German is the perfect opportunity to get an insight into the wonderful language and culture of Germany whilst working towards to gaining a GSCE qualification and acquiring a solid grounding in the use of this incredible language. The art of communicating in a foreign language is of a tremendous importance in the current job market and German is today the second most spoken language in the world.
In Year 9 MFL lessons students have the opportunity to develop communication skills for everyday-life situations in different topics. Whether focusing on school and education, holidays and free time activities, jobs, music or cinema, all students are preparing and developing their listening, reading, writing and speaking skills to complete exams in each skill area at the end of Year 11 (25% per skill).
The core contents are accompanied by group activities, games and audiovisual materials that also cover correlated cultural and historical issues of the Spanish speaking world. These include scheduled films and projects dealing with real life German issues, geographical settings of the German community and different customs and traditions. Besides, students work on a daily basis in small groups with the foreign language assistant to improve their speaking skills for the exam and take their learning experience to an authentic and enjoyable level.
In addition to this, the modern foreign languages department is constantly working to enhance the extracurricular activities for those who want to practice their skills outside of the classroom. Spanish students can join the afterschool clubs, visit Germany in one of our annual trips, get engaged with the inter-school activities from the European Day of Languages hosted in St. Johns and take part in the life-changing exchange with our partner school in Spain, France and Germany.
German KS4
Course Specification, (Exam Board, link to specification):
GCSE German: http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/german-8668/introduction
This qualification is linear. Linear means that students will sit all their exams at the end of the course. Students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.
Theme 1: Identity and culture
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
Students are assessed in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.
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