German: Beginners - Part 2

Overview

This 10-week course is pitched at level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), and completion of the course will help you meet the level requirements. To help develop your fluency in the language, the course will focus primarily on speaking and listening skills, but will also include practice in reading and writing. You will have plenty of opportunities to practise the target language through hands-on class activities such as conversations and role-plays.

Programme details

Course starts: 23 Jan 2025

The weekly course schedule below is intended to give an overview of the main topic(s) likely to be covered in each session. Please note that these may sometimes change according to the tutor’s discretion to reflect the interests of course participants.

Week 1: Talking about events in the past (introduction)

Week 2: Describing places in a city, asking for directions

Week 3: Talking about events in the past (continued)

Week 4: Events and festivities, seasons and months, giving the date

Week 5: Customs and traditions, expressing surprise

Week 6: Habits and routines, discussing intercultural differences

Week 7: Describing and comparing cities, expressing wishes and needs

Week 8: Describing your house: rooms, furniture, appliances

Week 9: Shopping for clothes and gifts, expressing opinion

Week 10: Topics for small talk, asking for and giving advice

Key grammar points:

* Perfect tense using haben and sein

* Separable verbs in the present tense

* Two-way prepositions using the accusative or dative cases

* Prepositions using the dative case bei, mit, von, zu 

Adjectival agreement in the nominative and accusative cases 

 

Key functions:

* Understanding, asking for and giving directions

* Describing one's daily routine

* Narrating events and celebrations in the past and present tenses

* Describing accommodation and interiors

* Shopping in a department store, asking for assistance, stating preferences   

 

Certification

Digital badge

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be issued with an official digital badge from the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford. After the course, you will receive an email with a link and instructions on how to download your digital badge. You will be able to add your badge to your email signature and share it on social media if you choose to do so. In order to be issued with your badge, you will need to have attended at least 80% of the course.

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £275.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Ms Paula Eberlin

Paula is a Departmental Lecturer in German. She contributes to the Weekly Class and Intensive Weekend programmes as well as teaching German and French at the Oxford University Language Centre. She studied at Durham University and previously worked in the City of London before pursing an academic career. She joins us from Regent's University, London.

Course aims

To enable you to communicate at a basic level with speakers of the target language in a limited range of practical, real-life settings.

Course objectives:

  • To help learners' to develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing for basic everyday communication in the target language.
  • To help learners' to consolidate their listening comprehension skills to understand the gist of very short, basic written texts and audio excerpts.
  • To enable learners' to use high frequency vocabulary and grammar structures for basic routine communication.
  • To equip learners' with an appreciation of the culture and civilisation of the country (or countries) in which the target language is spoken.

Teaching methods

You will learn through a communicative teaching approach with the emphasis on actively engaging in classroom activities in the target language. These are likely to include role-plays, pair- and small group-work, and conversational practice conducted in a supportive, friendly and informal learning environment.

The course has been structured to help you primarily to improve your speaking and listening skills and to develop a basic level of intercultural awareness in the context of social communication. You will also learn and practise new grammatical structures and will be encouraged to develop your reading and writing skills in your own time.

Learning outcomes

By the end of your course, learners will be able to:

  • interact in a simple way using a basic range of language in routine everyday contexts;
  • understand and respond to basic spoken or recorded language relating to very familiar everyday situations;
  • demonstrate comprehension of very short, simple texts containing high frequency vocabulary and basic grammar structures; 
  • write very short texts to provide basic personal information or simple descriptions.    

Assessment methods

You will be set short, optional assignments to consolidate your learning and to allow you to progress at your own pace.

Application

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an enrolment form (Word) or enrolment form (Pdf).

Level and demands