Explore our Modern Languages and Cultures taught Master's degree.

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TLNA-R904

MA

1 year full-time;
2 years part-time

30 September 2024

Modern Languages and Cultures

University of Warwick

The MA Modern Languages and Cultures has been expertly designed to develop your research skills and interests, while also enhancing your professional skills. Study at the University of Warwick's School of Modern Languages and Cultures and deepen your understanding of core debates and concerns in Hispanic Studies, French and Francophone studies, German studies or Italian studies.

Are you keen to specialise in the academic study of your chosen language and culture, and do you want to enhance your professional development and communication skills? Do you have the motivation to develop an individual research path, leading potentially to PhD study?

This course combines taught professionally-oriented modules with research-orientated modules in the culture of your chosen Modern Language, offering an advanced preparation for doctoral research. You will work with the support of internationally leading researchers, drawing on expertise in critical debates in the study of Modern languages and their corresponding cultures, research skills, professional and communication skills, public engagement and key research themes.

You will benefit from an introduction to critical theories and perspectives across a variety of intellectual traditions, as well as develop your own research specialism in your chosen language and culture.

Skills from this degree

• Advanced research and information synthesis skills
• Advanced report-writing and written communication skills
• Oral communication skills
• IT skills
• Public engagement skills

This is a taught MA with a significant research component in the form of a compulsory Dissertation.

Researchers across the four languages (French, German, Italian, and Spanish) collaborate to teach the core modules.

We encourage interdisciplinary teaching or supervision within and outside Modern Languages through optional taught modules, guided research project, and your dissertation.

Seminar teaching is typically in groups of between 1 and 10 students, though groups may be larger in Research Skills, a module shared with other MA programmes within the School.

Individual supervision is provided for the dissertation.

The course will involve 35 hours of work per week, typically comprising 3 hours of seminar teaching, 1-2 hour of lectures, 1 hour of tutoring and 30 hours of independent study over Terms One and Two.

In Term Three, which is focused on the Dissertation, you will work closely with your supervisor through one-to-one supervision meetings.

All our PG students can do an additional language for free at the Language CentreLink opens in a new window, subject to availability.

Modules are assessed by written and oral assignments, consisting of essays and a presentation for the Critical Debates in the Study of Modern Languages and Cultures module; a portfolio of tasks (comprising book reviews, academic or professional CVs, abstracts for conference papers, among others) for the for Professional Development and Communication Skills module; a literature review and an annotated bibliography for Research Skills; an essay for the Guided Research Project. Students will also submit an approximately 15,000-word final Dissertation.

Your timetable

Your personalised timetable will be complete when you are registered for all modules, compulsory and optional, and you have been allocated to your lectures, seminars and other small group classes. Your compulsory modules will be registered for you and you will be able to choose your optional modules when you join us.

2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.

Language competence

You will need to indicate your level of competence in your chosen language and culture (UG degree level or equivalent to C1 in the CEFR); if formal evidence cannot be provided, you will be assessed individually by the School.

If your first language is not English, or if you have not been taught entirely in English (equivalent to a UK qualification), you will need to provide formal evidence of the following English language requirements.

• Band B
• IELTS overall score of 7.0, minimum component scores of two at 6.0/6.5 and the rest at 7.0 or above.

In all cases, we require one academic reference confirming your Undergraduate performance and your suitability for this course.

Deadline

The deadline for applications for our taught postgraduate courses is the 15 July immediately preceding the commencement of study; however, we advise you to make contact much earlier in the year preceding your year of study, ideally by January, in particular if you wish to access any scholarship opportunities.

Critical Debates in the Study of Modern Languages and Cultures

This module will introduce you to crucial and often complex questions in the study of Modern Languages and the cultures to which they relate. You will gain a broad theoretical understanding and methodological framework for the detailed study of further texts and/or visual media, so that you can approach critical issues of cultural production, interpretation and the construction of meaning in texts, films and other media. You will also become familiar with relevant vocabulary and methodologies for advanced cultural analysis.

Professional Development and Communication Skills

In this module, you will build on your pre-existing skills in Modern Languages to enhance your professional development as well as your written communication skills in one of the following four languages: French, German, Italian or Spanish. Structured around seminars for the whole cohort and small-group tutorials with a specialist language tutor, you will be encouraged to reflect on cultural and stylistic differences in different professional genres.

Research Skills in Modern Languages

This module helps you develop key research skills that will assist you in your work on your other MA modules, including the use of electronic resources, writing a literature review, creating a bibliography, choosing and writing a dissertation and giving an oral presentation.

These research techniques and the ability to apply a chosen stylesheet consistently and accurately in order to present a piece of work to high standards are also transferable professionalising skills that are valued in a variety of jobs. These skills will also stand you in good stead if you wish to continue to doctoral research after your MA.

Guided Research Project

The Guided Research Project will enable you to pursue individual research pathways with the guidance of a tutor or tutors before undertaking your dissertation. Tailor your own bespoke programme of study in consultation with one of our expert tutors.

Dissertation in Modern Languages and Cultures

Through a combination of independent research and targeted supervisory support and feedback sessions, the final dissertation (15,000 words) will help you produce a coherent and logically argued piece of writing that demonstrates knowledge of and critical ability in a chosen area, commensurate with the accomplishment of an MA degree.

Translation across Cultures: Concepts and Theories

The module seeks to familiarise students with key theoretical concepts in contemporary Translation and Transcultural Studies, explored through case studies across a range of text types in translation; it also provides an overview of the development of Translation Studies as a discipline. Students will be given the opportunity to explore how translation theory relates to translation practice and to the study of translation across a range of text types, as well as reflecting on their own positionality as researchers and practitioners in Translation Studies. 

• Public Engagement
• You can also choose other 15-CAT PGT modules offered in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (find out more about the modulesLink opens in a new window).
• You can also choose any other 15-CAT PGT module from the Faculty of Arts or wider University, subject to approval by the Director of Graduate Studies.

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