German 7 (GERM20001)

This subject aims to consolidate and expand students' proficiency in both written and spoken language and to develop cultural literacy in German by engaging with broad themes relevant to modern German-speaking societies such as: communications media and consumer culture. It builds on the development of communicative skills in informal settings and expands students’ competence in using more formal registers of contemporary German, demonstrating the differences between colloquial, formal and specialised registers where appropriate, and furthering skills in a greater variety of formal and informal contexts. Students will develop more advanced reading and listening skills through working with newspaper and magazine articles, listening to interviews and watching film and television clips. They will produce more complex texts of different types (eg. expository and argumentative essays, evaluative reviews and summaries) and consolidate their discussing and debating skills in relation to contemporary and historical issues. Students will also gain a more advanced understanding of grammar and the use of idiomatic expressions and sentence structures. Students will begin to gain proficiency in using specialized terminology and developing more advanced skills in relation to specialist texts that will begin to prepare them to undertake studies at a German-speaking university.