UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
Trinity College
School of Languages, Literatures & Cultural Studies
Department of Germanic Studies
Business Studies and German
German Handbook 2014/2015
Please note that a word version of this document is available from the Departmental office (Room 5065) on request.
Welcome to the Department of Germanic Studies!
This handbook applies to students taking the Degree in Business Studies and German. It provides a guide as to what is expected of you on this programme and to the academic and personal support available to you. As this degree programme is taught and administered by both the Department of Germanic Studies and the School of Business Studies, you will need to consult the Business Studies Handbook as well. If you have any questions relating to these handbooks, please ask the relevant co-ordinator:
Who to contact for further information on your language modules
Course Co-ordinator: Dr Gillian Martin, Room 5071, e-mail and Dr Joachim Kolb, Room 5060.
Who to contact for further information on your business modules
Dr DomenicoCampa (BSL Course Director), School of Business Studies, , Ext. 3775.
You are also advised to consult the BSL Examination Regulations document which can be downloaded from
In this handbook you will find information specific to the German language component of your degree, the forms of assessment for each language module, as well as a list of the deadlines for assignments. The descriptions of modules given here are intended as general overviews and details may be changed. You will also find important information about the College policy on Plagiarism at the back of this handbook.
On the departmental website you will find further important information on how to make the most of your language learning, how to study effectively, and how to write an essay (go to:
The information provided in the course handbooks is accurate at time of preparation. Any necessary revisions will be notified to students via e-mail. Please note that in the event of any conflict or inconsistency between the General Regulations published in the University Calendar and the information contained in course handbooks, the provisions of the General Regulations prevail.
You can also obtain regular information on your language modules from the notice boards in the Department of Germanic Studies. The notice boards are located in the corridor beside Room 5065 (Departmental Office). It is your responsibility to check all notice boards regularly and carefully.
Information on the Course
As a Business Studies and German student you will be taking a suite of specially designed modules, which respond to the main aims and objectives of the Business Studies and a Language degree. These aims and objectives include the following:
General
- to lay the foundation for a career in international business in the rapidly expanding global economy
- to integrate practical language competencies with business skills
- to develop an understanding of business practice in a multicultural context
- to provide graduates with an edge in a competitive job market
Vocational
- to equip graduates to occupy administrative or managerial positions in public or private sector organisations (multinational firms, banks, government agencies, industry, commerce) with international connections
- to provide students with an opportunity to gain work experience in the country of their chosen language
Academic (business)
- to develop an understanding of business theory and practice
- to develop skills and knowledge in key areas of business and management disciplines
- to provide a foundation for postgraduate study and research
Linguistic and cultural
- to develop high levels of proficiency in the foreign language
- to develop business communication skills (negotiating, making presentations, taking part in meetings, report writing) in the foreign language
- to develop an appreciation and understanding of the foreign-language cultural environment and institutions
- to develop an awareness of culturally different approaches to business operations and strategy
- to provide students with the opportunity of spending a year studying in the country of their chosen language
Generic/transferable skills
- to develop analytical, critical and logical skills
- to equip students for life-long learning
- to develop transferable skills, including presentation skills, individual learning and time management, small group work and project work, multi-tasking, and planning
- to develop qualities such as flexibility, adaptability and independence enabling graduates to cope in a rapidly changing social and technological environment
Learning Outcomes of the Business Studies & a Language Degree
Having successfully completed this programme, students should be able to:
- Identify, evaluate and synthesise the substantive business/management theories, frameworks and models;
- Use appropriate business theories and frameworks to identify, formulate, analyse and solvebusiness and management problems within national and international contexts;
- Understand the business-society relationship in the context of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance and apply this understanding to achieving effective management of the non-market environment;
- Integrate general and professional target language competencies with business knowledge and skills so as to be able to occupy administrative or managerial positions in public or private sector organisationswith international connections;
- Communicate effectively in oral and written modes with competent speakers of the target language in professional and social settings;
- Work effectively as an individual and in teams in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural settings;
- Demonstrate flexibility, adaptability and independence in order to engage productively with a changing social, cultural and technological environment and with a capacity to move effectively within and between cultures;
- Demonstrate critical cultural and linguistic awareness together with the strategies for dealing creatively with challenges in intercultural communication;
- Engage in the pursuit of knowledge in greater depth and over time in support of life-long learning, either as a practitioner or an academic.
Attendance and coursework
Attendance at all the modules described in this handbook is compulsory. Weekly homeworks are given in the Freshman years and you are expected to complete these. As a minimum, in all years students are required to submit at least two-thirds of all the work set on any module and to attend two-thirds of all classes held.
Procedures for submitting work and penalties for late submission
JF and SF students must deposit assessed work in the locked mailbox beside the departmental office (Room 5065) by the specified time. A list of submission dates and times is included in this handbook. The mailbox is emptied at 12 noon on submission dates. JS &SS students must sign in all assessed work in the Departmental Office at the specified times and on the specified sheet. The Departmental Executive Officers will countersign the sheet. The Department takes no responsibility for work that is handed in or left in the office without signing and counter-signing.
In case of accident or loss, all students should keep hard and disk copies of all assessed work. You are also required to submit any assessed work as an e-mail attachment (word) so that it can be run through anti-plagiarism software.
Assignment extension forms are available from an envelope attached to the Departmental Office window. If you are granted an extension, a form must be completed and signed by the appropriate lecturer and then attached to your work. There are penalties for late submission of written coursework without an extension. Up to one week's lateness incurs a penalty of 10 marks, after that 0will be awarded. There are also penalties for late submission of slides for oral presentations: 5 marks will be deducted if slides are not submitted by the specified time/date. NB Please see case guidelines for penalties on late submission of the case project and of the slides for presentations.
The Department undertakes to return continuous assessment within 20 working days. Where this is not possible, students will be informed.
The Department sets aside two days after the publication of the annual examination results when you can discuss your scripts with members of staff. Please keep an eye on the notice board for dates.
Marking Scheme for assessed work and examinations
The Department of Germanic Studies uses the full marking scale between 0% and 100%. This scale is subdivided into 6 classes which can be glossed as follows:
I70% +distinction – work of exceptional quality
II.160%-69%very good – merit
II.250%-59%average – good
III40%-49%passable – adequate
F130%-39%redeemable fail
F20%-29%not a serious attempt
The % mark is a symbolic representation of a student’s performance within a given class. The % is derived from the class, not the other way around. For example, one talks of marks in the II.1 class in the following way:
60%a borderline II.2/II.1
61%-63%a low II.1
64%-66%a mid II.1
67%-68%a high II.1
69%not quite a I (needs to be justified)
The Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences has laid down guidelines for assigning classes to essay-type assignments. In the case of Objective tests you should note the following.
Objective tests are correct answer tests/ items which have unequivocal answers. These may be useful in the assessment of discrete linguistic skills and/or knowledge. Objective items can be designed to focus on specific knowledge and skills, and can be set at any required level of difficulty.
Objective test types
Gap/cloze tests of various kinds
Comprehension exercises (True/False; Multiple choice; questions requiring students to locate specific information in the source text)
Matching questions + answers/beginnings + ends of sentences; Sentence completion
The main strength of objective tests is the fact that they can be marked with complete reliability, thus eliminating the possibility of marker subjectivity or bias. The assessment of objective tests may also present a problem because of possible confusion arising from (a) marks as symbolic representations of attainment and (b) marks as raw scores, without reference to standard/scale.
In the Department of Germanic Studies the top mark for objective tests is normally 80. This is an indication of a very high I class mark.
Objective tests are normally used in conjunction with other types of question in order to ensure that students may obtain an overall mark within the full range 0-100.
The pass mark in objective tests is determined by the difficulty of the test, the range of skills and knowledge that are being tested and the level of the students.
Guide criteria for awarding marks and classes
Full details of criteria for awarding marks and classes are provided on the departmental website (
The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is an academic credit system based on the estimated student workload required to achieve the objectives of a module or programme of study. It is designed to enable academic recognition for periods of study, to facilitate student mobility and credit accumulation and transfer. The ECTS is the recommended credit system for higher education in Ireland and across the European Higher Education Area.
The ECTS weighting for a module is a measure of the student input or workload required for that module, based on factors such as the number of contact hours, the number and length of written or verbally presented assessment exercises, class preparation and private study time, laboratory classes, examinations, clinical attendance, professional training placements, and so on as appropriate. There is no intrinsic relationship between the credit volume of a module and its level of difficulty.
The European norm for full-time study over one academic year is 60 credits. The Trinity academic year is 40 weeks from the start of Michaelmas Term to the end of the annual examination period 1 ECTS credit represents 20-25 hours estimated student input, so a 10-credit module will be designed to require 200-250 hours of student input including class contact time and assessments.
ECTS credits are awarded to a student only upon successful completion of the course year. Progression from one year to the next is determined by the course regulations. Students who fail a year of their course will not obtain credit for that year even if they have passed certain component courses. Exceptions to this rule are one-year and part-year visiting students, who are awarded credit for individual modules successfully completed.
Developing Study Skills
To keep on top of your work you need to develop good study skills. As part of your undergraduate study, we will be helping you to develop important soft or transferable skills such as planning, time management and multi-tasking so that you can manage your learning more effectively. These skills are life-skills and are as critical for study as they are for the world of work. When you are planning your study time, try to remember that for every hour of class, you should be doing at least two to three hours of private study (see ECTS and also the study skills document at
Peer Tutoring
The department operates a peer tutoring system for JF students. More senior students advise and help Junior Freshmen to get to grips with coursework and private study.
GradLink
The department, in conjunction with the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies runs the GradLink programme which enables SS students to contact and chat with graduates of Business Studies and a Language, who are working in Ireland and abroad and can share their experiences of looking for that first job and pursuing a particular career path. The launch of GradLink will be held in October 2014 in the Long Room Hub. At this event you can meet and chat to graduates of the department. Watch the departmental notice boards for more information on thisevent.
Books
Besides the books required for specific modules, you will need to obtain appropriate reference works to support your language learning. You should own at least one dictionary and grammar of German. We recommend LangenscheidtsGrosswörterbuch Deutsch alsFremdsprache and a bilingual dictionary such as The Collins German Dictionary. The recommended grammar is: Durrell, M. et al: Essential German Grammar (London: Arnold), 2002. You will need to buy this and bring it to all of your language classes. In later years, you should buy the latest revised edition of: Durrell, M., Hammer’s German Grammar (London: Arnold).
Bilingual business German dictionaries are available in the Library.
Business Studies and German
Junior Freshman
Course Structure
Language Fluency [10 credits] MANDATORYwhich includes:
GR1000 German language (3 hrs class, 1 hr private study, all year; 1 hr grammar lecture in weeks 4, 8, 11 (MT) and 1, 6, 9, 11, 12 (HT)
JF Spoken German (1 hr per week all year)
GR1015 German Business and Area Studies [10 credits] MANDATORYwhich includes:
German Area Studies (1hr per week all year, plus optional tutorial)
German Business Studies (2 hrs per week all year)
GR1011 Introduction to German Literature [10 Credits]OPTIONAL
1 hour per week all year + 1 hour per week tutorial all year)
Title
/GR1000, German Language (10 ECTS credits) Mandatory
Module Content/Outline
/Aims
This module aims to consolidate existing written, oral and aural German language skills and to encourage the further development of communicative and cultural competence.Content
The module develops grammatical structures through systematic revision of basic structures; text comprehension as well as written, oral and aural skills in the L2 with a focus on syntactic analysis; and production of a range of both written and oral/aural text types including descriptive and narrative texts and written expression of opinion (Leserbrief). Students improve their speaking skills by talking about different aspects of German life and people.Methods of Teaching & Student Learning
- Contact teaching: Tutorials, seminars and lectures
- Directed learning: Homework
- Blended learning: Self-access on-line exercises and language laboratory aural comprehension activities
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module, students should be able to- understand radio and news broadcasts, lectures and discussions
- participate in conversations about their lives and interests, university and general topics such as mentioned in newspapers
- participate in conversations specific to their degree course, such as business, law or literature
- write short but accurate narrative and descriptive texts on contemporary topics and topics covered in class
- build up and expand a solid basic active and passive vocabulary
- correctly apply the basics of German grammar to both spoken and written German
- Planning
- Time-management
Lecturer(s)
/Ms KatrinEberbach and others
Lectures &Tutorials/ Contact hours
/4 hours per week MT, HT
1 Grammar lecture in weeks 1, 2, 5, 9 (MT), 2, 4, 6 (9), 11 (HT)Recommended Texts/Key Reading
/- JF Language Reader (provided by the Department)
- Durrell, M. et al., 2002, Essential German Grammar. London: Arnold.
- Recommended Dictionaries: Grosswörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Langenscheidt) and a good bilingual dictionary, e.g. Collins or Oxford Duden.
- Website:
Assessment/Examination
/ Students take an assessment test at the beginning of Michaelmas term.- 3-hour end-of-year written examination (comprising comprehension, composition and grammar) [60 marks]
- 10-minute end-of-year oral examination. Students are expected to read and answer questions on a short text and/or advertisement and to converse with the examiners about themselves, their course, plans and so on. The material used in the oral examination also draws on the JF Spoken German classes. [10 marks]
- 1-hour end-of-year aural examination (comprising dictation and tape-work) [10marks]
- In-Class Test, Wk 1, HT (20 marks)
- All students must do weekly on-line tests and complete weekly homework.
- The end-of-year written examination must be passed; other failed components may be compensated at the discretion of the examiners as long as the overall numerical mark is 40 or above.
Module Evaluation
/ Students complete an evaluation form at the end of the module.Title
/GR1015, German Business and Area Studies (10 ECTS credits)Mandatory