Liebe Gäste und Interessenten,
hiermit erhalten Sie die aktuelle Ausgabe unseres
Newsletter Telekolleg MultiMedial.

*Quick-Lernchecks

 
Allgemeine Informationen     
Quick-Lerncheck Englisch   
 
Dear Telekolleg students,
I hope that you had a few restful days over Christmas and are ready for the final spurt in Telekolleg. I have spent a few interesting days in England. The poor English! They’re not as used to snow as the Germans are and so the bad weather of the last week has really caused chaos over there!

The teacher in little Jimmy’s class has asked the pupils to write a composition on the subject: ‘What I WOULD DO if I HAD a million Euros.’ He notices after fifteen minutes that ALTHOUGH the other pupils have written at least two pages, Jimmy has written nothing. “Why haven’t you written anything, Jimmy?” he asks.
“Well, “ replies Jimmy, “if I HAD a million euros, I WOULD PAY my secretary to write the composition for me.”

Unfortunately, dear Telekolleg students, you cannot take a secretary into the next exams! HOWEVER, in a few weeks’ time you will be taking the second ‘Feststellungsprüfung’ in English and later the final exam and in both exams you will be asked to write a composition or a letter of between 150 and 180 words. You can get a maximum of 36 points for this part of the final exam, so it is worth spending* time on the subject. The 36 points are divided up into 12 points for the contents, 12 points for language accuracy (How serious and frequent are the mistakes in grammar and vocabulary?) and 12 points for style (level of vocabulary, use of structures, ‘Gliederung’. etc)
There is not ONE way of writing a composition or letter – it is a very individual matter, but I hope that I can give you some useful tips in this letter. Let’s take the subject from a past Telekolleg final exam:

What contribution can schools make to promoting tolerance among people with different cultural and/or religious backgrounds ?

Prompts: - introduction - arguments - conclusion
The ‘prompts’ are to help you structure your composition (Gliederungshilfen)

The first thing we need is a list of ideas to write about (Stoffsammlung). Don’t forget: We cannot write too much in 150 – 180 words! Anyway, this could be a possible list:
- Many pupils in the class have one or two parents who were not born in Germany
- They can tell the other pupils about their cultures or religions
- Teachers should in history / social studies / physics, etc talk about different religions and cultures.
- They should treat the different cultures and religions with respect.

What do you think of this as a possible composition?

Schools can make a big contribution to promoting tolerance among people with different cultural and / or religious backgrounds. Teachers can talk about the different religions and cultures of the world in their history and social studies lessons. Many pupils in the classes come from different countries. Or their mums and dads come from different countries. So they can tell the other pupils in the class about their traditions. Then the other pupils will not have any prejudices about different religions and cultures. So I think that schools can make a big contribution to promoting tolerance among the pupils.

I’m sure you aren’t very impressed! TO START WITH, for the introduction and conclusion, our student has just repeated - with very slight changes - the question! SECONDLY, there is little detail or interest in this composition. THIRDLY, the style is boring : the same sort of sentence each time. FINALLY, the pupils has only written 99 words, (about two-thirds of the required number of words) and not the minimum of 150 words. This means that our candidate will lose a lot of points. Let’s try again, shall we?

Franco’s father is from Bari and both Mehdi’s parents (Muslims) are from Turkey. Sandra’s parents (Greek Orthodox) are from Serbia. These three pupils are all in my daughter’s class in the secondary school in Schongau. I AM SURE that in many other classes in German schools the picture is similar. It would be wonderful if such pupils were given (2) the chance(1) to tell the other pupils something about their religions and the life, language and customs in their countries.
Why shouldn’t they do this in the history, social studies or ethics lessons?(3) IN THE FIRST PLACE (FIRST OF ALL, TO START WITH; FIRSTLY) the other pupils would get (1) the chance to learn interesting things about countries (5) they might not have the chance of visiting. (4) MOREOVER (FURTHERMORE; IN ADDITION; SECONDLY) such pupils would see (1) that (5) their own cultural traditions are interesting and important for their fellow pupils ° who often lack° any knowledge of such countries: FINALLY, this would also help all the members° of the class to see (4) that all religions and cultures deserve° our respect and that (5) other religions and cultures can make our lives richer and more interesting.

I hope you’ll agree that this second composition is much more interesting than the first one. IN THE FIRST PLACE, the Telekolleg student has got our interest by starting her composition with a personal example from her family. This is, of course, only one possibility (She could, instead, talk about a recent example of lack of tolerance between foreigners who live in Germany and Germans, or maybe the results of some statistics that she has read in a newspaper). MOREOVER, she has structured the composition with expressions like MOREOVER, HOWEVER, etc. (I have typed these words – with alternatives in brackets - in CAPITAL LETTERS. Maybe you can use them yourselves in compositions or letters). IN ADDITION, she has used interesting structures: a conditional form (1); a passive construction(2); a rhetorical question (3); a gerund (4); some relative clauses (Relativsätze) (5). It goes without saying (Es versteht sich von selbst) that you don’t have to use all of these constructions to get a lot of points in this part of the final exam. HOWEVER, if you do use different structures and types of sentences you will get good marks for ‘style’.

As you can see, this Telekolleg student has got a good vocabulary: She knows the words for MitschülerInnen (fellow pupils), fehlen (to lack); Mitglieder (members) and verdienen (deserve), HOWEVER, dear Telekolleg students, if you do not have these words in your ACTIVE vocabulary or you forget them in the stress of the exam, please do not panic!!
Just use words that you know:
Instead of: ‘fellow pupils’ we can write: ‘the other pupils in the class’.
Instead of: ‘who often lack knowledge…’ we can write: ‘who often don’t know much about…
Instead of: ‘…deserve our respect’ we can write: ‘we should (learn to) respect all cultures and religions.