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About the teacher: My name is Carien Bus. Teaching and learning languages have always been a passion. Having studied five foreign languages myself, I have learned a lot about effective (and not so effective) ways of learning them. I discovered that listening a lot (especially to music), using memory techniques and doing conversation exercises are very useful, and that a learning method that is fun is also more effective. Why a LanguiCo Course? My experience as a teacher is that students (most of them (former) TU students and PhD’s) are busy and don’t have much time to sit behind their desk and study. Therefore, the course material is designed to help students to use all the spare moments they have to study Dutch. All the dialogues from the text book (that was selected for its many vivid and realistic dialogues) are on the 5 cd’s, so you can learn Dutch by listening to the cd’s while cycling, shopping or doing other things. Students will also get a lot of Dutch songs to listen to (and sing along with): music sticks to the memory a lot stronger than other kinds of text. Just listening to the songs (all translated into English) twice or three times a day will give you a vocabulary of hundreds of words, with hardly any effort! In class, the focus will be on the speaking exercises of the ‘tekstboek’, preparing you for real-life conversations. In order to allow students to participate fully in the conversation exercises, there will be a maximum of 7 participants in a class. In the ‘werkboek’ (exercise book) you’ll find a big variety of reading, writing and listening exercises, including some word games, to practice the new words and grammar. It is designed to be used for self-study, so you can do and check the exercises at home. Contrary to some other methods, quite some attention will be given to grammar. This is because you cannot make correct sentences without grammar, and conversation is an important aspect of the course. Attention will also be given to memory techniques like association and visualisation, as described by (among others) Tony Buzan. During the course I’ll give examples of how you can links things that are difficult to memorize (like ‘het’ words and irregular verbs) together in a story, or how you can link difficult words to an English or Dutch word that is already known. I don’t want students to lose time searching for the meaning of words in dictionaries. Therefore, for each text or exercise a Dutch—English vocabulary list is provided and all songs are translated and come with a vocabulary list. During the classes, explanations will be given in English when necessary, especially in the beginners’ course. However, the teacher will speak Dutch as much as possible. COURSE LEVELS AND BOOKS During the course we will use the method ‘Contact!’, by Intertaal. During the first three courses we will use the Contact!1 book, which should bring you to the A2 level (Common European Framework of Reference). In the level 4 to 6 courses the Contact!2 book will be used, which takes you to the B1 level. The costs (53 euros) are not included in the course fee. Books can be ordered the first week through the teacher, or directly at www.intertaal.nl. The books (tekstboek, werkboek and 5 cd’s) contains an enormous amount of exercises: Listening, reading, writing and pronunciation exercises, most of which you can do at home. They also contain many conversation exercises, which will be done in class. All dialogues are on cd and will be given as mp3’s, so you can listen to them anywhere (and preferably several times a day). CONTENTS BEGINNERS’ COURSE: Main subjects treated: Saying hello, goodbye, how do you do, telling something about yourself, numbers, time, ordering in a restaurant, shopping, hobby’s, habits, sports CONTENTS LEVEL 2 COURSE: Main subjects treated: Asking the way, tourism, making appointments, buying clothes, describing people, the family, emotions, describing someone’s character, Dutch national holidays, going to the doctor, asking and giving advice CONTENTS LEVEL 3 COURSE: Book used: Contact!1 and Contact!2 Main subjects treated: Town hall affairs, looking for a job, traveling and holidays, writing letters, looking for a house or room, telling stories in the past, giving your opinion, the weather, study and work. CONTENTS LEVEL 4—5 COURSE: Subjects treated: Talking about yourself and other people, talking about the past, telephone conversations, giving advice, making plans and appointments, and everything treated in earlier courses. News articles. CONTENTS COURSES LEVEL 6 AND UP These courses mainly consist of conversation practice, along with grammar exercises. We will discuss a variety of television broadcasts that can be watched with Dutch subtitles, and read news and scientific articles. |
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LanguiCo |
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About the course |
