Placement Preparation Module (Spring Semester only)
Pre-Requisites
Autumn Semester of Stage 3, 4 or Consolidation in French, German and Spanish.
Aims
To provide linguistic, cultural and practical preparation to students about to undertake a work placement or study exchange in French, German, or Spanish speaking countries.
Intended Outcomes
On completing the course, students should:
• Be fully informed about the organisation they will be joining and the city and region in which they will be living.
• Be well acquainted with social and cultural institutions in the country of their placement.
• Be able to carry out a range of practical tasks associated with living in another country (e.g. obtaining a residence permit, arranging accommodation, registering for a course of study, getting and paying for health care).
• Be able to demonstrate a range of work- and study-related foreign language skills (e.g. note-taking, report- and essay-writing, speaking effectively) in appropriate contexts (lectures, experiments, presentations, interviews).
Methods & Materials
Study for this module will include: 18 hours of taught language classes; an investigative project (using e-mail and/or the World Wide Web) on the organisation, city or region in which students are to be placed; practice in telephone skills, formal and informal correspondence (inc. e-mail), form filling and translation; simulations of interviews and consultations.
Assessment
Assessment will be on the basis of course work comprising a portfolio of placement-related tasks.