Syllabus in German Language for Class VI

Part I - Preamble

A new German syllabus for classes V1 to XII is to be introduced in all CBSE schools.

In the modern globalised world it is important that our education system produces global citizens, who are
prepared for the challenges that they will face in their professional and personal lives. Foreign languages are
an important step towards this goal. English is no doubt the lingua franca today but to understand the thinking
and way of working and living of peoples from various cultures it is important to learn their language. The
CBSE has recognised this fact and gives its students ample opportunity to pursue languages.

India and Germany share a long tradition of economic and cultural exchange. Indian languages are a part of
the same Indo-Germanic group of languages. In the 19 th century the German scholar Max Mueller translated
the ancient Indian scriptures into English. India and Germany have been soul mates spiritually,
philosophically and intellectually over a long period of time Today these ties are closer than ever before..

German is the most widely spoken language in Europe today. Over a 100 Million people speak it as a mother
tongue in the heart of Europe i.e. Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It is the most popular
foreign language after English in the emerging economies of Eastern Europe. The knowledge of German is
one of the advantages that these countries have over India as far as market access to the large and lucrative
West European economies is concerned,

Indian students are increasingly showing an interest in going abroad for higher studies. German universities
offer many courses of study with English as a medium of instruction, but German is needed to survive and
live comfortably in German speaking countries. The advantage of studying in Germany is also the extremely
nominal tuition fee.

Hotel management institutes in Switzerland enjoy an excellent reputation in the hospitality industry and many
Indians choose to go and join the courses there again making the knowledge of German essential.

In India there is a huge demand for German speaking professionals in the fast growing BPO and KPO
industry. There is also a big demand for Indian professionals in Germany.

Indian industry in its endeavour to produce the best is buying increasingly large amount of machinery from
German companies. They need good professionals who can guide them through the German instruction
manuals. As the quality of goods produced in India improves clients from German speaking countries place
orders with Indian companies and the Indian manufacturer needs to understand drawings and other technical
material their clients send them and should also be able to interact with their German speaking partners. All
this also needs a sound knowledge of the language and understanding of their culture..

It is therefore important that students learn to express themselves in the target language. They should be able
to interact with people from German speaking countries. This makes it essential that they understand more the
nuances of the language and have a cross cultural insight into the culture of these countries and understand the
way of living and thinking of the people of these countries rather than the intricacies of the German grammar.

To achieve this objective we have to start the instruction of the German language at the school level. The
CBSE recognises this development and has decided to introduce an interactive and communicative syllabus
for classes VI to XII. 10 to 16 is the ideal age group to learn a foreign language; therefore the CBSE has
decided to introduce German at the class VI level. This means that the students have exposure to the language
for at least five years till class X, thus giving them a good working knowledge of the language.
Methodology

To achieve this objective we need to follow a certain methodology

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  Classroom teaching should become interactive and learner oriented. Pupils should be encouraged to
speak and express their opinions on a wide array of topics
 Modern text forms should be introduced so that students express themselves according to the co-text
and context
 Classroom teaching should be made more interesting by introducing games, plays and quizzes.
 Fairy tales, short children’s stories should be read out in class.
 Pupils should be made familiar with reading and writing strategies.
 Knowledge about German speaking countries should be incorporated
 Intercultural Understanding needs to be promoted. Getting to learn a foreign language invariably leads
to comparisons with our own culture. Students develop a better understanding of their own lives as
they learn about the lives of others by drawing comparisons between the two cultures.
 Students should be made aware about knowledge about language. This makes them understand how
language works and reflect upon differences and similarities between the foreign language and their
first language.

 A new text book with a communicative interactive approach should be introduced

 At the senior secondary level basic formal and business letters should be introduced
 At the senior secondary level pupils should also be made familiar with vocational German, could be
commercial terminology or technical or even legal depending upon the interest of the pupils.

Third language has two periods a week assigned for it. The curriculum is designed accordingly. It is
recommended that schools explore possibilities of starting German clubs and projects to intensify the learning
experience.

An extracurricular part of the methodology could be the conscious effort to promote an exchange between
students in India and German speaking countries.

We, therefore, need to make a list of the ‘can do’/ should be able to statements. This entails that a list of the
capabilities that the students should have at the end of every academic year will have to be made- for e.g.

 The pupil can/ should be able to introduce him/herself to a German native speaker in a culturally
correct manner.
 The pupil can/ should be able to buy a rail ticket on the Net.
 The pupils can/ should be able to understand and write a simple E-mail in German.

After such a list is made one can infer the needed grammar structures and vocabulary needed to achieve the
communicative goals that we have set ourselves.

To achieve these goals we have to also promote certain skill sets amongst our learners.
These are
 Listening and responding
 Speaking
 Reading and responding
 Writing
 Intercultural awareness
 Knowledge about language
 Language learning strategies

All these skills go hand in hand and only a comprehensive and holistic approach to the teaching of the
language will enable us to equip our pupils to be the best. To be the best not just in scoring marks, but also in
intelligently ‘handling’ the language is the need of the hour.

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Teaching material

A very important element of any syllabus change is the book. The books available in the market are Indian
editions of German publications. We need a book that keeps the needs and requirements of the Indian students
in mind. Therefore the change will have to be accompanied by a new book written in India for Indian pupils.
This book should not only cover the linguistic needs of the learner but which would also be conducive to
engendering further interest beyond the curriculum in the learner of the language. This will require inputs
from experienced teachers of German language in schools and experts in Foreign Language Teaching. The
teaching material thus produced will be published by the CBSE and the copyrights will also remain with the
CBSE.
Part II - Learning Objectives

1. Listening and responding

By the end of class VI students should be able to

 listen and understand familiar phrases and sentences concerning themselves, their family and
immediate concrete surroundings
 pick out some of the detail from short spoken passages which are clearly articulated
 understand and follow classroom instructions in German

2. Speaking

By the end of class VI students should be able to

 introduce themselves and others

 communicate by asking and answering questions about themselves, their family and surroundings
 memorise and present a poem, dialog or short text

3. Reading and responding

By the end of class VI students should be able to

 recognise and understand some familiar words and phrases in written form
 follow short texts on a known topic and understand some of the main points from it
 read aloud with confidence and enjoyment from a known text

4. Writing

By the end of class VI students should be able to

 write words, phrases and a few sentences using a model

 write simple phrases and sentences about themselves, their family and friends, where they live and
what they do
 link simple phonemes and spellings

5. Intercultural awareness

By the end of class VI students should be able to

 identify the countries where German is spoken

 recognise some typical German names
 differentiate between the usage of formal and informal forms of address

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  recognise the differences between families in India and in the German speaking countries
 recall facts about the German speaking countries, e.g. main towns, famous landmarks

6. Knowledge about language

By the end of class VI the students should be able to

 understand and construct simple basic German sentences

 understand and use question forms and negatives in spoken and written language

7. Language learning strategies

By the end of class VI the students should be able to

 learn the language in context

 make use of audio-visual aids
 use mime and gesture to understand the context

Part III - Content

Module 1

Lesson Situation Speech intention Structure Suggested activity

Lesson 1 Students  to greet  Verb - „heißen“,  introduce

introduce  to „sein“ (1st and oneself as a
themselves introduce 2nd Person) fictitious
oneself  Interrogative character/ or as
 to enquire pronoun-„Wer?“ a celebrity
about name  Sentence  connect
and age structure - numbers to
 to count Statement make a drawing
till 20  A game of
Ludo

Lesson 2 Members of a  to  3rd Person  Students

family introduce introduce singular interview each
themselves one’s  Plural form of other and/or the
family regular verbs in teacher in class
 to elicit present tense  Students
information  Personal interview a
about a pronouns in the celebrity (Role
person and 3rd person play)
reproduce  Definite article  Family
the same (Singular and photographs as
 to report Plural) a speech
about a  Possessive stimulus
person pronouns (1. and
2. person Singular
-masculine and
feminine

Lesson 3 Students talk  to elicit  Accusative case  Tambola

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 about their and give (just basics)  to
siblings and ask information  Verb - “haben” characterise
the teacher about about the  the formal celebrities with
his/her family family Address (Sie) the help of
 to  Sentence pictures
characterise structure: Question
a person (Interrogative
 to count structures – “W-
from 20 Fragen” and
onwards Ja/Nein Fragen
 to give
and elicit
information
about a
persons age
 to enquire
about
telephone
numbers
and give
one’s own
 to
interview an
adult

Lesson 4 An interview  to ask  Personal  find cities

about the family peers about pronouns in the 1st first on the
their family and 2nd person Indian map and
and answer plural then on the
their  regular verbs in maps of
questions present tense German
 to ask  Interrogative speaking
peers about pronoun – “Wo” countries-
their  Prepositions- Germany,
domicile “in” and “bei” Austria and
and answer Switzerland
questions  identify
about the global cities
same through their
 to landmarks
localise a
city in a
country

Module 2

Lesson Situation Speech intention Structure Suggested activity

Lesson 1 At home  to name the  Nouns  show a film

rooms in a  definite and sequence and

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 home indefinite ask students to
 enquire Articles- describe a
about the masculine, house shown in
rooms and feminine and the film
describe the neutrum  name objects
same  Demonstrative in the
 ask about pronoun - “Das classroom
objects at ist…”
home and  Interrogative
answer the sentence “Was
questions- ist…”
negative  Negation -
answer also “nicht” and
possible “kein”

Lesson 2 A visit to the  to ask about  “möchte” as a  „Tante

neighbours the wellbeing single verb kommt zu
of a person  the idiom “Wie Besuch“- A
and answer geht’s” visit from an
questions  Personal aunt - Roleplay
about the Pronouns - “mir,  Split the class
same dir, Ihnen” into hosts and
 offer guests. Hosts
something to offer their tiffin
guests, to the guests
acceptance or and the guests
refusal by the can accept or
guest refuse
 to express a
wish or
preference

Lesson 3 Pets  to enquire  Advanced forms  Memory

whether of haben game with
peers have  Accusative case Indian animals
pets  Negation -  prepare a
 to say, “kein” collage of
whether one  to introduce the animals or pets
has pets verb “mögen”
 to say,
whether one
likes pets or
not
 to say,
what animals
eat

Lesson 4 A visit from the  to ask  Verb “sprechen”  to match

neighbours about one’s in the present Indian
place of tense languages with
origin and  the impersonal Indian names
answers structure-“man”  to speak
questions  Sentence about the

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 about the structure with languages they
same subject as know
 to ask apposition
about  interrogative
knowledge of pronoun- “Woher”
foreign  Preposition -
languages “aus”
and answer
questions
about the
same
 say, which
language is
spoken in a
particular
country

Part IV - Assessment
Assessment should be a combination of internal assessment, periodic tests and term exams.

The syllabus developed for class VI is interactive and communicative in nature. The tests should be a
reflection of the same.

The committee suggests 20% for internal assessment, 30 % for periodical tests and 50% for the term exam.

The suggested breakup for the term exam is as follows:

1. Grammar (Multiple Choice, Fill in the blanks….)- 15 marks
2. Reading comprehension (one or more texts)- 15 marks
3. Listening comprehension (an audio text
or read aloud by the teacher) 10 marks

4. Frame questions- 5 marks

5. Reacting to stimulus (completing a dialogue,
answering simple questions e.g. “wie geht’s) 5 marks

Remarks :

1. In the listening and reading comprehension marks should not be deducted for grammatical and
orthographical errors.
2. In the written part marks should not be deducted for minor orthographical errors.
3. Dictation could be a part of the periodical tests.
4. Internal assessment should be based on regularity, project work and class response.

BOOKS

PRESCRIBED BOOK : WIR 1 (Textbook and Workbook - Module 1 & 2)

SUGGESTED REFERENCES : PINGPONG NEU 1

WIR LIVE (DVD)
LANGENSCHEIDT EURO DICTIONARY