Core modules
In your first year, you will follow a core Spanish language programme at either beginner or advanced level. You will also take two modules from ‘Language, Text, and Identity in the Hispanic World’, ‘Icons and Representations of the Hispanic World’, and ‘Translation: Methods and Practice’: these modules will introduce you to different perspectives on Spanish-speaking cultural contexts and/or the translation of texts between Spanish and English, helping you to start developing your skills for cultural analysis. You may also be allowed to take an approved external module.
In Film Studies, you will take core modules that explore both the theoretical and the practical aspects of Theatre and Performance Studies, enabling you to develop a nuanced understanding of different approaches.
In your intermediate and final years, you will further develop your Spanish language skills in more advanced language classes. You will be able to develop your own particular interests in Hispanic culture by choosing from a wide selection of modules offered by specialists in Hispanic Studies, including topics on social contexts, literature, politics, philosophy, film, and history. If you wish, you can also select from interdisciplinary cross-School modules.
You will continue to spend a quarter of your time on Film Studies. Core modules in World Cinemas and Hollywood Cinemas in intermediate year will build on the foundations of the first year to help you apply theories and analysis methods to films from different national contexts. In final year, you will be able to select from a range of optional modules that develop your own specialist interest in areas such as ‘Queer Cinema’, ‘The Art of Animation’, ‘Transnational Action Cinema’, and ‘Contemporary Latin American Cinema’.
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? 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 your linguistic and intercultural skills outside the classroom. During the module, you will develop your 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.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 1Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
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 first year able to sustain everyday conversations in Spanish, read authentic texts, follow 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.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language for BeginnersLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
Plus any two from:
Hispanic Studies cultural modules:
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.
Read more about Language, Text and Identity in the Hispanic WorldLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
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? The module will introduce you to a wide range of written and visual representations of the Hispanic world, and some of its most influential and iconic cultural figures. We investigate topics which, in different ways, pose important questions about studying other languages and cultures.
Read more about Icons and Representations of the Hispanic WorldLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Independent Project
This module enables students to spend some time developing their independent working and in particular to build research skills for the later stages of their undergraduate degree. The module comprises a series of skills sessions on undertaking undergraduate research, tutorials with the module leader, along with a set of supervisory meetings with the project supervisor. In addition to producing work in a range of formats in the course of the year, linked to an aspect of the culture of their chosen language and the study of modern languages at university level, students will be supported to produce an end product related to their specific area of interest and linked to the curriculum for their other first-year cultural module. The end product will be an appropriate piece of work such as a mini dissertation.
Read more about the Independent Project in Modern Languages moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
An optional module in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures or an approved outside option (30 credits)
Two modules from Film Studies:
Film History and Methods
This module will focus on film and history, exploring the various ways film texts have been analysed as reflecting social and cultural historical moments, filmmaking movements of particular eras, and how films have historicised individuals and events. There are many ways to ‘do’ film history and this term will not be an exhaustive survey of the history of cinema. Instead, it will offer some key contexts, methodologies, and traditions that have formed the wide-ranging study of film and history.
Read more about the Film History and Methods moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
and
Film Analysis and Methods
This module is concerned with the close reading and interpretation of film texts through close textual analysis. Over the course of the module, you will acquire the skills and vocabulary necessary to analyse the ways in which meaning is conveyed through the formal properties of film. This module is also concerned with the broader applications of close textual analysis. By the end of the module and you should be confident in applying your skills of textual analysis in order to interrogate the political dimension of audio-visual texts.
Read more about the Film Analysis and Methods moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
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, where you will have the opportunity to work online with students in Spain and Latin America. 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.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 2Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
or
Modern Spanish Language 2 (Post-beginners)
This module for students who started as 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 skills (oral, aural, reading and writing), 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 on concrete and abstract topics, to give presentations about different subjects, to report on the results of your independent reading and research, and to state your point of view and support it with solid arguments.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 2 (Post-beginners)Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
A Film module:
Hollywood Cinema: History, Theory, Industry
This core module will build on what students have learned about Hollywood in first year modules by expanding their knowledge about Hollywood in what has been deemed its ‘classic’ period. The module will illustrate important aspects about the industrial system that dominated Hollywood filmmaking from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, including style, genre, and stars. By first focusing on Hollywood as an industry, examining the practices and cultures of film production, the module will then consider its ideological influence by promoting specific American values and traditions through political issues, such as race and ethnicity.
Read more about the Hollywood Cinema: History, Theory, Industry moduleLink opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
A selection of optional modules in Hispanic Studies and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, including translation and cross-School thematic modules (30-60 credits); an approved outside option (0-15 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 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (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.
Read more about Modern Spanish Language 3Link opens in a new window, including the methods of teaching and assessment (content applies to 2024/25 year of study).
A selection of optional modules in Hispanic Studies and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, including translation and cross-School thematic modules (30-60 credits); an approved outside option (0-15 credits)
Optional modules
