Firstly, I understand that Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source; however, note that this certain entry has been sourced from books.

Furthermore, as an American college student--and, of course, friends with many others--I can assure you this term is used often despite it's lack of receiving a "marquee," so to call it, place in dictionaries.

"Another form of discussion class is the recitation class, a small subgroup of a larger lecture class, which meets regularly as a supplement to the weekly lectures. Found primarily in the sciences, social sciences, and mathematics departments, the larger lecture sections are usually taught by faculty members who supervise the TAs responsible for their recitation classes. The faculty member will generally determine the purpose of the recitation class although the TA will shape the class in an individual way."

http://taproject.rutgers.edu/publications/TA_...

I'll keep adding them as I find them =D.

Nach meiner Erfahrung (Biologie von 1992-1998) werden Tutorien von der Fachschaft, also eigentlich den Studenten, organisiert, und haben normalerweise keine Anwesenheitspflicht, Übungen dagegen haben oft Anwesenheitspflicht und werden vom Lehrstuhl organisiert.

Also, as an all-around source, I do suggest entering "recitation" in Google. There, you'll find a myriad of hits for college websites utilizing the word in reference to the meaning suggested here.

Haha, I've ironically made myself late for my recitation by trying to provide another definition for "recitation."

An meiner Uni, der ehwürdigen London School of Economics, hieß das, was hier ein Seminar ist, ebenfalls "seminar" und die Übungen hießen "classes". Ob das immer so ist, weiß ich nicht, aber recital benutzte zumindest dort niemand.

?meinte natürlich "recitation"

Perhaps it should be denoted with an [AE] marker, then. I would not, however, define it only as a "class." Though one could refer to an "Übung" as class--for example, "I'm going to class," when the class is speficially a recitation--I would not generalize it so much.