Modern Languages: Foundations Language Series

Foundations Language Series / German / German  - Notes for tutors

Background
Classroom instructions
Outline sequencing of a unit

Notes for tutors: 
   Structure of the book
   Using the book 
   Private/directed study
   Grammar

Planning your programme:
   Learning outcomes
   Grammar syllabus

Background
In conjunction with the Introduction to the book German 1, these notes outline the approach we have taken. It is based above all on many years’ experience of teaching beginners on both IWLPs and degree ab initio courses. It is also informed by extensive contact with departments running such courses.

While we think it right to make our approach clear, we believe textbook authors have no right to be dogmatic or prescriptive. There are many ways of organising learning or teaching a given competence or topic. Circumstances and priorities vary from one institution to another. Bearing this in mind, we have sought to enable tutors on taught beginners’ courses with a significant private study element to organise their teaching and their students’ learning according to their own circumstances and priorities.


Tom Carty, Ilse Wührer 2003

Classroom Instructions

OUTLINE SEQUENCING of a Unit: Unit 5

INPUTS               

Item

1. Gr                Dative after prepositions        > 2a    >    2b, 7, Gr ex 2, 3

                        which also take accusative

                        Example: in

                     (Once principle established,

                     auf and unter added in item 7) 

2. Gr                   Introduction of ihr (‘you’ plural)     > 2a, 8    >   Gr ex 5

3, 4   Voc   Rooms, furniture          > 4a, 4b   >    5, 6, 7, 8

4   Gr   Masculine accusative: es gibt …      > 5, 7a    >   6, 7b, Gr ex 1

8   Voc   Adjectives describing a house/flat      > 8a    >   9

Gr   Adjectival endings (accusative

singular and plural)           > 8b    > 9, Gr ex 4

1. Structure of the book
For an overview of the structure of a unit, see the table on page v. 
There is more detail on pages vi-vii. 
The overview of the whole book is on pages 192-193.

The units are all structured in the same way. Students need to be able to find their way around a coursebook. Beginners in particular can get lost if there are many digressions, scattered items of additional material or sudden changes of gear. They respond very positively when they can see the logic of what they are doing, know where they are heading and feel they are getting there.


If you need to select because of time pressure, bear in mind that:

• The six-page core contains all the unit inputs (lexical, grammatical, situational).
  

• Within that core, new inputs are introduced, then (a) reinforced/practised and 
  (b) applied over several items.
  

• The partnerwork pages, the grammar exercises and the supplementary exercises strand for private study do not introduce new inputs.
  

• The Extra! material is situationally anchored in the unit but is devoted to reading and listening extension and so goes beyond the confines of the unit core.
  

• Unit 10 has been written in such a way that the grammar inputs (introduction of the genitive; the comparative; dürfen) are met with in context but not directly reinforced or applied except in the grammar exercises on page 118. This gives more flexibility in selecting items if you are running up against the buffers at the end of the year!
  

2. Using the book in the classroom

Our assumption is that the language of the classroom is normally German. 
To facilitate that, each item in the core unit and Extra! pages …

• is consecutively numbered for ease of reference
  (numbers are introduced in Unit Two)
  

• has an icon giving a non-verbal cue to the nature of the task, enabling you to use your preferred instruction 
  (the icons are illustrated on page viii) 
  

• has a heading or title in German

At the same time, we are confident the material is organised in such a way that colleagues who prefer to or have to use more English can do so.



3. Private/directed study, including portfolio work etc

Language for All schemes, IWLPs and similar programmes usually operate on low contact hourage and involve a large element of private study. Language Centres and departments operating such schemes have to support the courses adequately and ensure students are clear as to what is required of them. This is particularly important on a beginner’s course.

German 1 …

provides a comprehensive Weitere Übungen strand supplementing each of the unit cores. It is specifically designed for private study and does not introduce new material. There are two pages per unit and the strand is presented as a block of 20 pages. The audio material for this section is all on one side (Side 2b) of the cassettes to allow easy duplication. Click here for information on site licences

• does not take anything for granted: the main part of the Introduction addresses the student and explains what the course is trying to achieve and how it sets about doing so. Most of the students on IWLPs etc do not have recent experience of language learning so there is also an introductory section on How to Learn a Language.
  
• provides accessible reference material including a Pronunciation Guide (with recordings), a Guide to Grammatical Terms, and a Grammar Overview, also a full German-English glossary.
  
• facilitates preparation and exploitation in each unit core (Grammar exposition and exercises; unit vocabulary lists; where necessary, headings in English as well as German; instructions in English).
  
• provides answers to all exercises and tapescripts for unscripted listening items.
  
• has a consistent and clear structure and a sense of progression.

4. Grammar

We believe grammar should be taught explicitly, using the appropriate terms. To support this policy at every stage …

• There is a Guide to grammatical terms on pages 144/145.
  
• New grammar items are flagged up by a grammar box in the body of the unit.
  
• The structures introduced in a unit are then presented on its grammar page, 
  with exercises on each structure on the facing page.
  
• There is a grammar overview for the whole book beginning page 147.
  

Planning your programme

(There is a tabular summary of the content of each unit on pages 192 and 193 of the textbook).

The following is designed help you to write a syllabus, module guide etc:

1. Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to …

1. Speaking and listening


… take part in simple everyday interactions
Obtaining information (travel)
Buying a train ticket
Booking a room
Ordering a meal
Asking for and giving directions
Finding out where somewhere is
Making arrangements

2. Speaking

… talk about 
Where you come from
Studies
Daily routine
Likes, dislikes, preferences 
(food and drink; activities; clothes)
Education
Own/others’ life
Family
Possessions
Feelings
Hopes and ambitions
Your ideal partner
What you and others did 
(yesterday/last night/at the weekend)
Work
Holidays
Working abroad
Future plans

… use number in everyday contexts Time (12-hour and 24-hour clocks)
Date 
Years
Money


3. Listening

… understand straightforward information (and opinions) about … 
Study and work
Family, friends and hobbies
Eating healthily
Accommodation
Sights in a city centre
Personality and appearance
Train times
A room you have booked
Students’ experiences on language course in Germany
Famous and everyday lives
Hopes and plans
Then and now in East Germany
Holiday plans



4. Reading

… extract information from ‘What’s on’ pages 
Job ads
An accommodation guide
A town guide 
Instructions on how to use a ticket machine
Lonely hearts ads
CVs
A menu
Holiday brochures


… understand simple letters/emails 
Informal
· someone introducing him/herself and family
· job
· likings and preferences
· describing last weekend
· making arrangements (leisure/study)
· accommodation
· a German friend on placement
· about holiday plans

Formal
· letter confirming arrangements/booking
· details about a job and its requirements


... understand short articles on familiar topics 
Accommodation
Biographies
Education
Fitness and healthy eating
Berlin
East Germany since unification
The end of the GDR
Narratives about everyday happenings



5. Writing

... write simple emails and letters

giving information about daily routine, family, studies, likes and dislikes
describing/expressing opinions about personality, clothes, work, accommodation, holidays, leisure

… write a simple letter of application in response to a job advert

… write a simple narrative in the past tense



Grammar syllabus

SUMMARY OF GRAMMAR CONTENT USING THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES

(Profile Deutsch Langenscheidt 2002, is the CEF German Reference Manual.)

We urgently needed a common scale to describe levels of attainment on IWLPs. Schemes have diversified, with most institutions now having Upper and Lower Intermediate modules and, more recently, a Post-Beginners stage spun off from Beginners. A further complication is that even when structures are directly comparable, institutions place students differently. It now seems that there is a good chance the CEF will provide the descriptive tariff we need.

The danger is that the CEF will be used glibly or paid only lip-service (‘if it’s Intermediate it’s B1 and B2’). The global indicators are so general as to be more or less useless in syllabus planning. The detailed descriptors giving specific outcomes at each level are more useful but have to be read carefully and compared with their equivalents at the levels below and above to see the gradation. Competence catalogues with language-specific examples are the most concrete way of expressing outcomes and the German-speaking countries were the first in the field to produce such a template (in 2002). 

While university assessment schemes are based on differentiation, learning competences are absolute, and designed to be checked off: yes/no, can/cannot. A student obtaining 80% on a module will have a different profile from one who only manages 41%. In what follows, we have to bear in mind the student who obtains a bare pass grade on a module based on the book as well as those who achieve higher grades.

Profile, an apt title, provides the descriptive framework, so we can say Foundations German 1 delivers levels A1 and A2 (Elementare Sprachverwendung). Some items on the course take learners to level B1 (the first stage of Selbständige Sprachverwendung, corresponding to the established Council of Europe Threshold Level). Some learners will reach that higher level in a wider range of competences.

The grammar content of Foundations German 1 closely corresponds to levels A1 and A2. We thought it better to introduce the full case system in German 1, so the Genitive is covered here, although it figures in the B2 list. We also include some B1 items: most colleagues will readily see why.

To accommodate these additions, we left for a possible later volume one self-contained A2 structure which takes a lot of learning (and teaching!): relative clauses.

Items from the Profile list which do not occur in the book:

• Relative clauses
• Reported speech in indicative (er hat gesagt, er kommt später).
• Superlative
• Comparison with als (Sie haben einen größeren Garten als wir)
• Examples of the use of über and vor with the accusative
• damit (conjunction)
• dass in sense of ‚so that’.

Items from higher stages of the Profile list which are covered in the book:

• infinitive with zu in subordinate clauses (B1)
• Verbs followed by the Dative (B1)
• The Genitive (B2)
• Wenige/einige/manche (B1)
• Subordinate clauses with wo (B1)
• Prepositions mit (age), neben, um (B1); gegenüber, entlang, ohne (B2)
• Clauses introduced by denn, obwohl (B1