French BA - University of L

Through a year abroad, students gain immersive experience while developing versatile skills in communication, analysis, and cultural awareness, preparing them for diverse career paths. The program's flexible structure allows students to tailor their studies by choosing optional modules in areas such as translation, cinema, and gender studies.

Program Outline

French BA - University of Leeds

Degree Overview:

This course equips students with the skills to become versatile, inter-culturally aware, and professional graduates able to speak, write, and read French with confidence. It combines language studies with explorations of French culture and society, including the diversity of the French language, preparing students for working with native speakers. Students can tailor their course by choosing optional modules in translation and interpreting, the conflicts of history, visual culture, and cinema. Whether students are beginners or have advanced French knowledge, they will study the language of media, commerce, and cultural expression. The program includes a year abroad in a French-speaking context, enhancing students' knowledge of the global language.

Outline:

Year 1:

Compulsory modules for students on the prior knowledge pathway:
French Language Awareness and Skills (20 credits):
Introduction to French Studies (Resistance and Desire) (20 credits): Taught primarily in English, this module uses the themes of resistance and desire to introduce students to French culture, history, and society from the French Revolution to the present day.
Introduction to Skills in French Translation (20 credits): This module introduces students to different modes of translation, raising awareness of linguistic and cultural issues in translation.
Writing the Self (20 credits): This module examines how authors have used non-fictional forms of expression to construct narratives of self, and students develop their own narratives of identity in French through language workshops.
Students are then required to take 40 credits of discovery modules.

Compulsory modules for students on the beginner pathway:
French for Beginners (20 credits):
Pre-Intermediate French (20 credits): This module develops language skills up to A2 of the CEFRL.
Ab Initio Introduction to French Studies (Resistance and Desire) (20 credits): This module, taught primarily in English with translation provided for French materials, introduces students to French culture, history, and society from the French Revolution to the present day.
Students are then required to take one or two of the below optional modules:
Introduction to Audio-Visual Culture (20 credits):
Language: Structure and Sound (20 credits): This module introduces students to the scientific study of language structure and speech sounds, covering core concepts in linguistics and phonetics.
World Histories (20 credits): This module introduces students to the complexity and diversity of human perspectives on history, raising critical awareness of culturally-inflected assumptions.
Intercultural Competence: Theory and Application (20 credits): This module explores the role of languages and cultures in business and beyond, showing how awareness of cultural specificities helps individuals navigate society.
Politics, Culture and Society (20 credits): This module examines key debates in international politics, exploring how theory helps understand the practice of politics and how cultural perspectives contribute to understanding contemporary international politics.
Worlds of Literature (20 credits): This module challenges students to think critically about their perceptions of literary cultures, raising awareness of intellectual, cultural, and ethical questions in literary studies.
Discourse, Culture and Identity (20 credits): This module introduces students to concepts like culture, nation, identity, globalization, and language, encouraging a broader perspective on how these issues are played out in different cultural contexts.
Students may then choose to take 20-40 credits of discovery modules.

Year 2:

Students must study 120 credits, taking a minimum of 80 credits of French/MODL modules.

Compulsory modules for students on the prior knowledge pathway:
French Language in Contexts (20 credits):
Students are then required to take two to four of the below optional modules:
Aspects of French History 1789-1914 (20 credits):
Politics and Society in France since 1945 (20 credits): This module provides an understanding of the structures and forces that shape modern French society, focusing on France's political, economic, and social evolution since 1945.
Cinema in France: The Seventh Art (20 credits): This module provides a grounding in film studies, familiarizing students with its modes of analysis and key concepts.
Self and Other (20 credits): This module explores the complex relationship between Self and Other in French and Francophone cultures, examining binaries like Male and Female, Individual and Society, Centre and Periphery, Coloniser and Colonised.
Twentieth and Twenty-First Century French Fiction (20 credits): This module explores key trends in modern and contemporary French fiction, examining developments in storytelling, ideas about society and politics, and the impact of new technologies.
Introduction to Professional French Translation and Interpreting (20 credits): This module provides opportunities to try different modes of translation and interpreting through role-play and simulated scenarios, raising questions of ethics and linguistics.
Optional discovery modules include:
Linguists into Schools (20 credits)
Black Europe (20 credits)
Global Environmental Humanities (20 credits)
Compulsory modules for students on the beginner pathway:
French Language Skills (20 credits):
Forms of Subversion (20 credits): This module uses the concepts of "form" and "subversion" to make connections between different periods and themes in French-speaking cultures, exploring cultural forms like poetry, fiction, painting, photography, song, and film.
Students are then required to take two to four of the below optional modules:
Introduction to Skills in French Translation (20 credits):
Aspects of French History 1789-1914 (20 credits): This module introduces students to French history in the period 1789-1914, covering the transformation of France from an archaic society to a modern one.
Cinema in France: The Seventh Art (20 credits): This module provides a grounding in film studies, familiarizing students with its modes of analysis and key concepts.
Black Europe (20 credits): This module examines debates surrounding European identity in relation to race, exploring the presence of Black populations within Europe from the classical period to the present day.
Global Environmental Humanities (20 credits): This module examines human responses to the environment in various cultural forms, exploring expressions of environmental meaning and approaches to living in the environment.

Year 3:

Compulsory modules for all students:
French Residence Abroad (120 credits)

Year 4:

Compulsory modules for all students:
Advanced French Language Skills (20 credits):
Students are then required to complete one of the below optional modules:
Final Year Project: Dissertation (40 credits):
Final Year Project: Extended Translation (40 credits): This module provides students with the opportunity to develop research, writing, and translation skills through the completion of both a translation and a research project essay on a topic of their choice and refined in consultation with an academic member of staff.
Final Year Project: Digital Documentary (Podcast) (40 credits): Students will work towards the production of their own digitised research-based podcast, in English or in any other language, on a topic of their interest for a specific audience of their choice.
Students are then required to take one to two of the below optional modules:
Theory and Practice of Interpreting (French and English) (20 credits):
Visual Culture (20 credits): This module enhances the appreciation and interpretation of visual culture, examining examples from contemporary art and cinema, modern photojournalism, and historical iconic imagery.
Gender, Sex and Cinema (20 credits): This module studies the relationship between gender roles/identities in France and French cinema from several perspectives: stardom, film and ideology, gender and genre, film and sexuality.
From Algiers to Paris and Beyond: Protest From Below (20 credits): This module explores the Algerian War of independence and May 1968, considering how these protest movements have transformed the French and Francophone political, social, and cultural landscape.
Global Storytelling in French (20 credits): This module analyzes texts from different francophone countries, exploring how storytelling has developed over time, from fables to short stories, serialised novels, chanson, and rap.
Students are then required to take one to two of the below optional modules:
Representing the Holocaust: Transgression and the Taboo (20 credits):
Adventures of the Imagination: Crime and the Fantastic Across Continents (20 credits): This module explores crime fiction and the fantastic in written and audio-visual forms, examining why these genres are popular and what they reveal about human nature and societies.
Decolonial Approaches (20 credits): This module equips students with an understanding of decolonial approaches to research, investigating Eurocentric norms of Learning and Teaching in university studies.
Minoritised Languages, Dialects and Cultures from Past to Present (20 credits): This module investigates attitudes towards minoritised languages, dialects, and varieties in the UK and beyond, examining the problematic nature of terms like language, minority language, and dialect.
Linguists into Schools (20 credits): This module gives students the opportunity to help language learners in primary and secondary schools, advocating for the value of language learning.

Assessment:

Assessment methods include essays, exams, literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, digital projects, poster presentations, and translation projects.
Students receive regular detailed feedback on coursework to track their progress.

Teaching:

The program uses a range of inclusive teaching methods to meet the needs of students with different learning styles.
Lecturers are experts in their fields, providing knowledge through lectures, workshops, small group seminars, and tutorials.
Practical and interactive classes build language skills, and some modules may be taught in the target language.
Independent learning is an important element, allowing students to develop research skills and think critically about sources.
Students have regular opportunities to provide feedback on teaching and course content.
Students are introduced to a range of texts and participate in inclusive safe spaces for critically engaged discussions on sensitive topics.
Students are taught by expert academics, industry professionals, and trained postgraduate researchers.

Careers:

Graduates gain expertise in an important world language, experience living abroad, and an appreciation of French culture.
They develop transferable skills valued by employers, including communication, presentation, critical thinking, analysis, teamwork, research, independence, and adaptability.
Graduates have worked in journalism and the media, the charity sector, translation and interpreting, law, the civil service, the NHS, business and finance, marketing, tourism, education, design, cultural institutions, and curatorship.
Some graduates pursue postgraduate qualifications in translation-based careers or continue studying French language and culture at the Master's level, either for a PhD and career in academia or to further their knowledge.
The Martin Thomas Translation Labs feature state-of-the-art computing facilities for translation studies and Interpreter Training Suites.
The University is committed to identifying the best possible applicants, regardless of personal circumstances or background, and offers the Access to Leeds contextual admissions scheme.
The University provides scholarships and financial support for students.
The University encourages students to prepare for their careers from day one, supporting their academic and personal development through Leeds for Life.
The University provides a range of help and advice to help students plan their careers and make well-informed decisions, even after graduation.