What you will study
Almost 100 million people speak German as their main language. Most of them live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, making German one of the most widely used languages in Europe. Now associated with economic success, science and technology, German also has a long-standing reputation as the language of poets and thinkers.
Elementary Germany 2: sprich weiter! offers you an excellent opportunity to develop your knowledge of the German language. You’ll continue to develop the essentials of speaking, listening, reading and writing in German. You’ll also improve your key skills that will enhance your future study of the language.
The course is delivered in 16 user-friendly, ‘bite-sized’ units, each comprising 3–4 hours study. You can study these at your own pace, to fit in with your own schedule and lifestyle.
There is plenty of audio material, mostly based on authentic interviews with native speakers of German, and a wide variety of speaking activities will aid your pronunciation.
You will also practise using important grammatical features such as the dative case, prepositions, possessive articles, subordinate clauses, separable verbs, modal verbs and the perfect and imperfect tense.
As you work through the activities and quiz in each unit, you’ll have the support of a specialist learning adviser, who will moderate forum activities, answer any language questions you post on the discussion pages and add extra tips, activities and topical ‘snippets’ to the course forum.
Please note that although this course is non-accredited, it can be used towards the module Making your learning count (YXM130) to gain OU credits.
You will learn
After completing this course, you should be able to:
- communicate in increasingly complex situations, for example, knowing what to do if you lose something valuable, and how to complain about poor service, understand train announcements, and deal with disruption to your travel plans and problems when driving
- express your opinions on a variety of themes and topics, such as lifestyle, daily routines, leisure activities, landscapes and geography, and travelling
- talk about past events, using the perfect tense and imperfect tense, where appropriate
- understand statistical information and make comparisons
- improve your German pronunciation and intonation
- enhance your intercultural understanding through engaging with learning materials which reflect German-speaking countries and their people and through learning about places and sightseeing in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. For example, you will look in depth at things like changes in family life and population structure, how life in the countryside has changed and some important German writers.
The course is designed to help you achieve a level of language proficiency equivalent to level B1 of the (CEFR).
Learner support
You will have access to discussion forums that you are strongly encouraged to participate in as these forums combine support from fellow students with input from a language-specialist learning adviser. Other support is available via the StudentHome website and Computing Helpdesk.
If you have a disability
The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet you are advised to about support which can be given to meet your needs.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying LGXG005 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.