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Hispanic Studies and Italian (BA) (UCAS RR43)

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Hispanic Studies and Italian at Warwick

This course will not be available for 2022 entry, but you may be interested in our BA Modern Languages degree.

BA Modern Languages

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RR43

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Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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4 years full-time, normally including a year abroad

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26 September 2022

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Modern Languages and Cultures

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University of Warwick

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Hispanic Studies and Italian (BA) is a joint degree that allows you to gain expertise in two languages and cultures by devoting equal weight to each.

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Hispanic Studies and Italian is a joint degree that allows you to gain expertise in two languages and cultures by devoting equal weight to each.

You will take core modules in Spanish and Italian language every year, combining these with a range of literary, cultural, and political options.

After your first year, you will choose from a large selection of specialist cultural modules. These modules will extend your knowledge and understanding of the literature, culture, society, and politics of the Spanish-speaking and the Italian-speaking worlds.

You will normally spend your second or third year abroad, consolidating and enhancing your learning.

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Each year you take four modules. One in each of your chosen languages, and one module on a cultural or literary topic from each language department.

Core modules that focus on aspects of Hispanic and Italian culture, society, literature, film and history in your first-year feed into a range of themed options in the following years.

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We employ a variety of teaching styles within the School of Modern Languages including:

Lectures
Seminars (consisting of around 15 students and focussing on student participation)
Written and spoken language classes in small groups

You will spend the rest of your time:

Studying independently
Preparing for classes
Reading
Analysing materials set for study
Writing essays
Working on your language skills

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Seminars generally involve around 15 students.

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You will have around 12 hours of contact time per week.

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We will track your progress through:

Language assignments
Essays
Presentations
Portfolio submissions
Examinations (written and oral)

To help you improve your skills you will receive detailed and personalised feedback throughout your course.

Your intermediate- and final-year marks each contribute 50% of your final degree classification.

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Study abroad

We strongly recommend that you take a year abroad as part of your modern languages degree, if you are able to. If you are unable to take a year abroad you will move to a three-year. You will be required to complete further language reinforcement work. You will also be encouraged to spend time abroad in other ways, during vacation times.

You will usually spend your year abroad doing one of three things:

Working as a language assistant teaching English in a primary or secondary school
Studying full-time at a partner university in your chosen country
On a work placement

Find out more about flexible Year Abroad options

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AAB to include Spanish or Italian

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36 to include 5 in Higher Level Spanish or Italian

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We welcome applications from students taking BTECs alongside an A level in Italian or Spanish

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Year One

Modern Spanish Language 1

Do you have A level or an equivalent in Spanish and want to consolidate, extend and refine your skills to advanced level? This module will equip you with sound grammatical and linguistic foundations, with the aim of increasing your confidence in reading, listening, speaking and writing in Spanish. You'll use authentic resources in a variety of media from around the Hispanic world, including books, articles, newspapers, television, music, and podcasts , as well as taking part in our virtual language exchange with students at the Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, Colombia, a fantastic way to expand the language and intercultural skills outside the classroom. During the module, students will develop their skills through a combination of classroom sessions, guided learning activities and appropriate self-study resources. Weekly classes will cover reading, language in use, grammar and functional aspects of Spanish such as translation, extended writing and oral expression, which are reinforced through complementary activities on Moodle, our multimedia VLE.

Modern Spanish Language for Beginners

As a beginner in the acquisition of the Spanish language, you’ll gain a keen grammatical awareness, a sound understanding of cultures and societies across the Hispanic world, and most of all, confidence in reading, listening, speaking and writing in Spanish. Using authentic resources, including newspapers, television and radio, you are expected to end your course able to sustain everyday conversations in Spanish, read authentic texts, follow the gist of TV extracts and write at an intermediate level in Spanish. You'll also work on basic translations to and from Spanish as a means of consolidating your knowledge.

Modern Italian Language for Beginners

Would you like the challenge of learning a new language at university? This foundation module for absolute beginners combines the acquisition of core language skills with knowledge of broader aspects of Italian culture, equipping you with the tools to engage with a wide range of relevant, contemporary topics in Italian. Opportunities to practise your Italian vary from role play to quizzes, working both individually and in your group. Successful completion will mean you are able to hold a conversation in Italian, read newspapers and get the gist of TV and radio programmes in Italian.

Modern Italian Language 1 (Intermediate)

Do you need to consolidate and expand your competence in Italian while enjoying talking about culture and society? If so, this is the module for you. You’ll be given opportunities to revise fundamental grammar and vocabulary before acquiring more complex grammatical constructions, including through translation. We will integrate cultural topics with your linguistic studies, so you have the chance to explore areas such as tourism, the arts, the environment and Italian traditions. You will have opportunities for individual and group presentations and to engage in activities that integrate the skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking. By the end of your course, you’ll be expected to be able to write competently in several registers, using appropriate styles and terminology, and to converse in Italian to a good standard.

Modern Italian Language 1 (Advanced)

Would you like to use your Italian A level (or equivalent) language skills creatively? This module will develop your linguistic and intercultural competence in Italian by means of advanced activities, including creative writing, translation, debates, presentations and drama. You will explore linguistic structures using resources in a variety of media and engage with authentic and sophisticated texts to compare cultural systems and express your opinion critically and creatively. In translation, you will experiment with different genres, registers and styles to enhance your cultural appreciation of Italian. Finally, you will have opportunities to explore cultural subjects and lead group discussions.

A Hispanic Studies cultural module:

Language, Text and Identity in the Hispanic World

How has the Spanish language travelled around the world and what happens when it co-exists with other languages? How do writers use language to explore identity, and what happens when they work between two (or more) languages? What skills do we need as readers to interpret the nuances of texts that travel between languages? This module will equip you with an understanding of the cultural and sociolinguistic diversity of the Hispanic world, and a strong grounding in the literary and cultural analysis of texts that address this diversity. The module explores the different varieties of Spanish spoken around the world, along with some of the principal languages that share its territory. It also reads a variety of texts that negotiate national and gender identities across linguistic and cultural borders, with a focus on those that travel between non-hegemonic Hispanic contexts and the Anglosphere.

Icons and Representations of the Hispanic World

Have you ever wondered where the familiar stereotypes of Spain and Latin America come from? How have they circulated and been received at different times and in different places? And how have Spaniards and Latin Americans represented themselves to travellers, tourists, artists, and even invaders? This course introduces you to a wide range of written and visual icons and representations of the Hispanic world, in both Spanish and English. We investigate topics which, in different ways, pose important questions about studying other languages and cultures.

An Italian cultural module:

The History of Modern Italy

You will chart the course of cultural, political and social change in Italy over the past century, studying key moments in its history, including the rise of fascism, World War II, the economic boom of the late 1950s, and political extremism of the 1970s, through to contemporary issues such as immigration and recent economic and political crises. You will study these events through the lens of literary and cinematic works and gain an understanding of how they have contributed to the nature and identity of contemporary Italy, in order to prepare you for your year abroad and further study of Italian culture. You will also build your competence in textual analysis, independent research and essay-writing.

Introduction to Italian Culture

How should we ‘read’ a literary or visual text? What are the considerations of form, audience and context that enable us to make sense of a cultural product? In what ways should a performance be understood differently from something fixed on the page? You will address these questions by considering four representative avenues of expression in Italian culture, namely cinema, short stories, lyric poetry and theatre-writing. You will refine your skills of analysis and have the opportunity to sample different periods of Italian culture, from the Renaissance through to intellectuals such as Italo Calvino, Primo Levi, and the poet Giacomo Leopardi, representative of the Romantic tradition. You will end your course equipped with the appropriate technical vocabulary to discuss different art forms fluently and in an informed manner.

Intermediate Year

Modern Spanish Language 2

On this module, you'll extend your competence in Spanish. You'll deepen your understanding of advanced grammatical and linguistic structures, increase the range and sophistication of your vocabulary, and refine your use of register in authentic spoken and written discourse. You'll use resources from a variety of media from around the Hispanic world, and take part in our virtual language exchange with students in Latin America and Spain. At the end of the course, you should have sufficient mastery to discuss different topics, report on your independent reading and support your opinions with solid arguments.

Modern Spanish Language 2 (Post-beginners)

This module for post beginners follows the first year Module HP102 and seeks to consolidate the language skills gained in students’ first year of study. The aim of this module is to further extend and refine competence in modern Spanish. It covers the main linguistic (oral, aural, written, spoken) skills, and seeks to promote the continued acquisition of grammatical awareness and essential communicative competences. At the end of the course, you will be able to understand discourse about concrete and abstract topics, to give presentations about different topics, to report on the results of your independent reading and research, and to state your point of view and support it with solid arguments.

Modern Italian Language 2

This module will extend and refine your competence in Italian. With an emphasis on the key skills of reading, listening, speaking and writing, you will consolidate your proficiency in both new and familiar grammatical and linguistic structures, and expand the range and sophistication of your vocabulary and use of register in spoken and written discourse. In addition to classroom exercises, advanced discursive written work and oral projects, you will also be directed to appropriate activities for self-study.

Modern Italian Language 3

On this module, you will develop your translation, writing and oral communication skills to advanced level. You will engage in translation as a practical skill, working to produce translations of literary, journalistic and academic texts with a focus on conveying nuances of meaning and culturally specific terms. You will develop greater fluency in different writing styles and genres. Oral sessions will increase your familiarity with more sophisticated registers of spoken Italian and raise your awareness of recent developments in Italian society so that you can discuss aspects of contemporary Italy in relation to your personal experiences.

A selection of optional modules in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (60 credits)

Final Year

Modern Spanish Language 3

This module will consolidate your linguistic skills acquired in the intermediate year and extend them through translation, writing, reading, speaking and listening activities. A range of assessments will be offered for students to track and reflect on their progress through the provision of regular feedback. Students will also be provided with complementary autonomous learning and grammar activities and directed to appropriate activities for self-study in order to develop independent learning strategies.

The aim of this module is to refine fluency in spoken and written Spanish, working towards a C2 standard of the CEFR. Emphasis will be placed on sophisticated translation and writing, as well as oral and comprehension skills, using an appropriate range of complex linguistic structures, vocabulary, register and style.

Modern Italian Language 4

Building on Intermediate year language, you will deepen your writing, speaking and translation skills, paying particular attention to register and style and learning some of the underpinning translation theory. We approach translation not just as a linguistic exercise but as a practical skill, so you will work to produce translations of literary, journalistic and academic texts, and explore techniques for conveying semantic nuances, culturally specific terms and more sophisticated registers of spoken Italian. Both the writing and oral components of the course will raise your awareness of recent developments in Italian society and enable you to discuss relevant aspects of contemporary Italy in relation to your personal experience.

A selection of optional modules in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (60 credits)

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Find out more about fees and funding.

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There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course. Students who choose to complete a work placement or study abroad will pay reduced tuition fees for their third year.

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