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Communication difficulties often result from the incorrect use of linguistic expressions and a lack of knowledge regarding common phrases of a foreign language. This course is therefore designed to teach students a greater linguistic repertoire and understanding of prosodic features. The course will also enable students to improve their pronunciation and intonation skills.
Based on the knowledge and skills acquired during their previous studies, students will learn new linguistic features as well as reinforce and strengthen their already existing linguistic knowledge. Particular difficulties in German language usage which often may lead to confusion in the communication process will be discussed so that students will be able to identify these phenomena and develop adequate problem-solving strategies.
As communication difficulties arise not only due to incorrect use of linguistic expressions, but also through mispronunciation and inadequate use of prosodic features, the second focus in this course will therefore be on an intensive training of correct pronunciation and prosody. In this regard this course will provide students with further opportunities to improve their reception and production of German sounds and enhance their proficiency in the spoken language. Participants will be introduced to more advanced notions of German phonetics and phonology. Discussion topics concerning this matter will cover specific phonological phenomena and prosodic features in German, along with some paralinguistic features. Emphasis will be placed on various language discourses and registers in use in contemporary German.

Assessment: 100% coursework