Spanish and Arabic BA

Programme structure

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

The programme is studied over four years; the second year is spent in an Arabic speaking country. 60 credits are taken in Spanish and 60 credits in Arabic in each of years 1, 3 and 4. Year 2 is spent abroad with all 120 credits taken in Arabic. With the exception of the year abroad, modules have a credit rating of either 15 or 30 credits. On the year abroad all students are required either to take a core module which tests language acquisition, intercultural competence and develops employability skills and environmental awareness. Assessment marks obtained in Year 1 do not contribute to the overall mark for the classification of the award, although 90 credits must be awarded for progression to Year 2. Credits in Year 1 must be successfully completed in order to proceed to Year 2, but marks gained at this stage play no further part in the final assessment. Final assessment is based on marks gained in years 2, 3 and 4. In Modern Languages, double weighting is given to Year 4 (i.e. Year 2 credits are weighted at 50% of their value, Year 4 at 100%). In order to correct the imbalance in credits between the two Colleges arising from the year abroad, each College calculates its weighted average and percentage distribution of credits, and classification is based on the average of the two averages and the aggregate of the credit percentages.

Year 1 Compulsory modules

Beginner entrants take MLS1056 Spanish Language for Beginners.

Advanced entrants take MLS1001 Spanish Language.

CodeModuleCredits Choose either MLS1001 or MLS1056 MLS1001Spanish Language 30 MLS1056Spanish Language for Beginners30 ARA1033Elementary Arabic Language 60 Optional modules

For Spanish, beginner entrants can choose whether to take MLS1064 Introduction to the Hispanic World: Texts in Context and one other Spanish Level 1 optional module, or two optional modules.

Advanced entrants select 30 credits of Spanish Level 1 optional modules (excluding MLS1064).

CodeModuleCredits MLS1012Contemporary Latin America: Culture, Society and Institutions15 MLS1016Gender Perspectives15 MLS1021The Generation of 1898: Imagining Spain15 MLS1022The Outsider in Hispanic Texts15 MLS1023Spain since the Transition: Society, Politics and Culture 15 MLS1062Introduction to the History of the Spanish Language15 MLS1064An Introduction to the Hispanic World: Texts in Context15 Year 2

Students will spend the second year of their studies in an Arabic-speaking country.

Compulsory modules CodeModuleCredits ARA2000Year Abroad 120 Year 3 Compulsory modules

Students who took MLS1001 Spanish Language in their first year should take MLS2001.

Students who took MLS1056 Spanish Language for Beginners should take MLS2156.

CodeModuleCredits Choose either MLS2001 or MLS2156 MLS2001Spanish Language, Written and Oral30 MLS2156Spanish Language (ex-beginners)30 ARA2139Intermediate Arabic Language II (Arabic)30 Optional modules

Select 30 credits of Spanish and Modern Languages Level 2 optional modules.

Select two 15-credit Arab and Islamic Studies Level 2 optional modules.

CodeModuleCredits Spanish MLS2032Introduction to Commercial Spanish15 MLS2045Federico Garcia Lorca: Theatre and Poetry15 MLS2053Franco's Spain: Narratives under Dictatorship15 MLS2060Love and Death in Spanish Drama15 MLS2061The Latin American Short Story15 MLS2067Spain from Democracy to Dictatorship: Republic, Civil War and Francoism, 1931 - 1953 15 MLS2157The Short Story of the Spanish Golden Age15 Modern Languages SML2209Music in Medieval Europe15 SML2244Multilingualism in Society15 Arab and Islamic Studies ARA2118Gender-Identity and Modernity in the Middle East15 ARA2121Themes in the Arabic Short Story15 ARA2131M.E.20C Colonialism Revolution and Beyond15 ARA2132Islamic Law and Society15 ARA2135Conflict and Peace making Palestine/Israel15 ARA2139Intermediate Arabic Language II 30 ARA2141Intermediate Persian15 ARA2144Reading Qur'anic Arabic 15 ARA2146Islamic Theological Traditions15 ARA2148Arabic for Beginners II 30 ARA2150Muslims in Britain15 ARA2151Intermediate Persian II15 ARA2152Persian Literature 15 ARA2160Islamic Movements: From the Muslim Brothers to Al-Qa'ida15 ARA2161The Historiography of the Arab-Israeli Conflict15 ARA2162Political Economy of Development in the Middle East15 ARA2164Intermediate Turkish I15 ARA2165Intermediate Turkish II 15 ARA2166Revolution, Reform or Status Quo15 ARA2222Career Planning Workshops (Level 2)0 Year 4 Compulsory modules

Students must take either ARA3106 Dissertation or two 15-credit modules chosen from Arab and Islamic Studies Level 3 optional modules.

CodeModuleCredits MLS3111Advanced Spanish Language Skills30 ARA3103Advanced Arabic Language 30 Choose either ARA3106 Dissertation or two 15-credit optional modules ARA3106Dissertation30 Optional modules

Select 30 credits of Spanish and Modern Languages Level 3 optional modules.

Select two 15-credit Arab and Islamic Studies Level 3 optional modules (if you are not taking ARA3106).

CodeModuleCredits Spanish MLS3027Commercial Spanish15 MLS3031The Varieties of Modern Spanish15 MLS3037Women and Feminism in 20th Century Spain15 MLS3045Spanish Romantic Drama15 MLS3048Memory and Autobiographical Writing in 20th Century Spain15 MLS3054Advanced Portuguese30 MLS3057Cross Currents: Memory, Myth and Modernity in Latin America15 MLS3060The Amorous Lyric of the Spanish Golden Age15 MLS3061Religion, Revolution and Counterrevolution15 MLS3062Spain and the fin de siecle: from Disaster to Modernity15 Modern Languages SML3012Law in Fiction15 SML3015Dissertation15 SML3017Language Contact15 SML3030Extended Dissertation30 SML3031Advanced Translation Skills15 SML3035The Fantastic in 19th and 20th Century Literature15 SML3036Beyond Sex and the City: Becoming a Woman in Contemporary Western Cinema15 SML3037Longing for an Audience: Medieval Troubadour Lyric15 Arab and Islamic Studies ARA3103Advanced Arabic Language 30 ARA3107Politics of Semi-democratic and Authoritarian Countries30 ARA3129Nationalisms in the Middle East15 ARA3136The History and Political Development of Iraq15 ARA3138Foundational Islamic Texts: Qur'an and Hadith15 ARA3144Advanced Persian Language I15 ARA3145Advanced Persian Language II15 ARA3146Iranian History, 1500 - the Present15 ARA3149Ethno-Politics: Theoretical Considerations and Case Studies15 ARA3152Folklore and Identity in the Middle East15 ARA3158Armed Islamist Movements: Jihadism and Beyond15 ARA3159The Orientalist Debate15 ARA3160Intermediate Arabic Language I30 ARA3161Islamic Art and Architecture15 ARA3162Britain in the Middle East, 1798-197715 ARA3163Politics and Reform in the Gulf15 ARA3185EU and US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East and North Africa30 ARA3186The History and Political Development of Iraq30