Any German teachers around?

[themuttsnutts]

I am doing a bit of tutoring and I did my degree about 100 years ago.

In German, what do they call the imperfect tense these days? Whilst looking for materials, I have seen it explained in several different ways - from the simple past to the preterite to the imperfect and the Präteritum or Imperfekt in German. Back in the day, it was just the imperfect/Imperfekt.

For clarity, I am referring to conjugations such as ich sagte, ich machte etc

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsb76fr/revision/1

Last taught many years ago and we used imperfect.
Bitesize concurs.

In Germany the imperfect = erste Vergangenheit and perfect = zweite Vergangenheit. That's what my kid was taught in Grundschule. Präteritum might have been used at Gymi and the kids were all hä?!

Pearson (Edexcel) still call it the imperfect / Imperfekt in the current book.

So, imperfect it is then. I have now totally confused my student who was already a bit confused

Präteritum - 1. Vergangenhait - unzusammengesetzte Vergangeheit

Imperfekt ist veraltet

www.grundschulkoenig.de/1-und-2-vergangenheit/

Vielen Dank!

Another question, as tutors, do you concentrate on the grammar, comprehension and writing skills or do you practise spoken German, too?

I've been mainly covering the wriitten side of things so far

Wouldn't this depend on the needs of your pupils i. e their weaknesses?
And - assuming you are in the UK - on the exam they need to take?

(In case of English as a MFL all four skills are tested in exams. DS has an oral exam nest week talking about frakking, extinction rebellion and other environmental stuff.)

Yes, I think so. My student struggles with vocabulary and verbs the most but a lot of it is down to confidence. I am in the UK and it's for GCSE

GSCE - what level would that be (framework-wise)?

Confidence is a problem, the feeling they can't say what they want to say and have to dumb down. at that age especially.

Ask your student which exam board they are working with so you can then download the specification and look at past papers - styles of questions can vary between exam boards. There is no speaking exam this year.

GCSE is an exam they take at 16 so Mittlere Reife. In the UK, it's the basics - e.g
family, relationships, ordering food, hobbies etc. We cover most of the grammar but the subjunctive tends to be covered later, as do heavier topics, such as politics, environment and so on.

I did ask about the exam board but she didn't know. Perhaps I will just ask the school.

Confidence is definitely part of it. I was the same

themuttsnutts

So about A2/B1 then?
There are lots of 'Easy readers' for every DaF level that include the vocabulary relevant for the level plus questions to answer in writing.
But the exam bord will have the requirements listed somewhere.

There is no speaking exam this year.
Yes, one pupil I know is gutted. But with that in mind, I'd continue concentrating on written and some aural tbh