Saturday, June 14, 2014

Language Classifications and Course Woes

So I was wondering about these language classifications such as B1 and B2, and why I had never heard of them, but it appears most everyone over here has. It turns out that they are the CEFR European Language Levels. There is a widely considered institution called Europass which can make CVs and "Passports" for people's "skills and qualifications to be clearly and easily understood in Europe". The language levels are methods of reporting how fluent someone is in a language, and is mostly a self assessment. I like how they have made it pretty objective so classes such as the ones I have been looking into at Humboldt University can say "Requirements are B2 fluency in English" or something like that. Feel free to self assess yourself if you have a foreign language under your belt. It is cool to compare across languages. Based on the self assessment, I think that I am:

  • Listening Understanding: B1. We are working a lot with the TV news in our class, probably so we can get better at understanding it. I don't know enough vocab and I can't understand when they speak as fast as they do on the news currently, so I am definitely B1. I can understand the main points though, so I think B1 labels me to a T.
  • Reading Understanding: B1. Again with the Vocab. If I understood more vocab, I could easily be B2. I have no problem following trains or thought in texts, but I just don't know enough vocab to be able to follow most literary prose.
  • Spoken Interaction: B2. I think that I am able to converse with every day people as long as they speak slowly enough in return. I didn't think that I was this B2 but since having many conversations with my teacher, host parents and brother, and classmates, I think that I might be. The people yesterday at Ultimate didn't have much trouble understanding me either, though admittedly they use a lot of English words while playing. I think that my main trouble is loss of confidence when speaking with strangers, and when the other people speak too fast for me to be able to understand them.
  • Spoken Production: B1. While I really want to think that I am B2, I have a lot of trouble coming up with the right helping verbs, or using the correct cases while talking. Often I have to go back to adjust which helping verb I used. The problem with German is it either takes a ton of preparation for each sentence or a ton of intuition. Since I don't have the intuition yet, it takes a ton of concentration and time for the preparation. I can see this getting better though, and hopefully it will be at B2 by the end of the 6 weeks.
  • Writing: B2. My writing is definitely my strength. All of my instruction has been heavily focused on grammar, and while it takes me a little while to do it, I have always been complimented on it. I still can't easily select a "style" for the reader, as is the goal in C1, but I am able to clearly describe what I want, with varying sentence structure and transitional statements.
  • Overall: B1. I think that my comprehension and speaking errors are holding me back to being a B1. Luckily, that will always improve with more and more integration. 
I am very ticked off that I won't be able to immerse myself in German the second term of the summer, as I am this term, because I think that would help me really progress to B2 if not C1, where I would love to be. I am very tempted to take a semi-intensive class or an intensive class next term, but the Hitler class is very very interesting to me.

The class, titled "Seduction and Terror: Hitler's Germany" sounds like such an opportunity to learn about how it was in and before WWII. This is one of the reasons I chose to learn German, to hear just what he said and how he became such a powerful leader while using such inhumane tactics. He must have just been a ridiculously charismatic and powerful speaker.

This Hitler course is an "A-track" course, so it runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, which means I would have to pair a "B-track" course with it. This worked perfectly because the German speaking course was a B-track course, but now that it is cancelled it is very inconvenient. The semi-intensive courses are also A-track courses, so I can't double up with that, as I would prefer. If I decide I wan't the language instruction more than the Hitler course and switch so I have a semi-intensive course, then I might as well just do another intensive language course, because none of the B-track courses sound more interesting to me than more language classes (especially if I can manage to have this teacher again. He is spectacular). So, I am faced with a quandry. I am going to look into other universities to see if they have Tuesday/Friday courses taught in German (which seems unlikely to me, but what do I know?), but I will be faced with a tough choice this week for sure. The course offerings are here, in case you feel like offering any advice.

No comments:

Post a Comment