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Modern Language Center

mission statement of ZEMS

ZEMS‘s courses make a decisive contribution to the successful implementation of the internationalization strategy of the TU Berlin by providing language and intercultural skills training. Through its content orientation, ZEMS promotes direct student mobility and academic success as well as success in internships at home and abroad.

TU Berlins’Modern Language Center is member of Arbeitskreis der Sprachenzentren an Hochschulen (AKS) and of the network of language centers at universities in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg.

Extensive language skills also qualify our graduates for the globalized labor market.

ZEMS’s courses are aimed primarily at students of all faculties, but also at TUB scientists and other interested parties.

 

Kolik jazyků mluvíš, tolikrát jsi človĕkem.

How many languages you speak, so often you are human.
(Czech proverb)

We develop and promote:

  • General language knowledge in preparation for a study-related stay abroad or for foreign students to study at the TU Berlin,
  • Professional language skills in German, English, French and Spanish for the introduction into technical language and the culture of selected subjects (e.g. engineering, natural sciences, architecture and planning, economics and social sciences),
  • Language skills for an exchange in interdisciplinary courses
  • Language competencies, such as scientific writing, oral and written language in university and professional life, scientific oral presentation for the German and English languages.

Our courses:

ZEMS’s courses are curricula-oriented, are defined in module descriptions and are concluded with examinations. ECTS credits are awarded for ZEMS’s courses. They are distinguished by:

  • Consistent implementation of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR),
  • Rapid progression,
  • Specific multimedial teaching materials, including blended learning concepts,
  • Strategies for independent language acquisition,
  • Thematic reference to the fields of University and Science,
  • Reference to the intercultural and regional studies of the target region,
  • Diversity of teaching methods,
  • Proven evaluation culture,
  • Transparency in terms of curriculum, levels and learning objectives.

We offer:

  • Intensive and extensive teaching formats both during and outside of the lecture period,
  • Intensive and extensive teaching formats both during and outside of the lecture period,
  • A large and diverse media in the library and the media center for independent language learning in 26 languages.

The orientation towards linguistic responsiveness and communication is a defining feature of all language teaching events at ZEMS.

Our lecturers:

In addition to qualifying degrees, all instructors at ZEMS have language proficiency at the level of a native speaker as well as extensive experience in the field of foreign language didactics.

ZEMS is currently cooperating with partner universities in China, France, Poland, Russia and Spain and offers exchange for language acquisition and tandem projects with students from our partner universities.

In addition to teaching, the accompanied research on the acquisition of foreign languages, language use and language needs also play an important role at ZEMS. ZEMS cooperates with the departments of German as a foreign and technical language and pedagogical psychology at the TU Berlin. In addition, we publish our own research.

Linguistic and cultural knowledge is essential for an internationally established and visible university – ZEMS’s courses are an indispensable contribution in this field. The specific profile of ZEMS is to focus on communication in science and technology in different languages.