Университет Лестера, BA (Hons), French and Italian

Year 1: Italian: students are introduced to a range of historical periods and texts; beginners in Italian receive an intensive language course which brings them, in a year, to the level of post-A-level students; students also study introduction to pre-modern Italy and post-war Italian culture, and are introduced to different authors and genres. French students take understanding contemporary France; French language, and 1 or 2 options such as textual analysis, twentieth-century French literature; or civilisation Française. Year 2: 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; students also have the opportunity to study a TESOL option (the teaching of English to speakers of other languages). Year 3: spent abroad; normally divided between universities in France and Italy; students 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; students may make their own alternative arrangements for the year abroad, subject to the approval of the Head of School. Year 4: a wide range of options in both languages allows students to specialise including: 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; students may also choose to write a dissertation in place of 1 of the options.

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 and radio; 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 3-week summer programme in either France or Italy, for which financial assistance is available, following successful completion of the 1st year.