Mrs Susanne Muller-Menckens

Skills and knowledge at the A2/B1 level of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages. 

Students should:

• demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework and all assessments;
• dedicate at least two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes.

All students must take the online aptitude test and gain permission of the tutor in the Needs Analysis Interview to take this course. Students are not expected to be very experienced language learners.

Course Aim:

• To develop the ability to use German effectively for purposes of practical communication in familiar contexts
• To establish the skills, language and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of German
• To improve the pronunciation of German sounds and sentence intonation
• To deal with a range of predictable simple language tasks using a range of language to meet the needs of differing but familiar situations and topics
• To enable students to understand simple authentic media texts and audio-visual material related to political, social and economic issues in German-speaking countries 
• To enable students to discuss social, political and economic issues related to German-speaking countries  
• To bring students to level B1/B2 CEFR

Communicative Content:

• Communicating about social, political and economic issues
• Communicating about professional life and future plans 
• Expressing emotions, describing the behaviour of people
• Communicating about your studies and research
• Communicating about a variety of texts, e.g. literary, journalistic, academic etc.
• Expressing your opinion in discussions and arguments
• Arguing in favour or against possible actions

Structural Content: Developing a communicative and contextual understanding of a range of grammatical structures:

• Syntax of compound and complex sentences, use of connectors, valency of verbs  
• Active and passive voice constructions in all tenses
• Use of indirect speech, and the subjunctive
• Participle constructions
• Nominalization
• Use of modal verbs and modal verb alternatives

16 hours of classes in the MT. 22 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.

This is a 40 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

Upon teacher's advice: 

• em neu Brückenkurs, Hueber: 2008, ISBN: 978-3-19-501696-4

Continuous assessment (50%) in the MT and LT.
Oral examination (30%) and in class assessment (20%) in the LT.