Course Programme summer term 2024
Course Programme winter term 2023/24
Course programm
German for General Purposes - (A1.1 - C1.1)
German for General Purposes (A1.1)
You have no previous knowledge and want to start learning German at the very beginning? Then this is the right course for you.
With this course you take the first steps to learn the German language. The exercises are designed to be interactive and action-oriented. So you will quickly learn to communicate actively in a simple way. You will be able to understand other people when they speak slowly and clearly. You will understand familiar and common pieces of information and will be able to use fixed linguistic structures. Important topics in the course are giving and asking for personal informationand making social contacts. Furthermore, you will learn numbers and times as well as vocabulary forshopping, jobs and leisure activities.
The language training is supported by intensive work with texts for reading and listening comprehension. You will also write your first texts in German (e.g. notes or keywords).
German for General Purposes (A1.2)
This course builds on level A1.1 and leads to the completion of the entire A1 level.
You will practice all four sub-skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) and work intensively with new grammatical structures. The goal is to enable you to become linguistically proficient in everyday situations at the university as quickly as possible. For example, you will learn how to formulate statements and questions by using simple sentence structures.
You will understand short coherent texts (e.g. flyers, internet entries, informative texts and instructions). Together with other students, you will take part in simple conversations about past or present situations with regard to the academic environment. life. We will practice the following situations in this course: How do I describe my daily routine? How do I explain briefly and simply what I am studying? How do I introduce my field of studies? How do I describe my living situation? How do I make a doctor's appointment?
At the end of the course, you will be able to write and answer short, simple e-mails quickly.
German for General Purposes (A2.1)
At level A2.1 you will expand your vocabulary on various topics (e.g. celebrations, invitations, sightseeing, public institutions). You activate and consolidate your language actions (e.g. making telephone calls, formulating acceptances or refusals, obtaining information at the university).
You will master fixed sentence patterns (especially main and subordinate clauses) and idioms. This will enable you to express what you want to communicate correctly and without fear in everyday university situations likemaking an appointment at the student advisory service or formulating a complaint.
You will deal with the following questions: How can I reproduce information regarding different areas of university life? How do I compare these pieces of information? How do I express my opinion on certain topics?
You will also be able to read small texts on specific topics from everyday (university) life. In doing so, you will understand the main messages of these texts and will be able to distinguish between key statements and secondary information.
Has the course aroused your interest? Then you are welcome to register.
German for General Purposes (A2.2)
How do I write simple and short reports about events, activities, and personal experiences regarding common situations at university life? At this level, you will learn how togive a short presentation on a topic from everyday life (university matters, health issues, travel topics)?
You will learn how to open up the meaning of unknown words. We practice together how to use helpful material (e.g. reference books) in a meaningful way. You will also learn different reading and listening comprehension strategies. These will help you to understand texts with a varied vocabulary on concrete, everyday topics (e.g. advertising texts and short news broadcasts). As a result, you will be able to grasp the overall message, but in some cases you will already be able to distinguish key messages from secondary ones.
Feel free to register for this course.
German for General Purposes (B1.1)
At this level you will be able to participate at a higher level in conversations if you know the topics and find them interesting. You will gain an extensive vocabulary (e.g. from the areas of university life, media, travel).
In interactive exercises you will practice and consolidate your language knowledge by expressing and justifying opinions, reproducing facts and other pieces of information, preparing and giving a short talk or expressing wishes and intentions.
Has this course caught your interest? Then we look forward to hearing from you.
German for General Purposes (B1.2)
At this level, you can master grammatical structures and basic vocabulary regarding your oral and written communication skills with increasing confidence. You recognize grammatical rules and use them consciously when formulating sentences.
You also understand the overall message of extensive reading texts and audio contributions on current topics. Furthermore, you can distinguish between main and secondary content. This helps if you use strategies for global, selective and detailed reading and listening comprehension. You will learn how to use note-taking techniques and create outline concepts. Through the correct use of reference books, you will train intensively how to infer the meaning of unknown words.
You will write short texts from everyday situations at university. The texts are clearly structured and the main content (e.g. formal letters, inquiries, complaints, e-mails, comments, descriptions) is largely precisely formulated.
You will be able to express agreement or disagreement in a discussion and justify your positions using appropriate means of language. You will also exchange information with other students and inform others about a topic that is of interest for you.
German for General Purposes (B2.1)
At this level you can understand the main messages of more complex texts to a larger extent. You can answer questions about these texts, in areas like education, health, society, culture and media.
You will be able to recognize text structures and the organization of texts. With the help of appropriate keywords and a structured note-taking technique, you will be able to grasp the main messages of texts and subsequently reproduce them in a linguistically appropriate manner.
You can understand longer talks and presentations, e.g. from the media, and will be able follow complex argumentations if you are to some extent familiar with the topic.
German for General Purposes (B2.2)
At this level you will learn complex sentence structures. You will furthermore expand and strengthen your writing skills.
We will deal intensively with the following questions: How do I write texts following a structure plan? How do I summarize texts? How do I organize text sections logically and how do I write structured statements?
You will be able to agree with other positions or express a different point of view. You will have extensive linguistic resources to express your opinion (in a nuanced way). You can start and end conversations, and also invite others to participate. You can express yourself clearly and in a structured way regarding complex issues while using linguistic means to link texts appropriately.
Please feel free to register for this course. We are looking forward to your participation.
German for General Purposes (C1.1)
This course builds on the B2 level and focusses on communication in academic settings. You will work on complex science-related texts and conversations with socially and academically relevant content.
You will also practice linguistic features that are important for oral communication at an institution of higer education (e.g. presenting complex issues, giving lectures). You will be able to speak about abstract subjects, with regard to a familiar professional or academic environment.
Has this course aroused your interest? Then please feel free to register with us.
Scientific Language
Academic reasoning: Recognizing arguments and presenting one's own points of view adequately - (B2.2/C1.1)
How can I make my position clear in seminars and discussions? How do I recognize a good argument? How do I react appropriately to counterarguments? How do I quote the opinions of others correctly?
If you are dealing with these questions and you want to become more confident in expressing your own position as well as presenting the opinion of others, this course can support you very well. It aims at expanding and further developing your speaking and writing competencies. The acquisition of comprehensive argumentative language structures and suitable syntactic constructions will help you to present causal relations in a comprehensible way.
You will recognize typical linguistic characteristics of argumentation structures such as justifications, objections, contradictions comparisons and assumptions. - With the help of written texts and extracts from oral conversation (reading and listening materials) that are relevant to academic studies), you will gain more confidence regarding your language production.
Has this course aroused your interest? Then we look forward to your registration.
Listening Comprehension for Academic Purposes: Understanding Lectures and Seminar Talks - (B2.2/C1.1)
You have just recently passed the TestDaF or the DSH exam? You are studying now and find yourself in lectures and seminars but do not always understand the context? You are not the only one facing these problems. Take part in this course and acquire the necessary skills for listening comprehension by learning in a group.
You will report you about your listening experiences and take part in an active exchange with others. We will see into the characteristics of oral communication and find out about the core of the spoken academic language. We will work with material from lectures and seminars. Furthermore, we will improve your listening skills by using a range of listening exercises. Vocabulary exercises will complement the training sessions. We focus on strategies that enable you to understand even complex vocabulary.
This course is especially recommended for students in their first or second semester.
Oral communication for Academic Purposes: Consultation- and examination interviews - (B2.2/C1.1)
Would you like to improve your preparation for consultation hours and oral examinations? Then this is the right course for you.
Oral communication in university is varied and complex. Talks during consultation hours and exams are very important in this context. If you can conduct such conversations successfully, this can also lead to greater success in your studies.
In the German-speaking university context, consultation hours and examination interviews may be (quite) different in terms of communication than you are familiar with from your previous study experience. It may even be the case that you are not yet familiar with these conversations at all. Therefore, it is helpful and also necessary to practice communicating in these situations sytematically.
In the first part of this course you will practice how to prepare yourself for consultation hours with lecturers. On the other hand, you will get to know typical phases of these conversations and practice mastering them language-wise.
In the second part of the course you will learn how examination interviews can differ and how to prepare for them in terms of language. Secondly, you will practice understanding exam questions and formulating possible answers. You will also learn important communicative strategies that can help you in difficult exam situations and try them out.
In both parts of the course you will improve your speaking skills through simulations of specific interview phases with feedback afterwards.
Oral presentations in Academic Contexts: from a short talk to delivering a presentation - (B2.2/C1.1)
Giving a free speech in a foreign language is a big linguistic challenge for many students and often results in insecurity and fear. If you want to become more confident in giving oral presentation, this is the course for you. You will learn to deliver extensive oral presentations with confidence.
By becoming aware of how to proceed and develop a clearly structured keyword and outline concept, you will make advancements regarding the preparation and delivery of oral contributions. You will deal with the following questions: Which linguistic structures are appropriate to organize my content? How do I prepare presentation outlines and what verbal and non-verbal communication strategies can I use for giving a successful presentation?
Together with other students, you will develop short presentations on general scientific topics and present them in plenary sessions You will explain how you proceeded with your presentation. Furthermore, you will describe the functions of individual sections (main and secondary aspects, clarification, comparison, and summary).
You are welcome to bring your own study and science related topics for the presentation.
Reading Comprehension in Academic Contexts: Accessing, Structuring and Summarizing Scientific Texts - (B2.2/C1.1)
Reading and understanding scientific texts is very complex and demanding task. If, in addition, this also has to be mastered in a foreign language, this can result in stress and ambiguity as - in addition to the scientific content - the associated linguistic implementation often causes problems.
In this course you will get to know different methods to deal with extensive texts. In addition, you will improve your reading comprehension skills. You will recognize scientific text types like scientific articles, textbooks and monographs. Working with adequate reading strategies will help you to identify the structure of complex texts, to recognize key topics, to make content-related references and to document your reading results through short summaries and other exercises.
You will create outlines for text structures and apply other methods for accessing texts. This helps you to recognize and describe the structure of a text and its way of argumentation.
By asking questions about the text, you will become aware of the goal with which you are reading the texts (knowledge regarding to classification, consolidation, comparison and research). Furthermore, you will decide in what form you want to continue working with the texts after reading them like working on a term paper or using them while preparing for a presentation.
Together with other students, you will discuss the individual phases of your reading process and thus learn from each other. If possible, individual questions will be dealt with in the context of a language learning counselling.
Working Within an Academic Context I - (B1.2)
In this course you will learn key characteristics and basic techniques of scientific work specifically designed for you as international students.
What does it mean to do academic work? How does one go about it correctly and what makes it so? When you come from a different scientific culture, many things are not self-evident. Therefore, we will deal with these questions in detail and also work out the characteristics of science together. You will also get to know different communication situations in your studies and learn how to react appropriately in each case.
One focus will be on reading shorter scientific texts. In this course you will get to know and apply different reading strategies: e.g. anticipatory reading, finding the most important passages in the text, recognizing structural words. Recognizing other people's and your own thoughts also plays an essential role. How can I use sources correctly and make it clear from whom a statement comes?
What other kinds of support are available at the RUB? You will also receive information about these general offers, which are not tailored to foreign language learners.
Please feel free to register. We are looking forward to meeting you.
Working Within an Academic Context II - (B2.1/B2.2)
In this course you will learn further content and techniques of scientific work. You will be able to expand your knowledge and apply it in a targeted manner. The course is specially tailored to the scientific work of international students. Studying in a foreign scientific culture requires specific content and forms of practice.
We will deal with some examples of oral and written forms of communication in academic studies. Using these examples, we will develop and apply central characteristics and techniques of scientific work. One focus will be the systematic improvement of reading comprehension. You will get an overview of different text types, work out characteristics of individual text types and apply reading strategies in a targeted manner.
With regard to listening comprehension and oral communication, we will also deal with individual forms of communication in extracts. In the area of oral communication, this will include discussion and group/project work.
The services of the university library (UB) are also important. You will get to know the possibilities of using the UB with our support and also apply them (e.g. research techniques, reviewing and selecting relevant literature, bibliographing).
In the course, you will also receive information about general support services at RUB that are not specifically geared to the specific needs of international students.
Academic Writing I – (B1.2)
What writing experiences have you had so far? At the beginning of our course, we will reflect on these together. After that, you will work on writing activities that are relevant to your studies.
You will write e-mails to lecturers, for example, to make an appointment for a consultation or to ask a subject-related question. You will learn how to write minutes. You will also address the following questions: How do I separate important from insignificant information and what distinguishes a result protocol from a progress protocol? Another central text type in this course is the written exam. The writing of writtenexaminations will be practiced systematically.
You will also learn important reading comprehension strategies in the course. Before you can summarize a text, you have to organize and structure it. You will practice this step by step in this course.
Academic Writing II – (B2.1/B2.2)
Writing a scientific paper becomes more and more demanding and complex in the process of studying. Therefore, the individual work steps and questions in a scientific paper are made conscious. Among other topics, you will deal with the following question: How do I organize the writing process in terms of time?
You will learn important strategies for writing and you will apply them. In this way, you expand and train your writing skills step by step. Thus, you will become more and more capable of writing text types relevant to your studies. For example, you will be able to write argumentative texts or to verbalize statistics and illustrations.
In this course we will deal with the following steps for writing a term paper: What is process writing? Which steps in the process are there and how do I formulate a research question for a scientific paper? How do I deal with citations and references and how do I separate my own thoughts from those of others? How do I reduce the text volume of secondary literature? How do I formulate arguments and how do I argue a scientific point of view? The course focuses on independent formulation and revision of own text parts.
Are you curious about this course? Then feel free to apply for it.
Don't worry! Writing theses in the foreign language German - (C1.1/C1.2)
You write your thesis on German and are unsure how to successfully cope with this? This course will help you get more security in coping with this complex writing task.
This interdisciplinary course requires secure B2.2/C1 knowledge and is aimed at international students of the Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes as well as doctoral candidates who are in the final or doctoral phase and are immediately before registering their final or doctoral thesis or have already registered it.
The focus of the event will be on the complexity of the writing process, but also on raising awareness and implementing different linguistic actions in scientific writing in the foreign language German. The following central questions are dealt with: What content requirements does a scientific paper have to meet? How do I work out a question? How do I formulate the topic and limit it? How do I write an excerpt and how do I create an outline?
In the further course, the various text parts of a thesis are systematically developed from the introduction, through the description of the state of research, corpus and methodology to the final text parts summary and outlook.
In this course you will work with (your own) authentic examples. You regularly reflect on your writing process yourself and, above all, in exchange with other students, so that you can German expand your written competence in the foreign language.
Language for Specific Purposes
Specific Language for Engineering - (B2.2/C1.1)
Are you already studying for an engineering degree at RUB? Then this is the right course for you. We deal intensively with oral and written communication in your specific studies and work out important (learning) strategies.
You will expand and deepen your subject-relevant skills so that you can better cope with the linguistic challenges of your subject. Core contents include reading and understanding specialized texts, learning and actively using specialized vocabulary, actively following and taking notes in a lecture, researching specialized literature, dealing with (specialized) dictionaries, visualizing and summarizing specialized texts, giving presentations and writing handouts, discussing and presenting in your subject seminars.
The course is aimed primarily at students of engineering subjects in the Bachelor's or Master's degree programmes.
Specific Language for Business and Economics - (B2.2/C1.1)
Are you already studying economics at RUB? Then this is exactly the right course for you. We will deal intensively with oral and written communication and work out important (learning) strategies in your subject of study.
You will expand and deepen your subject-relevant competencies in order to better cope with the linguistic challenges of your subject. Core contents includereading and understanding specialized texts, learning and actively using specialized vocabulary, actively following and taking notes in a lecture, researching specialized literature, dealing with (specialized) dictionaries, visualizing and summarizing specialized texts, giving presentations and writing handouts, discussing and presenting in your field of study.
The course is primarily aimed at students of economics (such as Business Administration, Economics, Management and Economics, Sales Management and Engineering, Account and Auditing) in their first or second major or minor.
Special Courses
Regional Studies I: Studying and Daily Life - (B1)
You are new at RUB and would like to know more about the university, the city and the region. Then this is the appropriate course for you.
You will get an overview of studying and daily life in Germany and get to know the country in its diversity. You will deal with important facts and figures, make connections and reflect on (inter-)cultural differences. You get to know your own university better and discover fascinating cultural and leisure activities offered in the Ruhr region. In the course, you will gain insights into society, culture and the economy. A virtual tour brings you closer to the different regions of Germany.
The course provides you with valuable basic knowledge about studying and daily life in Germany. You will share this knowledge and discuss it together with other international students. In this way, you get to know new perspectives of Germany.
Regional Studies II: Culture and Society – (B2)
You are interested in German culture and society and would like to deepen your knowledge? This course aims at getting to know the cultural and social diversity in Germany and at being able to understand current social developments.
In this course, you learn about the wide range of cultural activities in the Ruhr area. Important topics are movies, literature and theatre. You deal with facts and figures about contemporary history, which are important for a better understanding of our present social situation. If possible, there will be an excursion where you will actively deal with contemporary history. You also learn about current social developments while working with a wide range of material.
You will deepen your knowledge of German culture and society. Together with other students you’ll develop important ideas, which you will reflect upon and also critically discuss. Your image of Germany will become clearer. A country studies project (e.g. the creation of your own podcasts) is integrated into the course, so that you have to actively develop learning content.
