FOKUS DEUTSCH FUER AQA. By Corinna Schicker and Eleanor Caldwell pound;11. Oxford University Press

Klartext 1 and 2. By Richard Marsden and Elizabeth Gobey. John Murray pound;11.99 each

LOGO! 4 Foundation (Gruen). By Oliver Gray. Heinemann pound;10.99

MACH MIT! By Gwen Berwick and Sydney Thorne. Nelson Thornes pound;13

The arrival of new GCSE specifications, spelling reforms and the euro, means that for many German departments a new key stage 4 course has become a priority. These five courses are all fully up to date; only Klartext, published in 1999, does not yet have prices in euros. All present language in a contemporary context, but also emphasise the importance of mastering grammatical structures, a development which will be welcomed by teachers.

Ansto’ is a two-year stand-alone course. Based on a group of teenagers in a band, it is refreshingly European in outlook; two of the main characters happen to be English, another is Turkish, but all live in Germany, speak German fluently and are totally integrated in the band: excellent role models for our more insular students.

Basic vocabulary is revised in a lively, unpatronising way, and the student’s book is attractively and clearly laid out, although the grids to be copied for listening answers would have been more appropriate as worksheets. Each unit of Ansto’ has a detailed grammar section and examination practice exercises feature throughout the book. The recorded material is clear and authentic, if at times slightly stilted.

Ansto’ is strong on authentic reading matter, touching on issues such as multiculturalism and drugs, recommending German websites and generally leading students towards AS-type approaches.

Its weakness is that it has a fairly restricted range and number of structured activities; writing tasks move rapidly from single word answers to quite open questions with only limited support, while reading tasks rely heavily on traditional comprehension questions. However, it captures the atmosphere of young Germans’ lives, is sound in its coverage of topics and grammar, and has much to offer more able students.

Fokus Deutsch fuer AQA is a revised version of the popular Fokus Deutsch, and is another two-year stand-alone course. The layout is uncluttered and attractive and instructions in German for the varied activities are a model of clarity and brevity. The overall approach is a structured one, with clear progression within each unit from short revision exercises to more extended tasks.

Differentiation is a strong point; accompanying workbooks offer consolidation for foundation tier candidates, while worksheets provide extension material for higher tier in different skills.

Other strengths of the course are the variety of realistic reading matter and the recordings, which combine authenticity and regional accents with clarity and appropriate speed of delivery for students. Grammar explanations are clear and backed up by sound practice exercises. If Fokus Deutsch fuer AQA has a weakness, it is that even in the later units it rarely moves beyond familiar GCSE topics, and students are not encouraged to develop their ideas on real, more complex issues.

While the course is specifically linked to the AQA specifications, it is equally suitable for GCSE exams from other boards, although convincing students and headteachers of this might be problematic. A lively all-ability course which covers all the required topics and gives students a thorough understanding of grammatical structures, it is clear, user-friendly and has an authentically German feel.

Klartext is described as a two-part course for beginners in KS4, but the presentation and rate of progression in the early units make it suitable for students with some previous language knowledge. The course has many strengths. It has an authentic feel and is firmly rooted in modern multicultural German society, with the section on Feste including Jewish and Turkish festivals. There are varied and imaginative activities to practise basic vocabulary and skills and clear grammatical explanations. The authors do not shrink from tackling social issues such as racism and unemployment, however, both in the story-line, a soap-style tale of a group of teenage friends, and through authentic newspaper reports, and students are led beyond traditional GCSE transactional language.

One weakness, however, is an absence of structured tasks to encourage more able students to write at greater length. Some teachers will also find the recorded material rather fast and unclear, and the songs seem more appropriate for younger learners. Nevertheless, Klartext is thoughtful and original, and I recommend it as a course which gives students of all abilities the opportunity to use their language knowledge to consider real issues of everyday interest.

The established Logo course has two parallel differentiated student’s books for KS4, and Logo!4 (Gruen) specifically targets foundation tier candidates. The presentation is attractive, although some pages are rather overcrowded, and there is a variety of activities on each topic. Eight accompanying workbooks provide additional structured reading and writing activities, and there are separate assessment packs for each GCSE board.

Although aimed at foundation tier, the student’s book includes short grammar explanations, and has a reference section with more practice activities at the end for the more able. The course’s main strength is its thoroughness, and many schools will appreciate the differentiated textbooks and the workbooks which facilitate individual learning. The exam advice is sound, although the section on coursework could stress more the dangers of copying.

Areas of weakness are a lack of authenticity in some of the illustrations and in the recordings, which often sound like written German read aloud rather than normal speech. However, Logo! 4 will be welcomed for its wealth of straightforward activities, which will keep even weak candidates purposefully occupied at all times.

Mach mit! is a two-year stand-alone course, but one which assumes considerable prior knowledge of German. Although it aims to cater for the full ability range, the concentration of text and the open nature of many of the tasks make it more suitable for the more able. There is good use of authentic material, in the form of magazine articles and advertisements, and the “Lesepause” pages provide more extensive reading matter. Grammar coverage is detailed, and accompanying worksheets give extensive additional writing practice.

The recordings are clear and the speakers attempt to put feeling into the dialogues; sometimes at the risk of sounding somewhat contrived. Mach mit!‘s strengths are those of a traditional grammar-based course and it provides a thorough grounding for able students. Many of the tasks are very open, however, and even confident linguists will require support to tackle them successfully.

While much of the material is up to date, teachers may question the emphasis on narrative writing, exemplified by the picture compositions and tasks which require students to describe what is happening (or even not happening) in a picture. There is much good material here, but it may need to be used selectively with more sophisticated teenagers.

All these courses have much to recommend them.

Gill Maynard is languages development officer at the Anglo-European School, Essex and teacher of German at Chelmsford County High School