Skip to main content Skip to navigation

The Language Centre

Intermediate German (LL107)

Summary

Level:

This Module is offered to students with GCSE/'O' level German or who have successfully completed Post-Beginners German. Equal emphasis is placed on the spoken and written language.

Main Objectives:

The aims of the module are to consolidate and extend knowledge and use of German grammar and syntax, to extend skills in reading comprehension and composition by reading and exploring a variety of German texts.

Assessment Scheme:

3 exams and an oral test. Students requiring 30 CREDITS are required to do an additional exam.

Weighting:

24 CREDITS or, with additional assessed work: 30 CREDITS

Teaching:

One seminar per week of 3 hours' duration over 25 weeks plus 2 hours independent learning per week

Availability/Location of module within courses:

This module is available as an approved option in undergraduate programmes for departments in the Faculties of Arts, Sciences and Social Studies, commencing Week 2, Term 1. It is available as a day-time or an evening module.

Course Description:


By the end of the course the students should be able to cope successfully with conversations expressing opinions, intentions, wishes and feelings, and they should be able to recognise and present detailed textual information.

The topics and associated grammar to be studied are the following:

  • German speaking countries and people:
  • seit and tenses;
  • adjectival endings;
  • comparisons;
  • possessive adjectives
  • Family: indefinite article; separable verbs
  • Education: perfect tense; prepositions; modal verbs
  • Leisure: comparatives and superlatives; imperfect tense; verbs and prepositions
  • Money: verbs with the dative; adjectival endings
  • Health: imperative; passive
  • Work: word order; position of zu
  • House and home: relative pronouns; prepositions taking the accusative or dative
  • Topical issues: use of kein; use of lassen
  • The media: conditional tense; present participles; plu-perfect tense

Course Textbooks:

  1. "Deutsch Plus 2", C Schicker & R. Rach, BBC Books, 1997
  2. "English Grammar for Students of German", C.Zorach and C.Melin, Olivia and Hill Press, 1994
  3. Dictionary, The Collins German/English English/German Dictionary, Klett, 1989.

Teaching:  

 

One session per week of 3 hours' duration.

Audio-cassettes will accompany each topic of the course book to train in listening comprehension and pronunciation practice. Role-play activities will be used to improve communication skills. A variety of added material prepared for self-study will be provided to enable students to acquire fluency and accuracy in both oral and written German. Students will also be encouraged to avail themselves of the open access facilities of the Language Centre e.g. computers, satellite TV, audio tapes, etc.

Assessment:  

 

Students will be required to complete, in class, 3 assessment tests, one in each term. In total, these tests will represent 40% of the final mark.

The tests will include a range of skills including aural comprehension, reading comprehension, composition, grammatical competence, short translations and conversation.

At the end of the module, there will be a 3 hour examination paper, consisting of a written comprehension with multiple tasks, a short translation from German into English, and a short composition in German. the examination will count as 60% of the final mark.

The use of a bilingual dictionary is allowed.