Course overview

Do you enjoy learning French and want to take it further? Have you already been to France and want to know more about the history, politics, culture and society of this fascinating country? Do you want to find out more about the French-speaking world? If the answer to these questions is yes, then the French Studies degree at the University of Portsmouth is for you. It offers a unique opportunity to develop your understanding of both metropolitan France and the French-speaking world, plus the chance to specialise in key areas of interest: for example, French history, society, politics/the economy, language and culture; linguistics, or France as a world power. The choice is yours! Or why not try one of our specialist options on Algeria or French West Africa?

Would you like to live in France or a French-speaking country for a year? Students at Portsmouth spend their year abroad in several different ways: in France or Belgium as a funded student at a university; as an assistant working in a school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Corsica or one of the French territoires d'outre-mer (such as Martinique or La Réunion), or on a work placement. If you want to broaden your horizons even further, we are the only languages department in the UK to offer combined work and study placements in Senegal, West Africa. View these videos to give you an idea of what you can expect on your period abroad.

Your lecturers will be experts in the field with a wide range of specialist knowledge. All lecturers are members of the University’s internationally-recognised Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR), which is the largest centre of its kind in the UK. Portsmouth is also a specialist centre for the study of French-speaking Africa. The cutting-edge research conducted by CEISR members ensures that you will only be taught the most up-to-date, innovative and original material. And Portsmouth’s excellent location on the south coast means you are only a short trip away from France.

Placements

This course allows you to take the Learning From Experience (LiFE) option, which lets you earn credits toward your degree for work / research placements, volunteer roles or internships undertaken alongside your studies.  The option gives you the opportunity to enhance your employability skills, to reflect on the ways in which you've done so, and to learn to express this to potential employers.

One of the UK's top universities for Languages and European Studies

In 2011's National Student Survey results for European Languages and Area Studies, Portsmouth came joint top nationally. Students’ responses show that they particularly appreciate staff availability and the pastoral support provided by staff in the School of Languages and Area Studies.

For further details on all language courses offered, visit the website of the School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS). If you are interested in this course and would like further information please contact us (details below). You can also view a virtual tour of the School.

Course content

Unlike most French Studies courses in UK higher education, this course offers you the opportunity to study courses not only on metropolitan France but also on the French-speaking world, notably in Africa. There is also the opportunity to spend a period abroad at the University of Dakar in Senegal on a combined work and study placement, if you do not want to spend your year abroad in France.

For many years our French course has pioneered a particular approach to French Studies whereby language learning is fully integrated with the study of contemporary France and the French-speaking world. This 'area studies' approach provides students with the opportunity to develop both high levels of fluency in French and a specialist knowledge of the French-speaking world. This combination makes Portsmouth graduates highly employable.

Year one

• EITHER French General Language Grade 1 & 2
  OR French General Language Grade 3 & Language Project
• Introduction To French Studies
• The Making Of Modern Europe 1500 – 1990
• Studying At University
• Developing Research Skills

Year two

In year two you will continue to study units in French language as well as take a unit that will prepare you for the year abroad. At this time you will also begin preliminary work on your dissertation. You may also take a beginner's course in a third language as part of your course if you so wish: we offer Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish and British Sign Language in this format.

• EITHER French General Language Grade 3 & 4
  OR French General Language Grade 4 & Language For Professional Communication 1
• France from the Colonial Exhibition to the Liberation 1931-1945
• Options including:
  • France, 1945-199: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity?
  • Text & Translation
  • Business & Markets in Global Environment
  • Nation, Language & Identity
  • Culture & Ideas In Twentieth Century Europe
  • Managing Across Cultures

Year abroad

You will spend the academic year in France or a Francophone country. We have extensive links with universities in France and Belgium and if you go to France on a Socrates-funded exchange, you may find yourself in Aix, Avignon, Lyon, Caen, Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse, Corte (Corsica) or Pau, among others. You may also do a combined university study/work placement in Dakar (Senegal), a work placement in France or work as an English assistant in a French school.

Final year

In your final year, you will continue with compulsory units in French language, study a further two core units entitled France Contemporaine and France in the World, as well as submit your dissertation on a French subject. In addition, you will be able to select from a number of specialised options.

• Dissertation/ Major Project
• French General Language Grade 6
• Language For Professional Communication 2
• Options including:
  • Colonialism & End Empire In W Africa: France & W Africa
  • Translation Theory & Practice
  • France In The World: Global Actor Or Global Maverick
  • Colonialism & End Empire In North Africa: France & Algeria
  • Interpreting

Teaching and assessment

We provide a varied, creative and stimulating learning environment. Our aim is to enable you to become an independent thinker equipped with skills that will continue to influence your experiences beyond your time at university.

Our staff are highly motivated and research active, ensuring that you are taught by enthusiastic specialists in their subjects. Many language teachers are native speakers. They will enthuse you about their specific fields of expertise, from Latin American Development to German History to Applied Translation Theory, provide advice and guide you to appropriate learning resources.

Blended learning means that through Moodle, your University interactive Intranet site, you will be given opportunities to develop and support your knowledge and skills acquired via traditional class contact. Classes include general lectures and seminars (i.e. interactive teaching with small groups of students). Most of our seminar teaching is undertaken in small groups so that students acquire skills and confidence in their analytical skills and are encouraged to ask questions and develop arguments and debates. Students are encouraged to work in small teams analysing primary documents and debating contemporary issues so that all students learn from a range of opinions and interpretations and increase their academic abilities in a genial environment. Emphasis is placed not just on what the student can take from the seminar but what they can bring to the experience and how they interact and learn from their peers.

Classes may also take the form of hands-on skills development sessions where you learn how to access electronic resources. Language is taught using the MELISSI multimedia digital classrooms (they are much more than 'language laboratories') or via small oral practice classes with Language Assistants.

Our assessment methods are varied, with relatively few formal examinations. The emphasis is on continuous assessment, with assessments designed to measure the learning outcomes of your various units. Most assessment is done through submission of essays, reports, case studies, book reviews or other pieces of written work. Some units are assessed by means of projects, which can be particularly useful to build up your career profile. Some language-based tests are oral presentations to measure your progress in oral communication.

Career prospects

Your time at University of Portsmouth will help you to develop a wide range of skills in analysis, criticism and argument. Students on our degree programmes often have a worldview and study experience abroad, which makes them flexible and adaptable and highly employable. During your course, you will have the opportunity to develop a range of capabilities that are valued by prospective employers. You will have many opportunities to develop transferable key skills such as:

• communication
• research
• time management
• team working
• problem solving

These transferable skills are used in many careers across the private, public and voluntary sectors. Allied with intellectual and academic development, they will provide a sound preparation for the world of work or further study.

Year abroad

Students who choose to study at one of our partner universities within the EU will do so as part of the EU Erasmus ‘student mobility’ programme. This means that you will not have to pay fees (they are waived) and that you will receive a grant from the EU (covering living costs). In addition you will benefit from an intensive language course at the beginning of your stay, which is in many cases provided free of charge as part of the Erasmus programme.

The period spent abroad enhances students’ intercultural awareness, which is a quality increasingly appreciated by employers in a globalised economy.

Career paths

The French Studies programme aims to prepare you for a wide range of employment possibilities both at home and abroad. The course is structured to develop a range of skills and competencies throughout the degree programme and you will thereby gain the analytical and practical skills sought by employers.

These include language skills, good communication skills in written and oral forms and transferable key skills and setting and monitoring their own learning objectives. An interdisciplinary approach to study is fostered throughout the course.

Graduates from the French Studies degree have gone into a variety of jobs ranging from working as a sales trader assistant with Goldman Sachs to human resource administrator with British Gas. Whether you use your language working for the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) or Customs and Exercise, or abroad as a language assistant, your transferable skills and area studies expertise should make you highly employable. Past students have gone into careers in investment banking, international sales management, market research and working for a team of international lawyers.

Like all modern language graduates French Studies graduates are very employable and have a very wide range of career paths open to them.

Recent Portsmouth language graduates have gone on to work for a variety of companies including: a UK based solicitors dealing with French conveyancing, for a publishing house in London, for the investment bank Morgan Stanley (using language skills daily), as a lecturer in France, with the Law Society with special responsibility for Africa and the Middle East and working in marketing with a computer software company.

Facilities and features

The School is located in Park Building, just behind the Guildhall in the centre of the city. Park Building houses two large, modern, high-tech lecture theatres, a number of smaller but equally high-tech lecture theatres, four computer suites, multimedia digital classrooms and editing suites. The Learning Resource Centre provides facilities for independent study, including listening booths, video/DVD/CD players and satellite TV monitors.

You will also have access to the University Library. Open from 8am until midnight every day during term-time, it provides an abundance of information to help with study and research. It has also invested heavily in the purchase of electronic resources. There are thousands of electronic journals and ebooks, which can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for BA (Hons) French Studies for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).