Dear colleagues,
You may remember the message I sent out a few weeks ago, asking for information on current German ab inito programmes in the UK. I would now like to share the results of this informal survey.
After sorting through the often very detailed answers – many thanks to respondents for elaborating! – the following simplified picture presents itself:
By necessity, students take an intensive language course at level 4. This is worth between 15 and 60 credits (mostly 40). They are taught separately at most universities; sometimes other beginners students (e.g. exchange students from partner institutions) join them. In their German language classes, ab initio students have between 4 and 6 contact hours in their first year.
Almost all institutions require the ab initio students to join the post-a-level cohort at level 5 and follow the normal degree programme from year 2 onwards. Most universities provide additional language support in the second year (usually one extra contact hour per week). Sometimes ab inito students sit different (less challenging) language exams in level 5 and/or complete different target language assessment for content modules.
Everywhere ab initio students follow the normal Year Abroad pattern and spend between 4 and 12 months in a German speaking country – depending on their other degree subjects.
In a few, seemingly isolated, cases, universities wait for the students to complete their Year Abroad before they join the post a-level programme of study.
In the large majority of cases, students will already be well integrated into the post-a-level group by the time they start level 6. In the final year there is no longer any additional language support and students are expected to have reached the same level as their post-a-level counterparts. This appears to be feasible, in fact some colleagues have pointed out that ab initio students sometimes even do better than members of the post-a-level group.
Some institutions limit the choice of combinable subjects to Languages or Arts, but all in all a large variety of combinations is available to German ab initio students in the UK.
Judging from the responses I’ve had, it would seem that the model which has ab initio students joining the post-a-level cohort at level 5, with additional language support being made available, is successful, allowing beginners students to reach degree level by the time they graduate. However, some colleagues have pointed out that numbers to date are relatively small and that running an intensive language class for a tiny group, even if it is only at level 4, can put a strain on resources.
I would therefore like to conclude this overview by pointing out that the Open University offers distance learning ab initio to degree level courses and invites proposals for collaboration, which could consist of providing local tuition to top up the OU's self-study courses. Colleagues interested in setting up such co-operative arrangements should contact Klaus-Dieter Rossade (ý[log in to unmask]<file:///C:[log in to unmask]> )
Many thanks again to everyone who replied to my call for information.
Best wishes
Claudia
Dr Claudia Gremler
Senior Lecturer in German
LSS UG Academic Examinations Coordinator
School of Languages and Social Sciences
Aston University
Aston Triangle
Birmingham B4 7ET
Tel.: +44 121 204 3783
Email: [log in to unmask]
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