Welcome
Welcome to the webpages of the STEP - PrimA (Student Teachers' School Placement Abroad - Schul-Praktikum im Ausland) programme. If you are studying English at the Department of English and American Studies with the aim of becoming a teacher of English, and if you are considering a stay abroad as one of the practical components of your bachelor’s degree, then you have found your way to the right place on the web.
Every year around May or June (the exact dates are to be found both in the ‘News’ section and on our departmental noticeboard) applications may be made for a place on the PrimA programme. Before you decide to make an application, you are cordially invited to read what follows – which will answer your questions about the scheme.
What will I gain from a school placement abroad?
The Teacher Training Act (LABG Link 2009 § 11 paragraph 10) requires students of modern foreign languages who wish to become teachers to spend a minimum of three months residence abroad, thus strengthening the professional competence of future teachers of foreign languages. Participating in the English Department’s PrimA programme, you can combine this mandatory stay abroad with the obligatory practical components of your bachelor's degree. The five most important objectives are:
1. growth of competence in general everyday communication in the foreign
language i.e. in English
2. development of professionally oriented and subject specific language
3. cultural and general knowledge about the country in which the internship takes
place
4. intercultural competence
5. development of the full range of practical teaching skills
The school placement abroad is integrated into the Optionalbereich, in which you can obtain the necessary credits for the practical components. The entire package Optionalbereich Kompakt includes the preparatory class, the follow-up class, and the placement at an English or Welsh school (see course particulars).
