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Elementary German 1: sprechen und verstehen

This course further continues your journey to Germany, Austria and Switzerland and progresses your skills needed for understanding and using the German language in everyday situations and while travelling. Studying 3–4 hours in each unit, Elementary German 1: sprechen und verstehen offers the perfect opportunity to continue the development of your language skills. You will learn to express your opinions and to master everyday situations of mounting complexity. Moreover, you will learn to use different tenses and sentence structures to extend your proficiency of communicating in German. You will also further increase your awareness of the cultural diversity of German-speaking countries.

After successfully completing this short course, you will receive a digital badge. This can be shared on social media, added to email signatures or act as a certificate.

Standalone study only

You will not be awarded credits for studying this course. It is available for standalone study only and cannot be counted towards an OU qualification.

Short course

Short course code

LGXG004

Credits

This is a non-credit bearing course.

Study method

Short course cost

Entry requirements

What you will study

Almost 100 million people speak German as their main language. Most of them live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, making German one of the most widely used languages in Europe. Now associated with economic success, science and technology, German also has a long-standing reputation as a language of poets and thinkers.

This short course offers you an excellent opportunity to take further your knowledge of the German language. You’ll continue to develop the essentials of reading, writing, speaking and listening in German. You’ll also improve your key skills that will enhance your future study of the language.

By the end of the 16 units of Elementary German 1: sprechen und verstehen you will be able to:

  • express your opinions on a variety of themes and topics, such as lifestyle, daily routines, leisure activities, landscapes and geography, and travelling
  • use a variety of expressions and types of words, such as adverbs of time and of frequency, prepositions, and comparisons
  • master and communicate in typical everyday situations; for example, understanding and responding to train announcements and describing movements
  • understand and employ key issues of German pronunciation, especially the sounds alien to non-German speakers, such as Umlaute
  • use regular and irregular verbs in the past tense and in imperative forms.

Furthermore, you will have had many opportunities to enhance your intercultural understanding through engaging with learning materials, which reflect German-speaking countries and their people and through learning about places and sightseeing in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Delivered through user-friendly, ‘bite-sized’ blocks, in each unit you’ll discover useful words and set phrases. Audio material, featuring recordings by native speakers of German, and a wide variety of speaking activities will aid your pronunciation. Throughout the course, you’ll build up your own German phrase book covering a variety of topics and typical situations. You will also practise using important grammatical features such as the dative case, prepositions, separable verbs, and the past tense.

You will learn and improve your strategies to memorise and use German vocabulary and grammar, as well as practise learning strategies such as skim reading, using fillers, and speaking from key words.

Along with completing the activities and quiz in each unit to strengthen your learning, you’ll have built and developed your own language notebook and gained a solid foundation of elementary German to move onto the next level.

Viel Erfolg, und weiter so!

Please note that although this course is non-accredited, it can be used towards the module Making your learning count (YXM130) to gain OU credits.

You will learn

After completing this course, you should be able to:

  • communicate with speakers of German in a range of predictable and simple contexts relating to everyday life
  • know and use the principles of German pronunciation
  • understand and use the special German characters (Umlaute) and be able to Word-process or handwrite them
  • better understand the cultural differences and customs between German-speaking cultures and your own
  • correctly build and employ a variety of grammatical structures, such as verb tenses, prepositions, and sentence structure.

The course is designed to help you achieve a level of language proficiency equivalent to level A2 of the Council of Europe Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR).

Learner support

You will have access to discussion forums that you are strongly encouraged to participate in as these forums combine support from fellow students with input from a language-specialist learning adviser. Other support is available via the StudentHome website and Computing Helpdesk.

If you have a disability

The course is delivered online and makes use of a variety of online resources. If you use specialist hardware or software to assist you in using a computer or the internet you are advised to contact us about support which can be given to meet your needs.

The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying LGXG004 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.


Entry requirements

There are no entry requirements for this course.

However, it's beneficial if you have some basic knowledge of German, similar or equivalent to the language, skills and vocabulary practised in Beginners German 1: fang an! (LGXG001), Beginners German 2: mit vergnügen! (LGXG002), and/or Beginners German 3: richtig so! (LGXG003).

You will be given guidance on developing your language-learning skills such as different techniques to memorise vocabulary and approach grammatical topics.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact us.

Course length

The course is made up of 16 units, with each unit expected to take about 3–4 hours to study. In total, you’ll need around 64 hours to complete the course.

You can begin at any time during the life of the course and study at your own pace. The course will be open to you for a time period of between 6 and 18 months depending on your course registration date and you will be advised of the specific time limitations upon enrolment.

Register

Start End England fee Register
At anytime before registration end date Jun 2025 - see Entry requirements for more detail £195.00

Registration closes 31/12/2024

Register

Ways to pay

Credit/Debit Card – We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.

Sponsorship – If this course is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees. Your sponsor just needs to complete a simple form to confirm how much they will be paying and we will invoice them.

The fee information provided here is valid for short courses starting in the 2023/24 academic year. Fees normally increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.

Can you study an Access module for free?

In order to qualify, you must:

  1. be resident in England
  2. have a personal income of less than £25,000 (or receive qualifying benefits)
  3. have not completed one year or more on any full-time undergraduate programme at FHEQ level 4 or above, or completed 30 credits or more of OU study

How to apply to study an Access module for free

Once you've started the registration process, either online or over the phone, we'll contact you about your payment options. This will include instructions on how you can apply to study for free if you are eligible.

If you're unsure if you meet the criteria to study for free, you can check with one of our friendly advisers on +44 (0)300 303 0069 or you can request a call back.

Not eligible to study for free?

Don't worry! We offer a choice of flexible ways to help spread the cost of your Access module. The most popular options include:

  • monthly payments through OUSBA
  • part-time tuition fee loan (you'll need to be registered on a qualification for this option)

To explore all the options available to you, visit Fees and Funding.

What's included

All learning materials are delivered entirely online and there is no formal tuition for this course.

Your study is self-directed and you’ll have access to a course website, which includes:

  • a unit-by-unit study planner
  • course-specific materials and activities
  • audio content
  • discussion forums
  • support from language-specialist learning advisers.

Computing requirements

You'll need broadband internet access and a desktop or laptop computer with an up-to-date version of Windows (10 or 11), or macOS Ventura or higher.

Functionality may be limited on mobile devices. For example, voice recorder activities, which are common in language short courses, may not work on iOS/Apple devices.

Our module websites comply with web standards and any modern browser is suitable for most activities.

Our OU Study mobile App will operate on all current, supported versions of Android and iOS. It's not available on Kindle.

It's also possible to access some module materials on a mobile phone, tablet device or Chromebook. However, as you may be asked to install additional software or use certain applications, you'll also require a desktop or laptop as described above.