German Upper Improvers

This course will suit you if you have studied German for five or more terms. It continues on from the Improvers autumn course. Its aim is to develop your ability to respond to spoken and written German, and to help you communicate effectively in authentic situations. You will be familiar with prepositions, cases and associated adjectival declensions, with the perfect tense and basic rules of word order. Classes will be an opportunity to continuously increase your confidence in applying your grammatical knowledge. Topics will include leisure and preferences, communication and media, shopping, giving directions and finding your way around new places. The geography and culture of the German-speaking world will also be explored via a variety of authentic sources and the occasional reading of poems or short stories. Please bring a ring binder to each lesson for the grammar notes and supplementary material that will be provided by the teacher during the course of the term.

An important component of the course is conversation without neglecting the basics of German grammar in order to enable you to manipulate the language successfully. In addition, you will develop listening skills to prepare you to cope with the unexpected. You will be encouraged to build up your own vocabulary lists and to consolidate material covered in class between lessons. Vocab. learning will be supported through custom-made study sets on Quizlet, a free online language-learning site, and small weekly home-works will be set.