Doing Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
• Convenors: Professor María Elena Placencia, Dr Kinga Kozminska
• Assessment: a 500-word writing task (5%), 800-word take-home test (30%), 1200-word essay (60%) and class attendance and participation (5%)

This module will prepare you for effective studying in the areas of modern languages, cultures and linguistics. It will equip you with a range of study skills (e.g. attending lectures and note-taking, library skills, writing essays and commentaries, preparing for written assignments, understanding feedback, language learning skills) and introduce you to basic concepts and orientations in the study of modern languages, cultures and linguistics.

Indicative module syllabus

• Introduction: studying languages, cultures and applied linguistics
• What does it mean to study literature/linguistics/visual and performative arts/film/history as part of a Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics course?
• What does it mean to work across cultures (including via translation) and across disciplines?
• Attending lectures and note taking
• Library skills
• Effective language learning
• Learning vocabulary in another language
• Close reading and writing a commentary
• Essay writing
• Preparing for language exams
• Preparing for written assessment
• Referencing and plagiarism

By the end of this module, you will have:

• a general understanding of the basic concepts and orientations in the study of modern languages, cultures and linguistics
• basic skills for analysis of cultural artefacts and texts (spoken and written) from a range of perspectives
• developed strategies for effective language learning.