UCL CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES
& INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Course Units 2015-2016
German for Professional Purposes I and II
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of German Business and Current Affairs at the UCL CLIE, have completed some post-‘A’ level
training or spent some time in the country actively using the language.
Course duration
40 x 2-hour classes.
Self-Study
160 hours in total.
Course codes
LCGE6067, LCGEG067 and LCGEM067.
Aims and Objectives
The course is designed for very advanced level students requiring the language for professional purposes.
It comprises knowledge and understanding both of the structure of the language and its use in professional environments,
such as presentations, meetings and conferences. The course covers career development in the target language
countries, business culture and conventions, negotiating and interacting, reading specialist texts (i.e. in the student’s main
degree subject e.g. engineering), note-taking and debates as well as other related topics. These areas will be related back
to the student’s degree subject.
The course will enhance knowledge and use of linguistically complex structures (a variety of styles and registers from a
range of authentic material).
Various transferable skills will also be further developed.
Functions
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expressing specialised opinions, critical topic-related comments;
debating, commenting, negotiating;
suggesting, accepting, refusing;
describing, defining;
composing written pieces of information for professional purposes;
conducting presentations on complex professional topics;
conference skills;
summarising professional information from English to German (and vice versa);
note-taking.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
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university system/professional qualifications
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employment in business and industry;
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job applications and interviews;
seminar papers/presentations;
group debates;
conference papers;
conducting meetings;
business cultures;
project management.
Skills
Reading
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reading for gist, scanning for specific information in professional sources;
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in-depth analysis of professional topics in relevant publications.
Writing
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formal business letters;
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analysis and review of articles;
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note-taking from presentations;
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writing up presentations;
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professional reports and conference papers;
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journal articles;
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CVs and covering letters.
Listening
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radio, TV, audio- and video-tapes;
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presentations;
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professional debates.
Speaking
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formal and informal discussions, debates, round table;
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seminars;
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presentations;
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conferences.
Linguistic Structures
Discourse Strategies
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analysing/comparing texts from various professional sources (different text types, styles and registers);
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preparing oral contributions for different audiences;
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spoken versus written professional communication.
Main aspects of these strategies
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structuring (logical structures);
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linking devices (lexical, grammatical);
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stylistic levels and their usage;
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professional vocabulary.
Application of Complex Grammatical Features and Registers
Learning Resources
There is no textbook for this course.
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Monolingual dictionary (not pocket size).
Materials for the course will be drawn from:
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Authentic written material from various sources such as Die Zeit, die Wirtschaftswoche
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Authentic audio and audio-visual material.
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Aktuell ’05, Harenberg Lexikon der Gegenwart
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.