LAC3001 Language and the Contemporary World (FOART)

Units 1.0 (Northern European Languages) Band 1

Pre-requisite: LAC2002 or for German strand GER2102 or for Chinese strand CHI2022

Synopsis

This course raises students' language skills to beginning intermediate level, equipping them to comprehend set texts in their original language. Students will be expected to read accounts of important contemporary issues occurring in Germany or China published in German or Mandarin. Culturally, the course focuses upon vital contemporary issues and the processes of social change occurring in Germany and China at the present and relates these changes to national histories previously studied. The course demonstrates how contemporary changes appear in German and Chinese popular culture, and examines the evolving regional role of both nations: Germany in the Europen Union and China in rapidly developing East Asia. LAC3001 builds on the skills and concepts acquired in LAC1001 to LAC2002. Emphasis in class activities (3 hrs per week) is on the application of language and cultural concepts introduced in course materials and prepared by studetns in independant study and practice prior to attending class. Important: Students in this course must elect to enrol in either the German or Mandarin Chinese stream.