The 10 clips in this video of 73 minutes have been selected from the 25 Turbo videos produced so far by Inter Nationes. The series is aimed at young people who want to learn more about the way of life of their peers in Germany today and the clips have been especially selected for their relevance to AS and A-level examinations.

Topics include the world of work and training, social issues such as drugs and violence, the media and the internet, fashion and the environment. Interviews include young people training to work with animals, be a lifeguard, join the police or become an actor. There is also background information on the major cities in Germany. We always have high expectations of materials from Inter Nationes and the Goethe Institut and this resource does not disappoint.

Hans Joachim Fuhrig, the German language adviser at the Goethe Institut, designed the worksheets, tasks and the support materials and also in-service trainng on how to use Turbo in the classroom.

Each clip, running approximately six minutes, has a variety of tasks, some lending themselves to gist comprehension and some to detailed analysis and even transcription of sections. There are sections on vocabulary work and grammar. The clips can be watched purely for the pleasure of the high quality recordings and accessibility of the German spoken, particularly in the early clips.

Weaker students struggling to make the transition from GCSE to AS-level will be delighted with these early clips, for they will definitely successfully complete the tasks set, and the later clips, with more quickly spoken language, are sufficiently challenging.

For teacher preparation there is a reliable transcript and a useful page on background information. The resource book would have been more useful in an A4 size for photocopying, but overall these free materials are excellent.

Nuala Leyden is head of modern languages at Carlton le Willows comprehensive school, Nottingham