Germany

This pre-semester course prepares foreign students for academic study at a German university. The focus is on the improvement of oral and written expression as well as grammar and lexical proficiency. The course covers selected topics on German politics and society within a historical context. In addition, excursions are planned to introduce students to German culture. Students work with cultural topics in everyday situations and broaden their intercultural knowledge. They are introduced to independent learning methods and familiarize themselves with typical learning situations at German universities. In this class at the A2.2/B1.1 level according to CEFR, students review, consolidate, and are further introduced to basic grammar points and vocabulary. All four skills are further developed and expanded upon.

This course is designed for students who have successfully completed the basic level and the first part of the intermediate level of German and who have a sound knowledge of German. This course helps students expand their competences in speaking and writing while emphasizing self-correction. Furthermore, it helps students to increase their vocabulary, to deepen grammar usage, and develop effective reading and listening strategies. In addition, students analyze and interpret cultural, political, and historical topics in German-speaking countries and compare them with their own cultural background. Through this course students develop and regularly use new strategies for language acquisition. Students are able to engage in detailed discussions on above mentioned topics. Furthermore, students develop reading strategies that allow for the understanding of different text types in detail. In addition, students improve their essay writing skills, and are able to write short texts on different topics, revise, and proofread them.

This introductory seminar gives a survey of historical change in phonology, morphology/syntax, and the lexicon across the Old, Middle, and (Early/Late) Modern English periods to the present day as well as of current geographical and socio-functional variation in the English language. It thus emphasizes the close relationship between language change and variation. It introduces the concept of the sociolinguistic situation with its various parameters and presents language change and variation as complex processes determined by the interaction of language-internal forces and extralinguistic factors.