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Accessibility statement
An image to illustrate Elementary German 1: sprechen und verstehen short course
Elementary German 1 is a 16-unit course that continues your journey through Germany, Austria and Switzerland, supporting the development of your language skills for everyday situations and travel. With 3–4 hours of study per unit, you will learn to express opinions and manage increasingly complex interactions. The course introduces new tenses and sentence structures to help extend your communication skills and improve fluency. Alongside language learning, you’ll deepen your understanding of the cultural diversity found across German-speaking countries. On successful completion, you will receive a digital badge to share on social media, in email signatures or as a certificate.
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:
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.
After completing this course, you should be able to:
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).
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
StartEngland fee
At anytime before 31/07/2026£195
We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Visa Electron.
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 2026/27 academic year. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
You can start this course anytime.
You can start this course anytime.
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