Modern Languages and History

This Joint Honours course will enable you to start satisfying your curiosity about the past, enhancing your understanding of specific periods and problems, while giving you the opportunity to gain fluency in the language of your choice - French, German, Italian or Spanish.

Whether you start at beginners’, advanced or native-speaker level, you will study the core language components for the language you have chosen, gaining skills in writing, reading, speaking and listening. All our teaching is led by native speakers.

The remainder of your modern languages study will give you an opportunity to explore the literature, art, culture and history of the language area you are studying, from seventeenth-century French theatre to representations of childhood and youth in German culture, and from Italian fashion and design to visual arts from all the corners of the Spanish-speaking world. As a modern linguist, you will develop excellent communication and research skills, and combine lingusitic proficiency with cross-cultural perspectives.

In your third year you will have the opportunity to spend a year working, teaching or studying abroad, where you will immerse yourself in another language and culture, truly broadening your horizons in the process.

• On graduation you will have language and analytical skills in a modern language together with additional knowledge of culture, society, and history, that will give you a valuable competitive edge in an increasingly globalised world.

• Our research staff are engaged in research at the highest level internationally; we are in the top 10 of UK Modern Language departments for research quality and the top in London (Research Assessment Exercise 2014).

Studying History is exciting and rewarding; it encourages you to appreciate the human experience in other places and at other times. Exploring what people have felt, thought and done in the past expands our self-awareness. It will help to satisfy your curiosity about the past, acquire understanding of specific periods and problems, and make discoveries.

Our internationally renowned academics are developing the very latest thinking on historical problems; this cutting edge knowledge informs the curriculum and will enhance your learning experience. By studying History at one of the largest and most influential departments in the country you will be able to choose from an exceptionally broad range of subjects, enabling you to spread your studies across the medieval and modern worlds, from Ancient Rome through to modern China, from Saladin through to Margaret Thatcher.

• 96% say that our teaching makes the subject interesting and 94% find the course intellectually stimulating (National Student Survey 2016).

• World-leading and internationally excellent research which is ranked joint first for its impact on greater society (Research Excellence Framework 2014, 4* and 3* research).

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, we will commit to providing 2019 and 2020 entry students with a subsidy equivalent to current Erasmus+ funding (where this would have previously been funded by the Erasmus+ scheme). To find out more visit the Erasmus+ page.

Course Modules

Core Modules

Year 1

Depending on which languages you have studied prior to starting at Royal Holloway, you may choose to study up to three from French, German, Italian and/or Spanish. 
All languages we teach have a beginners' and a post-A Level pathway in Year 1, allowing you to study one language ab initio (intensively, from scratch). From Year 2 onwards all students take the same language modules, regardless of your Year 1 pathway.

As a Modern Languages student you will take:

• Critical Analysis for Linguists

• History in the Making

• All modules are optional

• French Ab Initio Written I

• French Ab Initio Oral I

• French Advanced Written I

• French Advanced Oral I

• German Ab Initio Written I

• German Ab Initio Oral I

• German Advanced Written I

• German Advanced Oral I

• Italian Ab Initio Written I

• Italian Ab Initio Oral I

• Italian Advanced Written I

• Italian Advanced Oral I

• Spanish Ab Initio Written I

• Spanish Ab Initio Oral I

• Spanish Advanced Written I

• Spanish Advanced Oral I

Year 2

• All modules are optional

• Intensive French for Beginners II

• French Language II

• German Language II

• Italian Language II

• Spanish Language II

Year 3

• Year Abroad

Year 4

• Pratique du Français III

• German Language III

• Advanced Italian III

• Spanish III

Optional Modules

For more information on optional modules available as part of the Modern Languages part of your course, please see the list here: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate/languages-literatures-and-cultures/modern-languages/

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate/languages-literatures-and-cultures/modern-languages-and-history/

The course has a modular structure. You will take 120 credits’ worth of modules each year in years 1, 2 and 4, and 60 during your year abroad. Some modules are compulsory while others are optional, thereby offering you flexibility and choice. Your first year results don't count towards your final degree award, but those achieved in your second, third and fourth years will.

Our teaching combines a majority of seminars and small group work as well as role play and conversational activities, with some lectures. Private study and preparation are essential parts of every course, and you will have access to many online resources such as Powerpoint slideshows, copies of selected primary and secondary texts, audiovisual materials, class and seminar preparation aids, links to relevant external sites, quizzes and grammar and essay writing guidance, and the University’s comprehensive e-learning facility, Moodle. When you start with us, you are assigned a Personal Tutor to support you academically and personally and who holds regular surgery hours at least twice weekly.

Assessment is by a mixture of coursework and end-of-year examinations. Coursework includes essays, language exercises, translations and reports. Oral presentations and computer-based tests are used in some Modern Languages modules to assess grammar and comprehension skills.  In the final year you will complete a 10,000 word dissertation for History. You can, to some extent, choose modules which suit your own assessment preferences.

You will also take a study skills course during your first year, designed to equip you with the writing skills you will need to be successful in your degree. This module does not count towards your final degree award but you are required to pass it to progress to your second year.