BA French and Italian

Institution University of Leicester
Method At the institution
Location Leicester
Type Undergraduate
Course fee By request

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BA French and Italian

Objectives Modern Languages at Leicester include French, German, Italian and Spanish and a wide range of degree programmes. These include Joint Honours, Honours degrees with two or three languages or three subjects including a language, Combined Studies, Modern Languages with Management, and French, Italian or Spanish and English. While all our courses normally last four years, there is also the possibility of completing them in three years where circumstances make this appropriate. French, German, Italian and Spanish can all be studied from Beginners’ or Advanced level.
Entry requirements Entry Requirements * There are varying language requirements for each of our degrees. * A/AS levels: Three A levels normally required. Two AS levels considered in place of one A Level. General Studies accepted. Please indicate in section 3 (f) of your UCAS form which languages you wish to study. * GCSE: No specific requirements * Access to HE course: Pass with a substantial number of credits at level 3. * European Baccalaureate: Pass with 65% overall (70% with 8 in English for French and English, Italian and English, Spanish and English). * International Baccalaureate: Modern Languages: Pass Diploma with 28-30 points. French and English, Italian and English, Spanish and English: Pass Diploma with 32 points, including 6 at Higher Level English, and a qualification in a foreign language. * Leicestershire Progression Accord: 230-270 points as above plus full Accord credits. * BTEC Nationals: Pass Diploma at DMM, plus any subject requirements. * Other Qualifications: Other national and international qualifications welcomed. * Mature students welcomed: Alternative qualifications considered. * Second Year Entry: Possible for those with advanced qualifications compatible with our degree structure. * Applicants are not normally interviewed. All applicants receiving an offer will be invited to visit the School. * Native speakers: Students whose native language is either French, German, Italian, or Spanish, and who wish to study this language at Leicester, will normally be required in the first year of study to take English language modules in lieu of the foreign language modules in their native tongue. Students with native speaker fluency in both English and the foreign language they wish to study will normally be required to substitute content modules for the relevant language modules. * The School of Modern Languages may consider applicants wishing to complete their studies on a part-time basis. Please contact us.
Academic title BA French and Italian
Course description BA French and Italian

Programme

First Year

In Italian you will be introduced to a range of historical periods and texts. Students also study Introduction to Pre-Modern Italy and Post-war Italian Culture, and are introduced to different authors and genres. In French you will take a course on Contemporary France and one or two options such as Textual Analysis, 20th-Century French Literature, or Civilisation Française. Beginners in French or Italian receive an intensive language course which brings them, in a year, to the level of post-A Level students.

Written skills are developed through the production of small pieces of creative writing and other activities, including online language learning and the use of materials taken from French and Italian TV. Small-group oral classes are conducted by native speakers. The School of Modern Languages also offers special training for linguists with its Core Skills module for language learners. All students normally follow a three-week summer programme in either France or Italy, heavily subsidised by the University.

Second Year

In addition to the development of language skills, you will choose from optional modules on a variety of cultural, linguistic and literary topics such as Interpreting; Bande dessinée; Introduction to Francophonie; History and Identity in Twentieth-Century Literature, History of Italian Cinema, Italian Linguistics, Pre-Modern Italy. You also have the opportunity to study a TESOL option (the teaching of English to speakers of other languages), a popular choice for those who will spend the third year teaching English abroad.

Third Year - Study Abroad*

The third year is spent abroad and is normally divided between universities in France and Italy. Alternatively, you may opt to spend a whole year in either France or Italy as an English language assistant in a school or in other approved employment.

* It is possible, in exceptional cases, to complete this degree in three years, without a year abroad.

Fourth Year

In your final year a wide range of options in both languages allows you to specialise in areas of study which particularly interest you. These could include: Contemporary Fiction; Postwar Directors; Women’s Writing in Italy; Dante: Purgatorio and Paradiso; Interpreting; Immigration and ethnicity in colonial and post-colonial France; Life Writing; Gender and Power in Contemporary France; French Cinema. You may also choose to write a dissertation in place of one of your options.