Work samples

By the end of Year 8, students use written and spoken German to interact with teachers, peers and others; to make decisions, solve problems and negotiate transactions; and to exchange and justify ideas, opinions and views. When interacting, they use both rehearsed and spontaneous language to ask and respond to open-ended questions and express, compare and justify opinions, for example, Sie glaubt, dass … Ich bin dafür, weil …

They apply rules of pronunciation, rhythm, stress and intonation to a range of sentence types and words, including loan words from English. They obtain, summarise and evaluate information from a range of sources. They express opinions and feelings in response to imaginative texts, and make connections with their own experiences and other texts. They plan, draft and present original imaginative and informative texts, following models to link and sequence events and ideas using both adverbs such as danach, dann, früher, vorher and common subordinating conjunctions, for example, als, wenn, weil, dass. They use some modal verbs and imperative forms, for example, Was soll ich machen? Du kannst … Kauf die neue App! They refer to a person, object or place using definite and indefinite articles, personal pronouns, and some demonstrative and interrogative adjectives such as dieser, jeder and welcher. They produce original present tense sentences and use familiar examples of the Perfekt and Imperfekt tenses. They use a range of everyday and topic-based prepositions, adverbs and adverbial phrases, for example, nach der Schule, zu Hause, in der Stadt, gegen die Wand, links, hier, oben, im Süden. They interpret and/or translate terms associated with the culture of German-speaking communities or their own culture, and explain specific values and traditions reflected in the language. They create a range of bilingual resources for the wide community and to assist their own and others’ language learning. They explain the importance of shared understanding, discussing adjustments made as a result of reactions and responses to intercultural experience. 

Students explain how language changes over time and identify reasons for change. They identify and apply the German case system (nominative, accusative and dative) and name some grammatical terms and their functions. They describe the similarities and differences between German and English punctuation, including capitalisation, numbers (ordinals, decimals) and quotation marks. They explain reasons for differences in a range of text types, for example, personal, informative and persuasive texts, including differences in text structure and language features. They give examples of how language use varies according to audience, context and purpose. They identify different aspects of the cultural dimension of learning and using German, and explain how language use reflects cultural ideas, assumptions and perspectives.