Icelandic Level 5

Prerequisite for entry

Basic knowledge of Icelandic (successful completion of Icelandic syllabus 4+ at UCL Language Centre or other comparable studies).

Term duration

10 x 2-hour classes.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to enable students who have an advanced knowledge in Icelandic to take that knowledge to the next level of fluency. Cultural awareness will be further developed. The grammar will still be an issue to tackle, but more and more students are encouraged to trust their grounding and start reading texts on their own, watch films & television in Icelandic and communicate in Icelandic outside the classroom whenever possible. Newspapers, magazines and material from Icelandic television will be read, listened to and discussed.

Functions

• Expressing wishes, hopes & dreams
• Indirect speech (with the conditional)
• Expressing politeness (with the conditional)
• Following current affairs in Iceland
• Politics
• Describing clothes (taking off, putting on), position of definite objects (í, á, undir, yfir...) (with weak adjectives)
• Making passive sentences (using the middle voice)
• Expressing reciprocal feelings (using the middle voice)

Linguistic structures/ Phonetics

Recognising/understanding any kind of discourse

Grammar

• The declension of weak adjectives.
• The conditional (emphasis on usage with myndi/mundi)
• The middle voice

Learning resources

Books

• Course book: Colloquial Icelandic, Daisy Newman;
• Teacher’s handouts
• Online material from Bragi - íslenska

Dictionaries

• Glossaries from Colloquial Icelandic & Learning Icelandic
• Íslensk ensk orðabók - Iðunn
• Ensk-íslensk skólaorðabók – Mál & Menning
• Ordabok

In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.