German

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the introduction and consolidation of basic grammatical structures, as well as on the continuous development of a basic vocabulary. Student develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills for specific everyday situations, work on oral and written exercises, and are introduced to independent learning methods. They work with and reflect on cultural topics in everyday situations in Germany, in Berlin, and at the university. In this class at the A1 level according to CEFR, students review and learn basic grammar points and are systematically introduced to basic vocabulary. All four skills are developed and applied to everyday situations and some study-related situations.

In this course, students investigate how music influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Students study foundational methods, concepts, and theories of music psychology and critically debate empirical studies. Students get an overview of the wide range of topics in the subject, and they carry out independent literature research on a music psychological issue, to create experimental designs and to be able to assess experiments.

This course is intended for students with limited prior knowledge of German. The course extends beyond simple communication, focusing instead on the ability to report in structurally more complex sentences about family, friends, future plans, and aspects of the past. Students learn the declension of adjectives and practice reading and listening techniques. They also improve their pronunciation by means of special phonetic exercises and compose their first more formal texts. This course is at the A1.2/A2.1 level according to CFER.

Lower intermediate level B1 allows students to progress from the elementary command of language of the basic course level to the independent language use of level B2. Students develop reading, listening, writing and speaking skills in these courses with the purpose of improving the understanding of the lectures, seminars and exercises in their own field of study in Germany. This helps students carry out assignments in their own subject successfully. The B1 level is split into two consecutive courses, the B1.1 course covers the first half of the level and the B1.2 course covers the second half of the level.