German Level 3 plus

Prerequisite for entry

Successful completion of German Level 3 at UCL Centre for Languages & International Education or for learners who have a good basic knowledge of the language or those who have studied the language at A-Level some years ago. Participants should be able to give instructions and describe events, talk about the past and have a basic knowledge of the subjunctive.

Students will be familiar with these grammar and linguistic structure.

Term duration

10 x 2-hour classes.

Progression

After 20 hours students may progress to level 4.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to enable students with a good basic knowledge of German to converse reasonably fluently with native speakers and discuss personal, social and current issues using appropriate structures. Cultural awareness will be further developed through an extended use of authentic material.

Functions

• Getting to know people, participate in discussions
• understanding radio reports, advertisements, film tips, commentary, info-grafik
• understanding and analysing newspaper/ internet article, short presentations, radio/ TV reports
• write emails, chats presentations, reports about experiences and biographical events notes
• describing products

Course content

Main topics/themes to be covered:

• Time und Trends (time management, stress, procrastination, breaks at work)
• Talk about anger and complaints
• Memories (football, fashion and the past)
• Finding a solution (lifestyle and virtual medical consultancy)
• Fulfil our wishes (consumption, romantic)

Linguistic structures/ Phonetics

Pronunciation exercises depending on individual needs; for example, intonation in questions, intonation separable in not separable verbs, adjective -ich -ig

Grammar

• Sentence structure (main and relative clauses),
• Main clauses – denn,deshalb,daher;deswegen,darum, trotzdem, dennoch
• Relative clauses and obwohl
• Relative clauses: je desto... double conjunctions and weil
• Relative clauses:   damit, um.. zu, zum + Nomen
• Relative clauses:   nachdem and Plusquamperfect
• Konjunktiv 2 (Conditional)
• Connectoren (nicht/kein) sondern... zwar..abe
• Negations: niemand, nie, nirgends
• Perfect/Partizip 2, Imperfect
• Passiv with werden  (delete Future)
• Imperativ
• Building adjectives 
• (an)statt-- zu

Learning resources

• Course book: Weitblick B1 + Chapter 4-8 ISBN 978-3-06-120883-7
• Authentic material (such as German television programs, film extracts, internet, German newspapers or magazines)
• In addition, there is a wide range of language learning materials on Moodle