This level is intended for students who have mastered basic grammar structures, can communicate about familiar matters related to everyday life and are able to produce simple paragraph-length written texts related to personal topics. The goal of this level is to foster independent language use and language awareness and to embed language use in the critical examination of and reflection on aspects of contemporary cultures in the German-speaking world. They will be expected to read and comprehend the main ideas of a wide range of authentic text genres, to produce writing on a range of cultural topics, and to effectively speak with a degree of fluency and spontaneity. Upon completion, they should be able and comfortable to express opinions, explain viewpoints and arguments, describe complex experiences and events, and speak about abstract or hypothetical topics, and they will engage in critical intercultural comparisons and reflection. It is expected that students of Level 2 reach the B1+/ threshold B2 level by the end of the summer.