History & Modern Languages (French, German, Portuguese or Spanish) with a year abroad

Course detail Description

TeachingModules are taught by leading academics through a combination of lectures, small seminars or tutorials, and expert one-to-one supervision. Language classes involve in-depth work with different kinds of media, literary and academic texts. Teaching is in both English and the language studied, according to the subject area. Our teaching style is interactive; you will participate informally in small group discussions, in seminars or online discussion platforms, and formally through seminar presentations and oral assessments.

Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.

Assessment

You will encounter a variety of methods of summative (for credit) assessments during your studies, including coursework & assessed essays; language assignments (written, oral, aural); individual or group-based presentations; year abroad project work; examinations; and dissertation. You will also have a variety of formative assessments (not for credit) throughout your programme. The feedback you receive will be key to provide guidance and inform the assignments you go on to do subsequently. Coursework contributes approximately 50% and examinations approximately 50% to your final mark, although the percentages will depend on your module choices.

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Structure

• Year 1
• Year 2
• Year 3
• Year 4

Year 1 Required Modules

HISTORY

• Historical Skills, Sources & Approaches (30 credits)

MODERN LANGUAGES

• Cultural Transformations: An Introduction to Modern Languages (15 credits)

French pathway

Post-A Level French

• French Core Language (First Year) (30 credits)
• Critical Reading and its Pleasures: Approaching French Literature and Film (15 credits)

Ab initio French

• Introductory French (30 credits)
• Critical Reading and its Pleasures: Approaching French Literature and Film for ab initio (15 credits)

German pathway

Non-native German speakers

• German Language and Culture I (30 credits)
• Texts and Contexts (15 credits)

Native German speakers

• Translation from and into German (15 credits)
• Texts and Contexts (15 credits)

Ab initio German students

• Introductory German (30 credits)
• Texts and Contexts for ab initio (15 credits)

Portuguese pathway

Post-A Level Portuguese

• Portuguese Language 1A (30 credits)
• Global Iberias: Perspectives - Introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Worlds (15 credits)

Ab initio Portuguese

• Introductory Portuguese (30 credits)
• Global Iberias: Perspectives - Introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Worlds (15 credits)

Spanish pathway

Post-A Level Spanish

• Spanish Language I (30 credits)
• Global Iberias: Perspectives - An Introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Worlds (15 credits)

Ab initio Spanish

• Introductory Spanish (30 credits)
• Global Iberias: Perspectives - An Introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Worlds (15 credits)

HISTORY

You will select one module in the Department of History from a range of optional modules that may typically include:

• The Making of Britain 400-1400 (30 credits)
• Medieval Europe 400-1500 (30 credits)
• Early Modern Britain 1500-1750 (30 credits)
• Power, Belief & Culture in Europe 1500-1800 (30 credits)
• Europe from 1793 to 1991 (30 credits)
• Politics & Society in Britain, 1780-1945 (30 credits)
• The Worlds of the British Empire, c1730- 1960 (30 credits)
• World History, 1870s-2000s (30 credits)

Native German speakers only

You will select a further module in the German Department from a range of optional modulesthat may typically include:

• Medieval Germany: Language, Literature & Society (15 credits)
• Milestones of German History (15 credits)
• One Hundred and Twenty Years of German Cinema (15 credits)
• An Introduction to German Politics (15 credits)

Year 2 Required Modules MODERN LANGUAGES

French pathway

Post-A Level French

• Core Language (Second Year) (15 credits)
• The Practice of Translation (15 credits)

Ab initio French

• Intermediate French (30 credits)

German pathway

Non-native German speakers

• German Language and Culture II (15 credits)
• Translation from and into German II (15 credits)

Native German speakers

• Translation from and into German II (15 credits)

Ab initio German students

• Intermediate German (30 credits)

Portuguese pathway

Post-A Level Portuguese

• Portuguese Language 2 (30 credits)

Ab initio Portuguese

• Intermediate Portuguese (30 credits)

Spanish pathway

Post-A Level Spanish

• Spanish Language 2 (30 credits)

Ab initio Spanish

• Intermediate Spanish (30 credits)

HISTORY

You will take one 30-credit module and two 15-credit modules in the Department of History from a range that may typically include:

• The Northern Ireland Troubles (30 credits)
• The Black Death in England (30 credits)
• Faraway so Close: The Middle East since 1800 (30 credits)
• China: From Imperial State to People’s Republic (30 credits)
• The Civilising Mission: French Imperialism since 1750 (30 credits)
• War in the Pacific, 1898 to 1975 & beyond: Strategy & Diplomacy (30 credits)
• Atlantic Slavery: West Africa & the Caribbean, 1492-1807 (15 credits)
• Europe in the Second World War (15 credits)
• The Hundred Years War (15 credits)
• Electric Cities : The Experience of Modernity in London, Melbourne, New York & Paris,
• 1870 – 1929 (15 credits)
• Orientalism, Race, Islam (15 credits)

• You may also, with approval, take a relevant 15-credit module at Level 5 in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• You may also take up to one relevant 30-credit module at Level 5 offered by Departments of History in HEIs within the University of London listed within the intercollegiate syllabus and/or approved by the Department of History

MODERN LANGUAGES

French pathway

You take 30 credits from a range of optional French Department modules that may typically include:

• The Idea of France (15 credits)
• Death & Desire: Love in French literature before 1700 (15 credits)
• Obscenity and Civility in Pre- and Early-Modern French Literature (15 credits)
• Modern French History (15 credits)
• The French Novel after 1700 (15 credits)
• French Poetry after 1800 (15 credits
• Writing the Self in French Literature since 1700 (15 credits)
• Marketing the Margins: Case Studies in the Literary Marketplace (15 credits)
• Modernity and the City (15 credits)
• French Political Thought II (15 credits)
• French Cinema and its Others (15 credits)

German pathway

You are required to take at least one German Department module with pre-modern content from a range, that may typically include:

• Gender and Identity in Arthurian Romance (15 credits)
• The German Reformation (15 credits)
• 18th-Century German Thought (15 credits)

You will then select further German Department modules to bring your total German credits to 60 for the year from a range of optional modules that may typically include:

• The pre-modern modules listed above
• Politics and Culture in Cold War Germany since 1870 (15 credits)
• The Weimar Republic: Culture and Crisis (15 credits)
• A Year in the Life of German-Language Film (15 credits)
• Marketing the Margins: Case Studies in the Literary Marketplace (15 credits)
• Talking Back: Voices of Protest in German Culture (15 credits)
• Society, Politics and Popular Culture in Germany since 1870 (15 credits)
• Berlin Past and Present: The Reconstruction of a Capital City (15 credits)

Portuguese pathway

You take 30 credits of Portuguese optional modules in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies from a range that may typically include:

• Nineteenth Century Fiction in Brazil and Portugal (15 credits)
• Visuality, Literature and Modern Life in Latin America (15 credits)
• Fatherlands: Spain and Portugal under the Dictators (15 credits)
• Imperial Visions in Iberian Literature (15 credits)
• Introduction to the Study of Language with Special Reference to Spanish and Portuguese (15 credits)

Spanish pathway

You take 30 credits of Spanish optional modules in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies from a range that may typically include:

• Memory in Modern Spanish Culture (15 credits)
• Language Acts and Worldmaking in Medieval and Early Modern Spain (15 credits)
• Introduction to the Study of Language with Special Reference to Spanish and Portuguese (15 credits)
• Imperial Visions in Iberian Literature (15 credits)
• Marketing the Margins: Case Studies in the Literary Marketplace (15 credits)
• The Study of Gender in Spanish American Literature and Culture (15 credits)
• Visuality, Literature and Modern Life in Latin America (15 credits)
• Fatherlands: Spain and Portugal under the Dictators (15 credits)
• Catalan Language & Culture (15 credits)

Year 3

Assessment for this year will depend on whether you choose to split the year between two countries, or spend the entire year in one. It will also depend on how you opt to spend your year: as an exchange student at a university, a language assistant teaching English, or on an approved work placement.

Partner Institutions for the French semester currently include:

• Université Lumière Lyon II
• Université Paris-Sorbonne
• Université Paris-Nanterre
• Aix-Marseille Université
• Université des Antilles et de la Guyane (Martinique)
• École Normale Supérieure (Paris)
• École Normale Supérieure (Lyon)
• Sciences Po (Paris)
• Sciences Po (Lyon)
• Université de Montréal
• Université Laval
• Université de Strasbourg

Partners for the German semester abroad currently include:

• Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität , Frankfurt am Main
• Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munchen
• Universität Wien
• Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
• Universität Mannheim

Partners for the Portuguese semester abroad currently include:

• Universidade de Lisboa - Portugal
• Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Portugal
• Universidade de Coimbra - Portugal
• Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Brazil
• Universidade Federal da Bahia - Brazil
• Universidade de São Paulo - Brazil
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

Partners for the Spanish semester abroad currently include:

• Universidad de Alicante - Spain
• Universidad de Cádiz - Spain
• Universidad Carlos III de Madrid - Spain
• Universidad de Córdoba - Spain
• Universidad del País Vasco - Spain
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra – Spain
• Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (Lugo Campus) – Spain
• Universidad de Salamanca - Spain
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) - Chile
• Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (TEC), Campus Querétaro - Mexico
• Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) - Mexico
• Universidad del Pacífico – Peru
• Universidad San Francisco de Quito – Ecuador

Year 4 Required Modules HISTORY

There are no required modules for Year 3.

MODERN LANGUAGES

French pathway

• French Language (15 credits)

French and Spanish pathway

French

• French Language (15 credits)

German pathway

Non-native German speakers

• German Language and Culture III (15 credits)
• Translation from and into German III (15 credits)

Native German speakers

• Translation from and into German III (15 credits)

Portuguese pathway

• Portuguese Language 4 (30 credits)

Spanish pathway

• Spanish Language 4 (30 credits)

Final year students are required to take a30-credit ‘special subject’ module from a wide range of options, which may typically include:

• Romans and Barbarians: The Transformation of the Roman West 350-700 (30 credits)
• The Enlightenment (30 credits)
• The Experience of Power in Nigeria since 1900 (30 credits)
• Red, White and Blues: Jazz and the United States in the 20th Century (30 credits)
• Women & Gender in Early Modern England (30 credits)
• Additional University of London Intercollegiate ‘special subject’ 30 credit modules

In addition, you are required to take either the special subject associated dissertation (30 credits) or the Free Long Standing Essay (30 credits), which can be on any subject of your choice.

MODERN LANGUAGES

French pathway

You take 45 credits of French Department optional modules from a range that may typically include:

• Old French Romance (15 credits)
• Sixteenth-century Encounters with the ‘New World’ (15 credits)
• Shadows of Enlightenment (15 credits)
• Citizenship and Exclusion: Republicanism and its Discontents (15 credits)
• French Anticolonial Thought (15 credits)
• Enquiring Minds: Murder Mysteries in French Literature from Realism to Post-Modernism (15 credits)
• Politics and the Moving Image in post-1968 France (15 credits)
• Comparing Romance Languages (Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies) (15 credits)
• Recent French Thought (15 credits)
• Contemporary Women’s Writing in France (15 credits)
• Images of Algeria (15 credits)
• Québeçois Fiction & Film across the Canadian Bicultural Divide (15 credits)
• Maximising Performance: Brecht, Boal and Big Business (15 credits)
• The French Revolution Effect: Italy, France, Germany (Department of Comparative Literature) (15 credits)

German pathway

You take further German Department modules to bring your total German credits to 60 for the year from a range that may typically include:

• Dissertation (15 credits)
• Goethe’s Poems (15 credits)
• Religion, Sex and Politics: German Literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries (15 credits)
• Death & the Afterlife in Medieval & Modern German Literature (15 credits)
• Women’s Writing: Then and Now (15 credits)
• The pre-modern modules listed above
• Dissertation (15 credits)
• Aspects of Post-1945 German Culture (15 credits)
• Afro-German Moving Images: Postcolonial Perspectives on German-Language Film (15 credits)
• Contemporary German Politics (15 credits)
• Writings in Tongues: Literature and Migration in the Modern German Context (15 credits)
• Germany in Motion: Migration, Integration and Political Transformation 1945-2015 (15 credits)
• Maximising Performance: Brecht, Boal and Big Business (15 credits)

Portuguese pathway

You take 30 credits of optional Portuguese modules in the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies from a range that may typically include:

• Brazilian Poetry and Song: 1958 to the present (15 credits)
• Topics in Afro-Brazilian Culture (15 credits)
• Cross-Cultural Exchanges between Africa and the Americas, 16th-20th Centuries (15 credits)
• Comparing Romance Languages: Historical Evolution and Linguistic Interference (15 credits)
• Peripheral Europeans: Modernity, Traditionalism and National Identity (15 credits)