English for Staff

The English for Staff courses offer you the opportunity to practice and improve your communicative competence in English in various settings of the working world, so that you can face the tasks you encounter in English in your everyday working life calmly and confidently. Depending on the group composition, topics include grammar review, building office and administrative vocabulary, practicing typical work situations such as writing emails, consulting, communicating in teaching, and assisting students and staff. In addition, fluency is improved through discussions and role-playing in real-life situations.

Starts: 8 October 2024 (lecturing period)

Topics: Activation and expansion of existing English skills with a focus on fluent communication in everyday university life at English level A2 and B1-B2.

Instructors: Lecturers from the Writing Center

Where / When: on campus or online; for times and rooms see below

If you would like to participate in the English course, please consult with your supervisor / HR (Personalabteilung) and register via the links below. If you have any questions, please also feel free to contact Constanze.Finsterwalder@th-rosenheim.de.

PROGRAM winter semester 2024/25:

COURSES 1 and 2: Work-Life Balance English

• Semester course
• 60 min weekly
• Tuesdays, 9-10 am (Course A) and 10-11 am (Course B), starts 8 Oct; Room: A2.04
• Instructor: Sarah Swalef
• max. number of participants: 10 per course

Registration for courses A and B starts Sep 26 via the Dashboard (under 'Veranstaltungen'). 

Content:

As English language skills are an increasingly important requirement for university staff to do their jobs effectively, I am here to help you practice your workplace skills in English. As a healthy balance, we will also focus on general English conversation, as it is often the spontaneity of English that challenges us the most.

You can expect to take part in activities to improve the following skills

Speaking skills: general conversation, advising students, role play, group work and presentations

Listening: news reports, videos or documentaries, class discussions

Reading: reports, documents or emails

Writing: from emails to reports or minutes of meetings

Participation is for independent users of English who may need a boost in their confidence for the workplace.

COURSE 3: English for the workplace - Refreshing the basics 

• Semester course
• 60 min weekly
• Fridays, 8.30-9.30 am, starts 11 Oct; Room: A2.03
• Instructor: Megan Pötzinger
• max. number of participants: 10 per course

Registration starts Sep 26 via the Dashboard (under 'Veranstaltungen'). 

Content:

This is a refresher course for staff members with basic English skills. We will focus on speaking skills as well as grammar and email writing.

COURSE 4: English for the workplace (online)

• Semester course

• 60 min weekly
• Wednesdays, 9.45-10.45 am, starts 9 Oct; (Zoom)
• Instructor: Mercedes Duff
• max. number of participants: 10

Registration for the online course starts Sep 26 via the Dashboard (under 'Veranstaltungen'). 

Content:

This course is designed for staff members with a good command of English who wish to further improve their language skills while handling international communication in the university context, for instance when dealing with student counseling. We will review and expand our phrase bank for written correspondence and practice drafting semiformal and formal emails. Furthermore, we will train speaking scenarios for providing assistance to international students to improve fluency, in person or over the phone.

We will also use short videos, podcasts or news articles on a variety of current affairs topics to get us talking.

We offer two programs - the language tandem to improve language skills and the International Buddy Program with a focus on intercultural competence.   

Language skills ➡️ Language tandem
The language tandem consists of two people with different native languages, e.g. German-English, Spanish-German, German-Hindi, etc. and offers the opportunity to gain language practice in direct communication with native speakers.

Intercultural competence ➡️ International Buddy Program
The International Buddy Program brings together local and international students and employees to engage in transcultural exchange and become interculturally competent.

The Learning Campus course room Sprachtandem offers the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and find a language tandem or an International Buddy.

Comprehensive internationalization succeeds when different areas of the university - control and management, study and teaching, research, development and transfer, administration and services for students as well as marketing and communication - are involved and actively support the process.

Employees of the TH Rosenheim can find the internal strategy paper on the intranet. It summarizes the current status and formulates goals and recommendations for the various areas.