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German.
Head of Faculty: Mr Graham Watkins
Head of Subject: Mr Richard Killen
German is available as an option both at AS and A2 level. We follow the AQA specification and use the tailor-made Zeitgeist course. The course is topic based, with Media, Popular culture, Lifestyle and Family/relationships being studied in Year 12 for AS. The A2 course revolves around the topics of Environment, The Multicultural Society, Contemporary Social issues and a choice of Cultural topics.
Both AS and A2 are made up of 2 units (Speaking and Listening/Reading/Writing).
The rather artificial requirement of demonstrating knowledge of German society has been removed from writing tasks at both levels, meaning that students can express their views and opinions more freely and are also able to evaluate ideas and arguments about aspects of topics which they have chosen. There is thus a more logical correlation between the productive skills of writing and speaking.
In the same way, the speaking tests at both levels no longer require knowledge of German society. Thus, at AS, there is no longer a presentation and discussion related to an aspect of a German-speaking country and, at A2, the reporting tasks more obviously and explicitly require candidates to state and defend a particular viewpoint in the face of the examiner’s challenges.
All AS and A2 Germanists will always be taught by 2 teachers and have at least 2 one-to-one language tutorials with the language assistant every fortnight.
