Proficiency based

Weiter geht's! is designed to assist the learner to intermediate-mid proficiency based on the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. For oral proficiency, the learner can 'handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations.' They are 'generally understood by sympathetic interlocutors, particularly those accustomed to dealing with non-natives’. Similar goals exist in other skills, particularly in reading since students will usually move on to content courses with further study.

Based on the description of the Intermediate Mid learner, the grammatical syllabus is reduced over what is common in 2nd year books. Learners cannot proceed to higher levels of proficiency without first achieving the lower levels, so our tasks and materials target getting learners to intermediate-mid and possibly a bit beyond. Extensive work in advanced grammatical structures such as passive, future-perfect, extended verbal modifiers etc. is beyond their skill level and not necessary for their success.

Our authentic interview materials are NOT native to native, but native to non-native communication. We achieve this by using carefully-designed interview questions administered by non-native speakers to elicit natural, authentic sympathetic responses aimed at non-natives ('sympauthentic input'). This same spirit pervades all the tasks and materials used throughout the course. Authentic reading texts receive various kinds of support and scaffolding to make them comprehensible to intermediate-mid German speakers.

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