Course Participation

From wish to participation

Compulsory Attendance

There is a 75% attendance requirement in all ZFA courses. The courses of the ZFA have a duration of 13 weeks. In a 4-SWS course, 13 teaching units (1 UE = 45 minutes), in a 2-SWS course 6 teaching units, can be missed. If you are unable to meet this minimum attendance, please speak to the staff in the Business Room.

Students who fall below this percentage (75%) can neither be admitted to the final course examination nor acquire an ungraded certificate of achievement.

If you are unable to attend the first class session, the ZFA Business Office must be notified in writing via email prior to the first class session (zfa@rub.de). Please note that it is not sufficient to inform only the course instructor of your absence. If you are absent from the first class session without an excuse, you will be deregistered in eCampus immediately afterwards. The place will be given directly to a:n student:n from the waiting list.

Good reasons for regular participation

• language is a means of communication, therefore the events of the ZFA are competence-oriented. Besides listening comprehension, reading comprehension and written expression, one goal is the ability to act orally in the language. This ability is promoted in a variety of ways in the classroom.
• language is learned through language application, therefore the learning tasks of the courses at the ZFA are action-oriented and interactive.
• Learning success increases through continuity: The contents of the courses are based on one another.
• Relation to the world in which we live: In many events, small language projects take place that are oriented towards university contexts and lifelike situations and are characterised by several sessions.
• Learning with and from each other: Language learning groups develop special dynamics that are important for the language learning process.

If you cannot make regular participation possible, then foreign language learning in tandem is a good option - a form of learning in which you can flexibly determine the dates, duration and cycle of your sessions. Information about the tandem offers of the ZFA can be found here.

Workload

1 CP (1 ECTS) corresponds to 30 hours workload. The workload for a 4 SWS course - credited with 5 CP - consists of 52 hours of attendance (in 13 weeks) and approx. 100 hours of occupation with the language (2 SWS courses analogous) and includes:

• presence plus active participation
• preparation and follow-up of lessons
• multiple aspects to be selected by the lecturer, e.g: Working in Blackboard / Moodle, making and holding a presentation, reading, self-directed learning, working with one or more partners or working with a portfolio.