BA French and History

Year 4

(Award available for year: Bachelor of Arts)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of:
- being able to communicate fluently and appropriately, maintaining a high degree of grammatical accuracy, in the target language with native or other competent speakers;
- being able to demonstrate sophisticated receptive and productive language skills, and having had some practice in mediation language skills, in a variety of contexts;
- having consolidated and extended knowledge and understanding of complex structures and registers of the French language;
- being able to demonstrate an awareness and understanding of one or more cultures and societies, other than their own, that will normally have been significantly enhanced by a period of residence in France or a Francophone country;
- being able to demonstrate an ability critically to evaluate one or more aspects of the literatures, cultures, linguistic contexts, history, politics, social and economic structures of the societies of the country or countries of the target language;
- being able effectively to communicate information, arguments and analysis in a variety of media, including undertaking extended pieces of work or projects, making appropriate use of primary sources and showing an awareness of recent research and scholarship in the field.

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:

1. Demonstrate coherent and detailed knowledge of:
- recent historical scholarship in the student's chosen historical specialisms.
- chronological continuity and change (hbp #16);
- how people have existed, acted and thought in a range of societies and cultures (hbp #12.1 and 17);
- techniques for close work on sources, both primary and/or secondary (hbp #18)

Especially through the study of a primary source-based Special Subject and a Long Essay or Dissertation (see hbp #21) involving original research,

2. Apply accurately standard techniques of historical analysis and enquiry
3. Demonstrate their conceptual understanding through sustained argument.
4. Make appropriate use of scholarly reviews and primary sources.
5. Describe and comment on relevant aspects of recent scholarship.
6. Appreciate the uncertainty, ambiguity and limitations of knowledge in history
7. Conform to professional standards and norms of ethics, presentation and communication of information.
8. Prove an ability to initiate, research and complete an extended historical project (hbp #21).

Transferable (key) skills

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- the transferable skills necessary for employment related to the area(s) studied, valuable for employment, e.g. be able to gather and critically evaluate information from a variety of paper, audio-visual and electronic sources, be able to use IT effectively both as a means of communication and as an aid to learning;
- skills necessary for the communication of information, ideas, problems and solutions in a variety of ways;
- skills necessary for the exercise of initiative, personal responsibility and decision making.

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:

1. Qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment, such as independence of mind, initiative, teamwork, locating and handling information, analytical ability, problem-solving, oral and written communication, intellectual integrity, empathy (hbp #14)
2. Skills necessary for exercising of personal responsibility, including self-discipline and self-direction (hbp #14)
3. Decision-making in complex and unpredictable situations.
4. Communication of information and ideas to a variety of audiences, eg. through dissertation based on self-directed original research; class presentations; essays.
5. Ability to act as an autonomous self-directed professional through experience of independent directed research for a dissertation or long essay.

Assessment

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:
- demonstrating a broad knowledge base;
- demonstrating the ability to apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline;
- the ability to evaluate and criticise received opinion;
- work that draws on a wide variety of material and is typically both evaluative and creative;
- evidence of an ability to conduct independent, in depth enquiry within the discipline.

Achievement will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will include:

- Dissertation or Long Essay.
- Oral assessment (or small written exercises)
- Assessed Essays
- Examinations

To demonstrate in all cases:

- Ability to apply a broad range of aspects of the discipline.
- Ability to produce work that draws on a wide variety of material
- Ability to evaluate and criticise received opinion.
- Work that is typically both evaluative and creative.
- Evidence of an ability to conduct independent, in depth original research within the discipline.