A French market held in BirminghamStudents enrolled on a Joint Honours course in French spend half of their time in the French Department and half of their time following their other chosen subject. In terms of credits, this means 60 credits are taken from modules within the French Department every year.
French can be studied as a Joint Honours combination with the following subjects:
Hispanic Studies, German Studies, Italian Studies, Russian Studies, Portuguese. All of these combinations have been brought under the umbrella of the BA in Modern Languages (R901).
French can also be studied as half of a Joint Honours combination with the following non-language subjects. For more details about how Joint Honours works, see the Joint Honours page in Undergraduate prospectus.
The French course at Birmingham is made up of three elements:
You will spend your first, second and fourth years here at Birmingham. The third year of the course will be spent in France, studying at a French university, or doing a work placement in a French school or business.
In the first year you will build on your A level language skills, whilst following introductory courses in culture and politics, and literature and film.
As you progress into the second and fourth years of the course, you are increasingly free to tailor the degree programme to suit your own interests. Alongside the core language modules, you can choose to study specialist courses focusing on politics, culture, literature or film. The French department here at Birmingham includes members of staff that are experts in all these areas, so you can be assured of receiving specialist teaching
See the French Curriculum (French modules year-by-year).
Joint Honours is not two degrees, nor, at the other extreme, is it French of a lesser standard. Whilst Joint Honours students follow fewer modules in French than their Single Honours counterparts during their time at Birmingham, the standard of work which they are expected to produce is the same. A useful way of thinking about the relationship of Joint to Single Honours is ‘less breadth but equal depth’.
As a French student at Birmingham, you will attend lectures, seminars, language classes, expression orale classes and language lab classes. Seminars are student-led and give you the opportunity to discuss your ideas with fellow-students and lecturers. A seminar group generally includes 10-12 students. In addition, you will meet in smaller groups of 5-8 for French conversation classes, which are led by native French speakers.
Courses in the French department at Birmingham can be assessed by either exams, or coursework essays. Generally, language courses involve exams, whilst for courses on film and literature, or culture and politics you may be required to write a longer essay (generally 2-4,000 words), based on your independent research.
Often students come to us having never studied history, literature of politics before. The first year course is designed to expose you to all these aspects of our teaching portfolio but does not assume prior knowledge of any of these areas. In the second and final years, you will be able to choose whether or not you wish to continue with a broad spectrum of interests or whether you would prefer to concentrate on, say, options in contemporary politics or literature.
French market
La Regle du jeu
Taking notes
