LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Runner-up of the student award 2010: My future employability: the benefits of a languages, linguistics or area studies degree

- 24 May 2010

Rosie Shimmin, a 4th year German and Politics student at Cardiff University, was a runner up in the Subject Centre's undergraduate student award competition 2010.

Interpreting in the teaching of undergraduates: at the interface of HE and business

Eva Schumacher-Reid - 18 June 2009

Durham offers a final-year German Interpreting module teaching simultaneous, consecutive, liaison and on-sight interpreting on the basis of European Parliament debates. All performance indicators testify to the module’s success:

• High student numbers
• Highest possible satisfaction rates in student surveys
• A prestigious institutional award for innovation and teaching excellence
• Provision of an excellent foundation for postgraduate studies in Translation/Interpreting
• Acknowledgement of value by numerous employers who have praised students’ transferable skills and readiness for the work market.

The skills-based approach of this course leads to reflective learning, instills infectious enthusiasm in students, and operates effectively at the HE-business interface, satisfying the demands of the academic and the business world.

Face-to-face and online interactions - is a task a task?

- 21 February 2007

This study contrasts two different ways of analysing interaction and participation in language learning tutorials: Social network analysis of frequency and QSR analysis of type of interaction. One task from three German beginners' language tutorials (one delivered face-to-face, the other two online) is analysed. A description of the background and method of the study is provided together with some examples of the findings. As this is work in progress, only tentative conclusions can be provided at this stage.

Developing online self-access materials for subject specific language courses at an advanced level (SAM Project)

- 12 January 2007

The Language Centre at the University of Bristol is committed to providing students with up-to-date and innovative learning opportunities. Over the course of the academic year 2004-2005 the applied foreign language team developed a range of online language learning materials in French, German, Italian and Japanese for Engineers, Scientists and Social Scientists studying language at advanced and intermediate levels.

Bridging the Gap: University of Manchester

Julie Lawton and Annie Morton and Thomas Despositos and Susana Lorenzo and Elena Polisca - 18 January 2005

The University of Manchester's Bridging the Gap project to help students transition between GCSE, As and A2 level is described. Various forums and committees were set up to identify gaps in their respective syllabuses and events days were run at a Language College to help fill these gaps. Feedback on the events was good and it is hoped that this type of event will encourage more students to take languages at university level.

Using parallel corpora in translation

Raphael Salkie - 25 February 2003

Parallel corpora are large collections of texts in two languages. They can be used for teaching and research in translation, bilingual lexicography, and linguistics.

A new approach to teaching German as a foreign language at Tertiary level

Sabine Woods - 20 December 2002

German Studies at Queen's University has developed a second degree pathway called 'Business Communication: German for European Industry', which we now teach in addition to the traditional pathway 'German Language and Literature'. This new pathway is a response to the changes in the job market in this country and internationally and includes an industrial placement with leading companies in Germany during the year abroad. In this paper, I would like to give a basic description of the new pathway and some background information about why we felt it was necessary to develop this alternative. I then want to give more detail about what is special about this modern language course, and what the benefits are for students. Finally, as evidence of the success of this approach to date, I would like to quote some of our students' feedback about the pathway and in particular about their industrial placement.