Lessons and grinds available in German for Leaving Certificate, Junior Certificate and Third Level
students. Classes are available for adults at all levels from beginners onwards. German for business is also available.
Individual weekly feedback given to each student and weekly testing to measure progress, identify where the student is going wrong and correct it.
You will NOT just pay money to be given piles of notes…you will be TAUGHT as an individual by someone who is in your corner and you will LEARN as an individual.
GRAMMAR
We place emphasis on verb structure, pronoun position, adjective agreement and the elimination of common errors which represent 90% of mark loss. Areas badly explained or brushed over in a school classroom or large scale grind environment will be dealt with in detail so that the most confusing aspects of case, gender and sentence construction become clear. A systematic thought process is vital to avoid error and that is a priority with us. Weekly tests are given so that individual progress and understanding can be measured in a way not done in less individually centered environments.
ESSAYS AND READING COMPREHENSION
Comprehension techniques and extension of vocabulary and from past papers and the German press
Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Der Spiegel. We examine journalistic style as guide to essay construction. Most letters and opinion pieces deal with social issues and this requires a specific vocabulary and structure which is taught every week systematically so that ideas in English can be expressed in coherent and clear German.
LISTENING
Aural work with past papers and online sources from www.dw.de www.dradio.de www.zdf.de
to accustom the ear to German spoken with correct accent as full pace. The pieces are broken down sentence by sentence and then reconstructed and as time passes an aural fluency develops that gives the student the confidence to deal with any potential aural piece presented in the exam.
ORAL FLUENCY AND CONFIDENCE
On average 20 minutes of each lesson is given over to intense oral work systematically examining exam topics of discussion using brain-storming and spider charts to stimulate spontaneous conversation and fluency. We also work on the role plays and picture sequences that are central to a good oral mark to ensure confidence in an exam situation. This level of speaking practice is generally NOT available in schools or large scale grinds because with bigger classes there simple is not the time. In Shankill Languages there is and always will be. As the weeks progress speaking becomes more fluent and increasingly full pace so that nothing any oral examiner says will be a problem for the student.
As well as past Leaving and Junior Cert Papers, UK A level, French Baccalauréat, Spanish Selectividad and Italian Maturita past papers are also used to enhance comprehension, listening and written levels.