Handbook

Upon successful completion of this subject you should have further extended and deepened their knowledge of the German language and German culture; improved their knowledge of the finer points of German grammar; extended their vocabulary as much as possible through wide reading of various types of texts, including television and radio materials; acquired practice in using German in both spoken and written form to discuss topics of current interest, based principally on the reading of a wide range of newspaper articles; become familiar with language containing varying degrees of dialect influence; acquired the ability to translate complicated, non-specialist German texts into idiomatic English, and to translate fairly complicated English texts into German. You should also have gained a knowledge of the relationship between the German language and its speakers, a knowledge of the differences between dialect and standard German, a knowledge of the phonetics of Modern Standard German and a knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet as applied to Modern Standard German. After completion of component 2 you should also have further gained:

an overview of the main periods, styles, genres, intellectual preoccupations and socio-historical trends in modern German literature;

the ability to recognise and analyse a variety of texts in accordance with the categories of genre, style and epoch;

reading skills necessary to understand advanced German;

essay-writing skills, an ability to engage in informed discussions of literature and culture, using appropriate terminology and applying the range of language skills pertinent to component 1.