Aims

Acquire a higher intermediate level of communicative competence [B2 level in two skills: listening and speaking (both individual and interactive)].
After completing the course the student will be able :
- to understand and take part in an unplanned conversation (e.g. with a native speaker) about an everyday topic or (ii) a topic dealt with in the media
- to take part in a discussion about a topic with which s/he is familiar: understand the arguments put forward, be able to summarize them and express a personal opinion
- to follow with ease factual information presented e.g. on the radio or on television; be able to summarize and/or make a presentation on it.

Main themes

1. Speaking and listening skills: (i) listening comprehension will be promoted through acquisition and learning exercises while interactive exercises will aim to improve students' oral skills (pronunciation, intonation, accentuation) as well as their communicative/interactive skills. Conversation exercises in small groups will be organised as well as language laboratory exercises (30 hours with a limited number of students per session)
2. This course also aims to develop vocabulary at intermediate level : various lexical exercises will be proposed and self tuition promoted.
3. Grammatical applications: occasional enforcement of grammatical competence (morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects).

Content and teaching methods

(i) Contents : the topics covered mainly feature in the media and deal with society, politics, sports, culture (in a broad sense) or current affairs
(ii) Method :
-30 hours of lectures (all students are grouped together for this part of the course) during which the above-mentioned topics are presented in written form (newspaper articles) or audio/video form (recordings), commented upon and analysed. Particular attention will be paid to global and analytic understanding. The material used is : "Taalnet 2" (published by 'Plantyn'), see below 'other information'.
-15 hours of language laboratory exercises on the topics covered in the lectures; other authentic documents (in particular audio documents) connected with the same topics can also be used to elicit students' reactions.
-30 hours of conversation tutorials (groups of maximum 20 students, 2 h./w.) on the topics covered in the lectures.
-40 hours of individual work, involving / including specifically : (i) systematic and personal study of vocabulary coupled with listening comprehension materials (self-study) and (ii) Preparation of listening and speaking exercises.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisites : Course credit for FLTR 1730.

Evaluation : The formal assessment consists of 4 parts, in line with the objectives outlined above. The topics used will be the same as those covered throughout the course.
- Assessment of the linguistic code (vocabulary knowledge): 10% of the mark.
- Assessment of listening comprehension (both micro and macro comprehension): 20% of the mark.
- Oral skills assessment (individual and interactive): 60% of the mark .
- Active participation in the tutorials : 10% of the mark.

Course Supervision/Course Holder :
The coordination of the course is entrusted to one academic member of the (GERM department) department of Germanic Languages.

Tutorials will be given by an assistant, who will also take part in the formal assessment.

Teaching (and learning) materials :
- P. Godin, P. Ostyn, J, Van Parys, 20042. Taalnet 2, Plantyn, Bruxelles
- learner's handbook + Cd Audio & interactive CD

Other credits in programs