German Communication Techniques
Courses Degree in Applied Languages
The Curriculum Unit aims to address different areas of the business world in a German linguistic context in which the student must be able to express himself/herself, acquiring the range of skills, either concerning the lexicon, or grammatical structures and thematical contents. The syllabus will be focussed on daily activities and situations in the professional, social and cultural spheres, allowing for the student's integration in the German linguistic working context.
Taking into account the nature and learning outcomes of this curricular unit, these activities favour the correct expression in German as well as an adequate transfer / practice / framing of knowledge and skills in the business world.
This curricular unit is designed according to the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. At the end of this curricular unit, students should have a good command of the lexicon and the tecnical terms used in the domain of the business world studied in class. They should also be able to communicate both efficiently and correctly in typical communication situations in a working environment. They should have a fairly good command of the oral and written comunication within this specific domain.
Business German; pragmatic, communication and crosscultural skills.
The main goal of this curricular unit is to develop linguístic, pragmatic, communicational and crosscultural skills to sucessfully integrate the student in a German speaking working environment.
At the end of this curricular unit students should be able to successfully handle a wide range of common tasks and situations in a German speaking working environment. Students should also have the required skills to produce and understand a wide range of different types of texts that are frequently used in the German speaking business world, either in written or in oral communication.
Students should also have aquired the necessary crosscultural competences to adequately attend clients in written or oral communication.
With the goal in mind that studentes will aquire a good level of the German language in a professional environment - both in writing and speaking - the following contents will be covered in this course:
Communicative and linguistic contents:
· Speak about professional experiênce/ acomplishments and goals
· Propose / accept the formal / informal treatment
· Make/ accept / reject a petition
· Distribute/ accept / reject tasks
· CV and cover letter
· Evaluate a homepage
· Describe an IT problem
· Describe hierarchical structures in a company
· Clarify / explain / comment on errors
· Negotiate solutions
· Make presentations in German
· Describe / analize diagrams
· Request sick leave / react to a sick leave
· Request information
· Evaluate proposals
· Make counter proposals / suggestion for improvement
· Justify a proposal / suggestion
· Describe administrative processes
· Make recomendations
· Compose business documentation
(Cross)cultural contents:
• Business comunication (Formal and informal treatment, daily expressions in a working environment)
• Crosscultural competence (Identify cultural caracteristics of the German speaking business world)
• Attendance of clients (oral and written communication skills)
GROSSER, R.; HANKE, C.; ILSE, V.; MAUTSCH; K.; SANDER, I.; SCHMEISER, D. (2015) DaF im Unternehmen A2 - Kurs- und Übungsbuch. Stuttgart: Klett Sprachen. [ISBN-13: 9783126764452]
BUCHWALD-WARGENAU, I.; GIERSBERG, D. (2019) Im Beruf NEU A2+/B1
Kursbuch. Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache. München: Hueber. [ISBN 978-3-19-231190-1]
BUCHWALD-WARGENAU, I.; GIERSBERG, D. (2019) Im Beruf NEU A2+/B1
Arbeitsbuch. Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache. München: Hueber. [ISBN 978-3-19-241190-8]
BUCHWALD-WARGENAU, I.; GIERSBERG, D. (2019) Im Beruf NEU A2+/B12 Audio-CDs. Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache. München: Hueber [ISBN 978-3-19-251190-5]
Dicionário Moderno de Alemão-Português / Português-Alemão (2016),
Porto Editora [ISBN:978-972-0-05758-7]
VAZ PIRES, Martinho (2014): Gramática da Língua Alemã, Porto Editora. [978-972-0-40695-8].
LEMCKE, C., ROHMANN, L. (2015): Grammatik Intensivtrainer NEU A2, Berlin/München/Wien/Zürich/New York: Langenscheidt / Klett [9783126051668].
The curricular unit is offered in the regime of e-learning on the Moodle learning platform, being asynchronous communication on a series of forums the privileged way of communication. Language acquisition in e-learning requires a lot of autonomy, motivation and self-discipline on the students part.
The working plan of the curricular unit structures the students learning path, by relating the thematic topics of the manual and the suggested formative activities. Tools to revise and evaluate students progress help students to identify their strong and weak points, thereby enabling students to design their own individual learning path. Students have a lot of autonomy (and responsibility) in the learning process.
Evaluation is continuous. Students are assessed on two e-folio (electronic assignments submitted online) and a global e-folio through which the acquisition of knowledge and competences as defined in the learning objectives is evaluated.
Continuous Assessment