Learn a language alongside your studies

Arabic Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/the family/jobs/describing things and places
• The alphabet/long and short vowels/masculine and feminine words/plurals/possessive endings/Sun letters

Arabic Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Vacation/school and university/daily routine etc
• Plural patterns/past verbs in the plural/idafa structure/negatives etc

French Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/family/going to the bar/free time/daily routine/ means of transport/shopping.
• Gender/plurals/possessive adjectives/ present tense/prepositions/frequency and time adverbs/the imperative/the near future.

French  Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Les vacances/Temps libre/ Les études et le travail etc
• Le passé composé/La négation/ Les pronoms/ L’imparfait etc

Stage 3:

Any of the following: 

• Successful completion of Stage 2
• AS level A*- B
• GCE Advanced Level grade C or below
• IB Standard level 6-7 or Higher level 4-5

Indicative topics and grammar

• Les Français célèbres/ La vie active/ la France et le monde etc

• Révision du temps/les pronoms relatifs/le subjonctif/en et participe présent etc

French Stage 4:

Any of the following: 

• successful completion of Stage 3
• GCE Advanced Level grade A*-B
• IB Higher level 6-7

Indicative topics and grammar

• Présentations personnelles / expérience personnelle de la France / les journées du patrimoine/ Les congés payés, nouveaux types de vacances/ Grands événements culturels et sportifs du calendrier en France etc
• Présent,  futur et futur antérieur/ L’imparfait et le plus-que-parfait/ Le passé composé, contrastes entre passé composé et imparfait/ Le subjonctif/ Les négatifs etc

French Stage 5:

• Successful completion of Stage 4, or
• 1 year of post-A-level language tuition or equivalent 

Indicative topics

• La vie universitaire/Les hommes et les femmes au XXIe siècle/Current affairs of the world (focusing in the francophone world)

French Stage 6:

• Successful completion of Stage 5, or
• ability to communicate at the appropriate level in the Target Language (sometimes acquired from a year abroad in the country where the language is spoken).

Indicative topics

• Actualités: discussions de sujets d’actualités provenant d’enregistrements audio/vidéo, ou d’articles de presse (écrite ou en ligne), de sujets scientifiques ou techniques, provenant de sources spécialisées (publications/sujets  sélectionnés par les étudiants).

German Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/work/daily routine/food/family/free time/describing a home/invitations
• Articles/plurals/the present tense/sentence order/possessive pronouns/separable, irregular and modal verbs

German  Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Familie und Aktivitäten/Einrichtung und Umzug/Natur und Landschaften etc
• Perfekt Wiederholung/ Wechselpräpositionen bei Verben/Adjektivendungen mit indefinitivem Artikel etc

German Stage 3:

Any of the following: 

• Successful completion of Stage 2
• AS level A*- B
• GCE Advanced Level grade C or below
• IB Standard level 6-7 or Higher level 4-5

Indicative topics and grammar

• Bücher/Serien bewerten und (Handlungen) beschreiben)/Berufe und Ausbildug/ Im Ausland leben etc
• Dativ: Verben und Präpositionen/ Relativpronomen/ Präteritum etc

German Stage 4:

Any of the following: 

• successful completion of Stage 3
• GCE Advanced Level grade A*-B
• IB Higher level 6-7

Indicative topics and grammar

• Wohnen in Deutschland – Studenten/ Jugendliche in Deutschland: Werte und Zukunftsperspektiven/Sprache: Regionen und Dialekte etc
• Kasus/Pronomen/Adjektive/Verben mit Präpositionen/Relativsätze etc

German Stage 5:

• Successful completion of Stage 4, or
• 1 year of post-A-level language tuition or equivalent 

Indicative topics

• Aktuelles aus den Nachrichten/Rund um die Unviersität/Männer und Frauen heute in der Gesellschaft
• Wiederholung: Feste Verbindungen mit Nomen und Verben/zweiteilige Konnektoren/Passiversatzformen/ Nebensätze/Partizip I und II als Attribut etc

Italian Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/family/work/daily routine/ free time/ describing towns/food and drink
• Articles/gender/plurals/the present tense/frequency adverbs/possessive adjectives

Italian  Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• I Supereroi/ romanzo a fumetti/ le differenze culturali/ luoghi dichiarati di patrimonio mondiale etc
• The present continuous/Comparative and superlative of adjectives/Indirect object pronouns etc

Japanese Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/shopping/your weekend/describing your room/ your home town
• nouns/word order/particles/numbers/ interrogative/possessive/negative of で/simple times/pronouns
• quantities/question words/ verb formます/adverbs of frequency/ verbs あります, います

Japanese Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Annual events (in Japan and students' home countries)/Traditional folktales (from Japan and students' home countries)/Problems in everyday life (eg. dealing with inconsiderate roommates & neighbours)/ Social problems (eg. rubbish disposal /recycling, traffic congestion/pollution)
• Comparatives, superlatives/Adjective conjugation/Verb te-form/polite request/prohibition/state of being etc

Japanese Stage 3:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 2
• AS level A*- B or International Baccalaureate standard level
• GCE Advanced Level grade C or below
• An equivalent qualification from another country 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Comparing different cultures, identify differences, compare good/bad points and give own impressions. Discuss life at university, modern lifestyle, technology and society. Assess current situation on environmental problems and seek solutions.

This module assumes no prior knowledge of the language. The basic structure of the language is introduced through topics related to giving and requesting personal information. The student is taught to speak, read, write and understand materials in the target language relating to everyday situations.

Please email us on LanguageCentre@nottingham.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Mandarin Chinese Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/identifying people/asking for directions/work/opinions/invitations
• Initials, finals & Tones/Third-tone Sandhi (1)/Interrogatives with ‘ma’/Questions with ‘ne’/Narrative Sentence
• Order/Chinese Basic Strokes/writing Chinese characters/rule of stroke order

Mandarin Chinese Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Asking time/Hailing a taxi/Describing health problems/Expressing volition, indicating necessity/renting a house/room etc  
• Sentences with the optative verbs (1): 会, 能, 可以, 应该/Sentences with serial verb phrases (1): Purpose/Sentences with double objects (2): 教, 问etc

Mandarin Chinese Stage 3:

Any of the following: 

• Successful completion of Stage 2
• AS level A*- B
• GCE Advanced Level grade C or below
• IB Standard level 6-7 or Higher level 4-5

Indicative topics and grammar

• Sports/Emphasizing time and location of past events/Talking about direction & location/Past experience/Making appointments or comments /Looking for a job etc
• Construction of “是…的”/Location words/Sentences indicating existence/ Contradictory conjunctions/ Complex directional complement/ etc

Mandarin Chinese Stage 4:

Any of the following: 

• successful completion of Stage 3
• GCE Advanced Level grade A*-B
• IB Higher level 6-7

Indicative topics and grammar

• 第33课 保护环境就是保护我们自己-第34课：神女峰的传说-第35 课：汽车我先开着-第36 课北京热起来了 etc

• Subject-predicate phrase as the predicate/Interrogative pronouns of indefinite denotation

• Non-subject sentence/Construction 连…… 也/都…../ etc

Russian Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar

• Introductions/family/work/daily routine/ free time/ directions/preferences
• The alphabet/personal and possessive pronouns/present tense/ Nominative plural – gender
• agreement/ Prepositional Case/past tense/ Instrumental case – интересоваться/ The Dative Case – нравиться

Russian Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Daily routine/Talking about daily life and past events/Shopping,prices,food/Comparing life in different countries/cities etc
• Verbs conjugations and tensesовать and  евать” verbs/Time expressions
• Revision: Past Tense/ Imperfective and perfective verbs/ Genitive plural
• Time etc

Spanish Stage 1:

Complete beginners, students with little or no knowledge of the language.

Indicative topics and grammar 

• Yourself and others/family/houses/daily routine/free time/holidays/clothes/food
• Present tense/ser and estar/articles/gustar and encantar/noun and adjective agreements/demonstrative adjectives

Spanish Stage 2:

Any of the following: 

• The successful completion of Stage 1 (one year of study)
• GCSE (A*-B) or an equivalent qualification
• ‘AS’ level Grade C-E
• IB Standard level 3-5, or Higher level 3. 

Indicative topics and grammar

• Talk about yourself and others”/ La vida ayer y hoy/La salud/¿Qué te pasa? Etc
• Pronouns/reflexive verbs/ tenses/ ser and estar/question words/prepositions etc

Spanish Stage 3:

Any of the following: 

• Successful completion of Stage 2
• AS level A*- B
• GCE Advanced Level grade C or below
• IB Standard level 6-7 or Higher level 4-5

Indicative topics and grammar

• Hablar de películas/ Géneros cinematográficos/ Hablar sobre pros y contras del doblaje/ El turismo y el daño al medioambiente etc
• Introducción pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo/ Repaso de los pasados (pretérito, imperfecto y pluscuamperfecto de indicativo)/ Pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo etc

Spanish Stage 4:

Any of the following: 

• successful completion of Stage 3
• GCE Advanced Level grade A*-B
• IB Higher level 6-7

Indicative topics and grammar 

• Vuelta de vacaciones-las anécdotas y cosas en común. Este verano en España/ Animales sociales. Expresiones y frases hechas/ Somos lo que comemos etc
• Oraciones causales/ Oraciones comparativas /Oraciones condicionales/ Nexos y conectores condicionales etc

Spanish Stage 5:

• Successful completion of Stage 4, or
• 1 year of post-A-level language tuition or equivalent 

Indicative topics

• La vida universitaria/El hombre y la mujer en el siglo XXI/Current affairs of the world (focusing on Spain)

Spanish Stage 6:

• Successful completion of Stage 5, or
• ability to communicate at the appropriate level in the Target Language (sometimes acquired from a year abroad in the country where the language is spoken).

Indicative topics

• Asuntos de actualidad: discusión sobre temas de actualidad basada en grabaciones de vídeo/radio, en artículos de periódicos y en internet en general, temas científicos o técnicos, basados en material de publicaciones semiespecializadas/temas especializados elegidos por los estudiantes.