Leicester, University of, BA (Hons), French and Italian

Year 1: Italian: students are introduced to a range of historical periods and texts; beginners in Italian receive an intensive language course which brings them, in a year, to the level of post-A-level students; students also study introduction to pre-modern Italy and post-war Italian culture, and are introduced to different authors and genres. French students take understanding contemporary France; French language, and 1 or 2 options such as textual analysis, twentieth-century French literature; or civilisation Française. Year 2: optional modules on a variety of cultural, linguistic and literary topics such as: interpreting; Bande dessinée; introduction to Francophonie; history and identity in twentieth-century literature; history of Italian cinema; Italian linguistics; pre-modern Italy; students also have the opportunity to study a TESOL option (the teaching of English to speakers of other languages). Year 3: spent abroad; normally divided between universities in France and Italy; students may opt to spend a whole year in either France or Italy as an English language assistant in a school or in other approved employment; students may make their own alternative arrangements for the year abroad, subject to the approval of the Head of School. Year 4: a wide range of options in both languages allows students to specialise including: contemporary fiction; postwar directors; women’s writing in Italy; Dante: Purgatorio and Paradiso; interpreting; immigration and ethnicity in colonial and post-colonial France; life writing; gender and power in contemporary France; French cinema; students may also choose to write a dissertation in place of 1 of the options.