German lessons will help prevent COVID-19

During self-isolation, students and teachers of Samara University developed a thematic online course in the format of the international exam Goethe Zertificat B1

German Philology Department of Samara National Research University named after Academician S.P. Korolev introduces an author-made German language course into the online student learning program, which focuses on self-isolation skills and responsible behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The same methodological material can be used to prepare adults and adolescents at the Goethe Institute German Language courses for the for obtaining a third-level certificate (B1) exam, which indicates independent knowledge of the German language.

“The mini-course “Self-isolation against coronavirus” was created as part of a creative project by a group of third-year “Foreign Philology (German Language and Literature)” students under the guidance of associate professor Yulia Nesteryuk. The mini-textbook is compactly designed as an interactive workbook, and the course exercises are in the international Goethe Zertificat B1 exam format”, - said Sergey Dubinin, the German Philology Department head.

The course was developed in the process of active and creative online communication of students and teachers who are in distance learning mode in March-April. The manual will allow you to master relevant vocabulary, get acquainted with the statements of German politicians on the topic of coronavirus infection, to pass a safety test during a pandemic. The mini-course contains exercises for receiving news from German publications, reading and speaking tasks.

At the end of the course students will have to prepare a presentation in German on the topic: "My personal experience of self-isolation due to coronavirus." The manual can be used in online classes with students studying German in various specialties.

The mini-course of Samara Germanists has already been appreciated by philologists from other universities, including foreign ones. “The methodological development was carried out at a high level, everything is very visual and creative. In the process of working on the material, all types of speech activity are trained,” commented Marina Mikhailova, senior lecturer of the Department of Foreign Languages at St. Petersburg Mining University. “The relevance of the topic will undoubtedly arouse the interest of students, and the presentation format of a news article in listening format can motivate students, for example, to listen to news podcasts in German independently and detailed study of lexical items and phrases."

The textbook was approved by our partners - colleagues from the University of Würzburg (Germany), who annually come to work at the Department of German Philology. "In general, I really like this course. It is obvious that a lot of work has been done, there is no doubt in the relevance of the topic. The change in students' activity is impressive: they read, write, listen, highlight the correct answers, reformulate what they heard and read. There is always some difficulty in allocating time for the individual tasks performance. In my opinion, you managed to cope well with that, "said Lucas Kütt, professor at the Department of German Linguistics, Würzburg Julius and Maximilian University.

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