LN744     
German: Level One (Fast Track)

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Requisites

Assumed prior knowledge:

Language skills and knowledge of German at A1 level of the Common European Reference Framework for Languages are required.

Additional requisites:

No previous knowledge of German required, but students should: demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework and all assessments; dedicate at least two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes. Students are expected to be experienced language learners with a basic knowledge of English/German grammar terms.

Course Aim:

• To develop the ability to use German effectively for purposes of practical communication at a basic level in familiar domestic, work and social contexts.
• To establish the skills, language and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of German. To acquire basic literacy.
• To master the pronunciation of German sounds.
• To have basic knowledge of grammatical gender, word-formation, word-order in the sentence.
• To deal with a range of predictable simple language tasks using a limited range of language to meet the needs of differing but familiar situations and topics.
• To familiarise students with the background to German speaking countries, including culture and civil societies.
• To bring students to level A1/A2 CEFR.

Communicative Content:

• Asking for and giving personal information, directions and opinions.
• Describing people, objects, feelings and places.
• Talking about likes and dislikes, expressing preferences and making comparisons.
• Talking about actions.
• Expressing intentions, ignorance and proposing alternatives.
• Expressing frequency.
• Talking about past events and experiences.
• Talking about habitual actions in the past.
• Talking about festive events, invitations, plans.
• Asking for and giving advice.

Structural Content: Introducing the basics of German grammar in the following areas:

• Grammatical gender and plural of nouns.
• Present tense of regular, modal and some irregular/strong verbs.
• Direct and indirect objects; complements.
• Possessive pronouns.
• Prepositions taking the dative and/or accusative case.
• Present perfect of regular and irregular/strong verbs.
• Frequency adverbs; numbers.
• Combining of Perfect and Präteritum.
• Expressions of time.
• All three forms of the imperative.
• Introduction to subordinate clauses.

16 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
22 hours of classes in the Winter Term.

Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

16 hours of classes in the AT. 22 hours of classes in the WT. 2 hours of group tutorial time, as arranged by the teacher during the AT, WT, ST.

• DaF kompakt neu A1, Kursbuch und Arbeitsbuch & 2 CDs (Ernst Klett Publishers) 2016, ISBN: 978-3-12-676313-4.

Oral examination (30%)

Continuous assessment (70%)