Project Description

Exam Board:

AQA

Units Studied:

At Painsley Sixth Form College, A Level courses in French, German and Spanish are offered. The AQA specification is followed.

Year 12 Topics

Topics

1. Familie in Wandel – the changing family
2. Die digitale Welt – the digital world
3. Jugendkultur: Mode, Musik, Fernsehen – youth culture: fashion,music,TV
4. Feste und Traditionen – festivals and traditions
5. Kunst und Architektur – art and architecture
6. Das Berliner Kulturleben damals und heute – Berlin culture past and present

Topic-based activities

• Reading texts – comprehension questions / summary of content / gap fill exercises
• Listening to audio interviews/reports – as above
• Translation English to German
• Translation German to English
• Videos/TV – current news articles re. German speaking countries
• Discussion / Debate / Expressing Opinions
• Topic-related vocabulary

Grammar

Basic grammar rules – the toolkit to produce written and spoken German independently. eg.

• Cases (Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, adjective endings)
• Prepositions and cases
• Tenses (present, past, future, conditional, passive)
• Gender of nouns (Masculine, Feminine, Neuter)
• Word Order (Verb 2^nd, Time-Manner-Place)

Study of a Film

“Goodbye Lenin!” – (Director Wolfgang Becker)

• Plot, characters, key themes, narrative/technical style
• Essays in German

Year 13

The A Level course is assessed in the second year, with students covering all of the above topics, plus the following:

Topics

1. Einwanderung – immigration
2. Integration – integration
3. Rasissmus – racism
4. Deutschland und die Europäische Union – German and the EU
5. Die Politik und die Jugend – politics and young people
6. Die Wiedervereinigung und ihre Folgen – reunification and its consequences

Topic-based / activities

• Reading texts – comprehension questions / summary of content / gap fill exercises
• Listening to audio interviews/reports – as above
• Translation English to German
• Translation German to English
• Videos/TV – current news articles re. German speaking countries
• Discussion / Debate / Expressing Opinions
• Topic-related vocabulary

Grammar

Basic grammar rules – consolidation and more complex structures.

Study of a Book

“Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum” (Heinrich Böll)

• Plot, characters, key themes, narrative/technical style
• Essays in German

Independent Research Project (IRP)

Development of an area of interest relating to Germany or German-speaking countries:

1. history / literature / film / sport / politics / society / business

(for presentation and discussion in the Speaking Examination)

Assessment:

AQA German A Level Examination (2 year course)

Paper 1 – Listening, Reading, Writing, Translation

2 hours 30 minutes – 50% of A Level

Yr 12 and Yr 13 A Level topics, vocabulary, grammar, translation skills

Audio and Reading texts:

• choose correct statements
• Answer comprehension questions in German
• Gap-fill from a list of words/verbs
• Write summary in German
• Richtig, falsch, nicht im Text
• Translation German to English
• Translation English to German

Paper 2 – Writing (film and book)

2 hours – 20% of A Level

Two essays in German of approx. 300 words each:

Film : Goodbye Lenin (Becker)

Book:  Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum (Böll)

Plot, Characters, Key Themes, Narrative / Technical style

Paper 3 – Speaking

30 minutes – 30% of A Level

• Prompt card for summary and discussion on one of the A Level topics studied in Year 12 and Year 13  (25 marks)
• Independent Research Project (IRP): presentation and discussion (35 marks)

College Entry Requirements:

College entry requirements.

Subject Specific Requirements:

Grade 6 or above at GCSE in chosen language (French, German or Spanish) and a firm understanding of the grammar covered during the GCSE course is essential.

Career Links:

• Translating
• interpreting and language teaching
• languages with IT
• law
• finance or sales skills are in demand.