The Institute's main area of activity is language courses:

The staff has made it its principle to teach the languages of today, as they are actually spoken and written.
Together with the languages, the courses impart geographical and cultural information on the country concerned. They make the course participants familiar with the everyday and professional life in the Federal Republic of Germany and abroad, and promote an understanding of current cultural, economic and political developments.

Teaching is varied depending upon the participants' specific interests and their level of knowledge. The focus of the courses and the instructional materials, the media sources and the composition of the groups are adapted to the participants' command of the language and to professional priorities.
We offer compact, crash and refresher courses for small groups (10 to 15) and individuals. Both our pedagogical and multi-media materials are most up-to-date (computers, video and multimedia technology, etc.).
Our self-learning centres in Ansbach, Erfurt, Berlin, Jena, Gera, Rudolstadt and Weimar provide individual tuition of a high quality.
Most of our teaching staff can draw upon many years of experience abroad. Our foreign language courses are partly run by native speakers.

The IIK's second main area of activity is the training and further education of language and information technology teachers as well as students of German in the fields of linguistics and didactics as well as in regional studies. This includes:

The IIK's courses, workshops and conferences (for the training and further education of German and foreign language teachers and German and foreign students) are held by dedicated professors and lecturers. Five of them have post-doctoral qualifications, 10 have written theses on native or foreign language didactics or linguistics. They can draw upon long experiences teaching abroad (Algeria, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Yugoslavia) and have given lectures on linguistic, didactic and country-specific subjects in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.

Together with TGFL teachers from the Bielefeld and Jena universities, IIK members have written the two-volume "Einführung in die Didaktik Deutsch als Fremdsprache mit Videobeispielen" published by Schneiderverlag Hohengehren.

In the training and further education of German and foreign language teachers and students of German the IIK co-operates with federal authorities and institutions for teacher training and further education at home and abroad. These include:

Our teaching programmes for further education courses, lasting about 20 hours per week are designed to deepen and extend the existing vocabulary and grammatical knowledge in terms of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating.

The development and application of multimedia and video software for interactive media, which is the third main area of activity, profits from the research achieved by the team members in the form of theses, monographs and field studies.

The team has put together an extensive monograph bearing the title "Multimedia - eine neue Herausforderung für den Sprachunterricht" which contains both methodological instructions for the generation of multimedia software and suggestions for the use of interactive media in language teaching, in teaching in general as well as in economy and trade. The monograph was be published by Peter Lang very soon.

Field studies carried out (and published) by the team within the framework of an EU LINGUA project analyse the need of small- and medium-size companies in Germany, Denmark, France and Spain to learn foreign languages. In this project the IIK acted as a co-ordinator. Its project partners included the following institutions:

The above field studies have formed the basis of the first CD ROM produced by the IIK research group "Multimedia". It deals with the business German of small- and medium-size companies and forms part of a multimedia package including a video film and a text and exercise book. This CD ROM has served as a model for the production of other CD ROMs on business French, business Spanish and business Danish.

The IIK is also co-ordinator or partner in the following EU - projects:

On behalf of Inter Nationes and other publishing houses, the IIK produces interactive software for language training (e.g. "Von Aachen bis Zwickau).
The IIK is involved in the LEONARDO project "Training for teachers of information technology" coordinated by the Lehrerfortbildungsakademie Dillingen. Within the framework of this project, the IIK cooperates with partners in Athens, Graz, Luxembourg and Odense. It further cooperates in the LEONARDO project "Business Italian" initiated by the IIK Ancona.

On behalf of Inter Nationes and the German Ministry of Health IIK members produce interactive software for language teaching and the health service.

The knowledge gained by the production and application of multimedia software is immediately applied to language teaching at the IIK, especially in the above-mentioned self-learning centres.

The IIK team considers it an important task to train teachers and tutors in the application of interactive media. They are aware of the fact that the rapid development in this area and public endeavour to privately acquire the respective software as quickly as possible, leave teachers and tutors unable to give competent advice in the selection of appropriate software and its application.

Since 1994 the IIK has, therefore, been regularly holding workshops on the use of multimedia in schools, universities and companies. Most of these workshops were held on behalf of institutions such as:

From March 21 to 24, 1996 the IIK, together with the Europauniversität Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, and the Institut für Medienintegration, held an international expert conference with the title "Learning foreign languages and interactive media".

Interactive media are used in education primarily for preparing pupils and students for the needs of the communication society. The importance the IIK attaches to interactive media is reflected in its training schemes. It held multimedia workshops on the importance of interactive media in the information society, especially in administration and in small- and medium-size companies on behalf of

The use of interactive media also forms an integral part of the IIK's vocational training programmes for the needs of the market economy.

By order of the Bundesanstalt für Arbeit and with the support of the European Social Fund the IIK runs vocational training, qualification and retraining courses for Spätaussiedler (resettlers of German extraction from East European countries) and young German people, which impart both theoretical and practical knowledge. Here, the Institute focusses in particular on academic education, the service sector and tourism.

Apart from language training, vocational training also has priority in the activities of the IIK branch in Orenburg, Russia, a joint venture with the training institute Ural-West and the town council of Orenburg. There are also cooperation agreements with the Technical University and College of Education of Orenburg as well as with the Technical University of Chemnitz. Together with these institutions, the IIK held conferences on intercultural communication in Orenburg in 1995 in 1996.

The IIK agreed on training courses as well as seminars for management personnel in industry, trade and the telecommunication sector and for economics and law students with the following institutions:

These events as well as crash courses on market economy and intercultural economic communication were organized in cooperation with the Chambers of Industry and Commerce of East Thuringia, Berlin and Nuremberg, the department of intercultural economic communication of the Jena Friedrich Schiller University, the linguistics department of the Europauniversität Viadrina, Frankfort/Oder, the Berufsbildungsgesellschaft (BBG), Gera, the Gesellschaft für Fortbildung und Umschulung (GFU), Kahla, medium-size companies, banks, insurance companies, lawyers' offices and management consultancies from Berlin, Thuringia and Bavaria and with the assistance of the Inbit Institut für Betriebsorganisation und Informationstechnik, Berlin, and the Technologiepark Jena.

Recently the IIK has been offering organized culture and language trips for adults, children and young people in Berlin and Brandenburg, along the Klassikerstraße in Thuringia and the Romantikerstraße and Burgenstraße in Bavaria.

The IIK is involved in organizing exchanges of pupils and young people between Germany and North Europe within the framework of the SOKRATES Programme of the European Community. It coordinates the exchange between schools from Oskarshamn (Sweden) and Jyväskylä (Finland) and Berlin and Jena.

Another project, carried out in cooperation with the town council of Gunzenhausen in Middle Franconia, deals with the Fränkische Seenplatte.

A most demanding task is the provision of cultural backup and information concerning the 300 kilometre long Klassikerstraße (road linking towns associated with famous German classical literary figures), which is located in Thuringia in the centre of Germany, ranging from Luther's and Bach's Eisenach to the theatre and skat town of Altenburg. It is the road

The above description was taken from the brochure "Klassikerstraße Thüringen" published by the Thuringian Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure. It includes a CD ROM allowing you to surf through a wide spectrum of information. Doing this, you will recognise the IIK as an organizer of cultural and language trips. And you will confirm the remark Goethe uttered vis-à-vis his late secretary Eckermann: "Wo finden Sie auf einem so engen Fleck noch so viel Gutes?" (Where else do you find so many good things in such a small spot?)

The all-German and international orientation of the IIK and its sister institutes is also evident by its locations.
The IIK has establishments in Bavaria, Berlin and Thuringia, in the West Ural Mountains, i. e. at the frontier between Europe and Asia, and in Orenburg.

The majority of the establishments are located in Thuringia. They are run by five centres: the administration and institute centre in Jena and the centres in Weimar, Erfurt, Gera and Rudolstadt. They are in charge of the other establishments in Thuringia which are located in Saalfeld, Sitzendorf, Weißbach, Frauenprießnitz, Gumperda, Bad Berka, Nohra, Ilmenau, Steinsdorf, Rückersdorf and Berga.

In Berlin, the courses take place in an attractive training centre near Lichtenberg Station.

In Orenburg, the IIK is accommodated in a big complex of buildings made available by the town council of Orenburg.

The Bavarian facilities are located in Middle Franconia and Swabia: in Dinkelbühl, Rothenburg o.d.T., Bechhofen an der Heide, Windsbach, Ornbau, Schillingsfürst near Rothenburg and Dombühl. They are run through a central agency located directly in the pedestrian precinct of Ansbach (Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Platz). Another big training centre in Ansbach is located directly at the station.