LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Teaching Economics in Area Studies Programmes

Christopher Flockton - 20 May 2003

Economics has long been a component in interdisciplinary or combined programmes. At one-half or less of a degree the subject should be relatively non-mathematical, but for specialists it should retain its introductory and intermediate theory, its economic history and applied economic components. It lends itself well to applied study, such as German economy, French economic history, European economic integration. Foreign language sources and target language teaching, where appropriate, offer considerable gains of focus, directly relevant a wealth of web-based sources, but care must be taken with linguistic levels and register.

Spanish,the language and culture

- 27 February 2003

The article offers a statistical overview of the growth and current status of Spanish teaching in UK HEIs. It covers in detail current practice in the teaching both of Spanish for beginners and for Honours level students, paying particular attention to ways in which courses build on the customary "four skills" paradigm. It examines Spanish as the sole or major component in degrees and as part of joint and combination degrees, and indicates the ways in which the language is studied as relating to the cultures and identities of contemporary Spain and the language's wide global context.

Towards a framework for expansion and collaboration: A web-based multilingual grammar resource

Steve Cushion and Dominique Hémard - 3 January 2003

The paper aims to discuss: the use of an authoring package designed to produce interactive web-based CALL materials that integrate text and the spoken word; provide hands-on experience in the use of the authoring package; the integration of interactive web-based language teaching material into daily practice.

The gruppo 62 Italian project: undergraduate collaboration between the universities of Hull and Leeds

George Talbot - 2 January 2003

This paper reports quite briefly on a project in progress, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) through the Collaboration Programme in Modern Languages proposed by the University Council for Modern Languages (UCML) and directed by Professor David Robey.

On-line and face-to-face language learning compared: the student experience

Miranda van Rossum - 2 January 2003

This paper discusses the student experience of Lagelands, an on-line Dutch course for beginners. It will compare the experiences of students who took this course in combination with face-to-face teaching as part of their degree at the University of Hull, with that of students who took the course completely on-line. Before embarking upon the comparison itself, the Lagelands course and the two learning contexts in which it is offered will be briefly outlined.

The role of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in the development of a varied set of strategies to integrate ICT into language learning (a case study)

Josef Huber and Cecilia Garrido - 18 December 2002

This objectives of this paper are to: present a case study of what an international organisation like the ECML can do to address current needs in language teaching and learning; outline the major issues involved in such an initiative.

Computers and the internet in Area Studies teaching

Hugo Frey - 6 November 2002

The essay explores the application of Internet technology in the teaching of Area Studies. It is a descriptive commentary on recent good practice in this area. Special attention is given to the role played by 'virtual seminars' in teaching and learning.

Technology-mediated learning

- 23 October 2002

Introduction to the use of educational technology in higher education in the UK and beyond. This article provides an overview of the available tools and their effective use. It also mediates three major beliefs about the reasons for employing technology-mediated learning - appropriacy for flexible, distance and open learning, widening participation and cost-effectiveness.

Resource-based learning

- 18 October 2002

The entry covers what Resource-Based learning - or RBL - refers to, the history of RBL and the issues raised by RBL in relation to conceptions of the transmission of knowledge in Higher Education.

Teaching linguistics via the web

- 11 October 2002

This section lists different resources widely available on the web and can contribute to the teaching of linguistics. It also refers to customised web resources specifically developed to teach or test linguistics on-line, often with restricted access. Some urls are provided as examples. Different models of integration are considered as are issues related to quality control and assurance.

WWW-based stylistics teaching

Mick Short - 27 September 2002

This paper describes the development of an interactive, learning should be fun, WWW-based introductory undergraduate course in stylistics and a pedagogical experiment to be undertaken involving the course. The WWW-based course is itself derived from a more traditional lecture-seminar course and the aim is to compare student reactions to, and performance on, the two different versions of the course. The pedagogical principles underlying the two versions of the course are discussed, as well as the design of the experiment. Stylistics teachers in other HE institutions are invited to take part in the pedagogical experiment.

Linguistics in first year single honours courses

Kersti Borjars - 27 September 2002

This document suggests ways of building up the first year of a single honours course in linguistics. It suggests that the year should consist of certain core courses introducing basic concepts relevant to the field, most importantly phonetics, grammar and semantics. In addition, there should be a set of optional courses on aspects of the field which interact with other subject areas (e.g. sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics). The document provides some ideas for text books to be used and also gives some other sources, in particular web-based facilities. The document also contains a brief discussion of assessment.