Useful Links for the "Oberstufe" (for literature links, see "Novels & Plays")
| Test your English! | |
| English proficiency tests for elementary, intermediate and advanced students | Hundreds of test exercises (you can check your answers immediately and compare them to the correct solutions) |
| Just how good is your English - now that you are in the Oberstufe? |
Jetzt müssen Sie nicht mehr vermuten, wie gut Ihr
Englisch ist! Finden Sie Ihr wahres Leistungsniveau heraus.
Nehmen Sie sich Zeit, die Fragen zu beantworten, sie reichen von Multiple-Choice-Fragen bis zu Bildzuordnungs-Aufgaben. Es gibt auch Situationsfragen, bei denen Sie eine Situation mit Animationen erhalten, um zu überprüfen, wie anwendbar Ihr Englisch in Situationen des wahren Lebens ist. |
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Choose between basic, intermediate and advanced level - do the test - get your feedback and score - print your results as a record! |
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Other gateways (second only to this one!) to websites on the English language |
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| Langenscheidt Linkfinder | if you can't find the information you are looking for here, you probably won't find it anywhere else either! |
| News | for complete list, go to "News websites" register |
| signandsight | Arts, essays and ideas from the feuilletons of German-speaking newspapers and magazines |
| DER SPIEGEL ONLINE English Site | As a new service, Germany's leading weekly news magazine offers English translations of its cover stories or the most important feature articles whenever they concern international affairs. Additionally, concise summaries of other important SPIEGEL articles are also provided. |
| BBC newsround | UK and world news |
| news about Britain and Germany | |
| Topics | |
| Thanks for this, as well as other pages, Kurt Sester | |
| Skills | |
| A. Reading (Scanning) | |
| The Big Scan | Solve a murder mystery (modelled after R. Chandler's "The Big Sleep"), practice your reading skills, and beat the clock! |
| B. Text Production | |
| Writing Tutorial Services (Indiana University) | Each pamphlet deals with a
specific writing situation. Most pamphlets are available in html and pdf
versions. To read the pdf versions, you will need
Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Students may also pick up paper versions of pamphlets
at WTS. Faculty may contact WTS to order paper copies for their classes. Help with citing (APA, Chicago, MLA) “How to Use Evidence”:
html,
pdf |
| Writing exercises for self-directed study: From topic sentences to paragraph-building | Learn how to produce a well-structured essay and become aware of the function of topic sentences and the various types of paragraphs |
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Just about the most comprehensive, if not to say exhausting guide to exactly that. |
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Jochen Lüders, who teaches English at a Gymnasium in Munich, offers different kinds of useful material especially for students in the "Oberstufe" of the Gymnasium. Under "Vocabulary" you can find several vocab sheets, covering e.g. various aspects of computing, mobile phones, DVD etc. Under "Abitur" you can download many model solutions for the (Bavarian) Grundkurs- and Leistungskurs-Abitur. |
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| Michael Jaeger's website | Michael Jäger, who teaches English at the Gymnasium Burgdorf near Hannover, offers English language files which are of interest to students of the "Oberstufe". |
| The Essay Writing Center | Essay Info is for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills. Whether your purpose is to get better grades at school or just to enjoy the writing process Essay Info will lead you to your goal. It is intended mainly for college students and useful for those of you, who strive to write more clearly, gracefully, and efficiently. |
| Here are some questions you might ask when you are faced with the task of reading or writing about fiction. Your answers to these questions will help you begin brainstorming, to overcome the awful whiteness of the empty page. | |
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This interactive tutorial guides you through the production of this classical text sort, step by step |
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| C. Presentations | |
| TED talks |
Worried about the "Fünfte Prüfungskomponente" of your Abitur exam, the presentation you have to give? Find inspiration and encouragement here on this great website! TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes). This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 100 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. |
| TED talk: Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. |
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TED talk: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen |
You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful. |
| TED talk: New insights on poverty and life around the world | In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty. He shows us the next generation of his Trendalyzer software -- which analyzes and displays data in amazingly accessible ways, allowing people to see patterns previously hidden behind mountains of stats. (Ten days later, he announced a deal with Google to acquire the software.) He also demos Dollar Street, a program that lets you peer in the windows of typical families worldwide living at different income levels. Be sure to watch straight through to the (literally) jaw-dropping finale. |
| TED talk: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis | With the same humor and humanity he exuded in An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore spells out 15 ways we can address climate change, from buying a hybrid car to inventing a hotter brand name for global warming. First, though, comes a hilarious set of stories from The New Gore, who turns out to be a stand-up comedian. The former Vice President has plenty of joke material, and he's funnier than you've ever seen him. Then he gets down to grittier matters with a list of actions ordinary people can take to stem the tide of global warming. His message: Doing something is easier than you think. |
| Splendid Speaking | This podcast supports advanced learners of English who want to develop their top-level speaking skills and communication strategies. |
| Language | |
| Vocabulary knowledge tests for walking dictionaries | Looking for a challenge? |
| Avocabo Vocabulary Series | AVOCABO is a dynamic vocabulary series for grade 11, 12 or 13 classes. The weekly exercise sheets are available in convenient PDF files. Choose from over 40 vocabulary units. Each unit highlights 20-22 vital words presented with a variety of challenging exercises. |
| English proficiency tests for elementary, intermediate and advanced students | Hundreds of test exercises (you can check your answers immediately and compare them to the correct solutions) |
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Grammar Bytes!
Interactive Grammar Review |
a really cool site but it takes an already advanced knowledge of English to fully understand the language of the site. |
| English Language Listening Lab Online |
Learn English
by listening to English speakers from all over the world. Over 400
listening activities to choose from!
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| Elements of Style | |
| Connectors (linking phrases and expressions) | Words and phrases to open and connect sentences according to their functions |
| Phrasal Verbs Dispenser | |
| How to write in plain English | |
| Rhetorical figures | |
| Rhetorical figures exemplified by famous American speeches | |
| Styleguide | |
| A list of idioms | |
| A list of collocations | |
| Business English | |
| Business English Exercises | |
| Linguarama language training for Business | |
| Learn Business English with BBC | |
| Pitfalls to avoid when writing texts | |
| Common Errors in English | |
| Fehlerliste | Eine Hilfe zur Aufarbeitung hartnäckiger persönlicher Fehler im grammatikalischen und lexikalischen Bereich bei der schriftlichen Produktion von Texten. |
| Easily confused words | |
| A list of "false friends" | |
| "German English" | |
| Check your knowledge: What's wrong here? | |
| Twenty-four time-tested methods of how to kick yourself in the head when doing written work to be submitted for marking | Adapted from http://www.jochen-lueders.de |
| Literature | For a complete list of references, see register "Novels & Plays" |
| Reading and writing about fiction | Here are some questions you
might ask when you are faced with the task of reading or writing about
fiction. Your answers to these questions will help you begin brainstorming,
to overcome the awful whiteness of the empty page. |
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Literature Study Notes |
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Free study materials for Literature, Technology, Writing, Research |
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Reference material |
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| Glossary of Theatre Terms | |