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Course description: Level 4 is for those who completed Level 3 or who have a good knowledge of the language acquired through regular visits to Slovakia or through self-study. The aim of the course is to give students an opportunity to revise, consolidate, and build on the skills they acquired at level 3. On completion of the course students should be able to comprehend and to communicate in Slovak on a variety of practical everyday and social matters. The course runs over three ten week terms and each session is two hours long. The course includes all four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. The course will cover the following:
Aim:
- to achieve a solid level of language proficiency in order to handle the normal range of social matters
- to reinforce and to extend the previous knowledge
- to develop the ability to use the Slovak language effectively for purposes of practical communication
- to offer insights into the culture, history and civilisation of Slovakia
Outcomes:
- To develop awareness and familiarisation with regional accents and social register
- To acquire a good command of a broad lexical repertoire allowing gaps to be readily overcome with circumlocution and repair techniques
- To communicate in speech, showing knowledge of a range and variety of vocabulary and of appropriate register in routine tasks
- To be able to use Slovak language flexibly and effectively for social purposes, including emotional, allusive and joking usage and to recognise idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms
Objectives:
- To demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively, with a degree of fluency and spontaneity, with a native speaker.
- To use the Slovak language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes
- To be able to outline an issue or a problem clearly, speculating about causes or consequences, and weighing advantages and disadvantages of different approaches
Personal Domain:
- Travelling and weather conditions
- Making travel arrangements (booking flight, hotel room, buying a railway ticket)
- Discussing in simple terms differences in culture, attitude, customs and practice
- Planning holiday.
- Talking about personal interests and leisure activities
- Talking about holidays, past experiences and future plans
- Expressing personal views and preferences on simple matters
- Discussing day-to-day activities and routines
- Inviting guests to an event and agreeing a date/place/time
- Cultural issues, celebrations or events
- Discussing in simple terms differences in culture, attitude, customs and practice
Public Domain:
- Current affairs (aktuálne správy, najnovšie udalosti, politický komentár)
- IT (internet, ochrana proti vírusom, @ zavináč, poslať esemesku, poslať email)
- Diplomatic life (ďakovný list, poverovacie listiny, príhovor, slávnostná reč)
- Cultural issues or events (oslava pri príležitosti Dňa …)
- Shopping for everyday items; describing something you wish to buy, expressing quantity, colour and size; expressing likes and dislikes; asking for prices, understanding currency
- Travelling by public transport; buying tickets, understanding timetables, asking for information about travel, telling the time
- Asking where places are, giving and understanding directions
- Making travel arrangements (booking flight, hotel room, buying a railway ticket)
- Arranging bookings with restaurants, hotels etc., stating facilities, dates and number of persons and making simple enquiries
- Buying tickets for the theatre, the cinema, the museum or other events stating dates and number of persons and making simple enquiries
Functions:
- expressing different opinions, inviting to join a discussion
- to speculate and expressing “IF”
- making complain
- giving instructions
- expressing likes and dislikes
- understanding short texts from Slovak literature and lyrics
- understating headlines from Slovak newspapers
- describing skills, wishes, plans
- making direct and indirect requests
- summarising conversation, applying direct and indirect speech
Grammar:
- plural forms of nouns, adjectives, pronouns
- complete declension
- prepositions and their relations with declensions
- reflexive verbs
- perfective and imperfective verbs
- word order
- conjunctions
- particles
- possessive pronouns: in genitive and dative
- imperative
- speculative sentences
- conditional
- English modal verbs and their Slovak equivalents (should, ought …)
Course Books:
- Krížom – krážom, Slovenčina B1, kolektív and CD, ISBN 978-80-223-3035-0
- Krížom – krážom, Slovenčina Cvičebnica A1 plus A2, kolektív, ISBN 978-80-223-2809-8
- Colloquial Slovak by James Naughton and CD, ISBN978-0-415-49634-6
- Bespoke teacher's material (source INTERNET)
- Bespoke material
Useful Reference Material:
Slovak Without a Teacher, ISBN 80-85408-03-1
Malý frazeologický slovník by Elena Smiešková. (Slovak idioms) ISBN 80-08-00009-0
Slovak for You, ISBN 0-86516-331-6
Anglicko-Slovenský prekladový slovník ISBN 80-88723-67-1
Slovensko-Anglický prekladový slovník ISBN 80-88723-67-1
The Guide to The Peoples of Europe, The Times, ISBN 0-7230-0624-5
A History of Slovakia by Stanislav Kirsbaum, ISBN 0333681029
Modern Slovak Prose by Pynsent, R B., 0-333-51596-X
Websites: