The C-course

Developing your language skills at university

English at university is more difficult than non-language "Fachwissen" subjects because it is a combination of "Fachwissen" plus skill in a foreign language. Poorly developed language skills constitute the most frequent reason for failure in English. 

In order to develop your language skills to the expected level of near-native proficiency, you need to spend much more time on your English than is required by the official "Prüfungsordnung" (PO). 

For example, your stay abroad: if you want to become a teacher at secondary schools, a block of only three months is required by the PO; if you want to teach in a primary school, the PO doesn't require a stay abroad at all. However,  as future teachers of English, all of you are urgently advised to spend at least three months in an English-speaking country during your studies. Preferably, to make real, long-lasting progress, you should stay six months; and if you want to be very sure of achieving long-term fluency and accuracy, you should stay for nine to twelve months. 

You also need to spend time regularly on developing your language skills while you are here in Germany. Work to improve your skills every semester. Speak only English in class. Find ways of developing your English outside university, especially in the long semester breaks when you have no English classes. These days it's quite easy to make English part of your everyday life. For example, you can watch DVD films in English (with English subtitles) and English channels on TV or the internet (drama, comedy, reality shows, news, documentaries etc); you can listen to English radio on the internet; you can read English newspapers and magazines, also on the internet; you can form English conversation groups with other students and native speakers living locally; occasionally, you can take short trips to Britain, flying cheaply from Cologne or Hahn. 

It's important to realise that if you only meet the minimum requirements of the PO and if you neglect to develop your language skills steadily throughout your studies, you will find that your English can actually deteriorate at university - for your own sake, try your best to make sure that doesn't happen. 

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