Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

Successful completion of a Stage 2 degree involving languages taught in the SML.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

One of the objectives of the School of Modern Languages is to enhance the employability of Modern Languages graduates throughout their programme of studies.

The Year Abroad offers students the opportunity to undertake work-related learning in a variety of professional environments. Supported by members of staff in the relevant language section, students will reflect on and manage their own learning and development during their work placement abroad. Students will enhance their employability, language and personal enterprise skills while contributing to meeting the aims of their host organization.

For the purpose of this Module Outline Form, the term ‘work placement’ refers to either of the following Year Abroad activities: company-based work placement and British Council English Language Assistantship.

In consonance with the above and the overall aims of the degrees offered in the SML, this module aims:

• To promote students’ integration into a work environment through research, planning and personal reflection;
• To encourage students to reflect on the work placement, the skills developed through the work placement and the impact the work placement will have on their future career plans.
• To enhance formal written skills in the target language and develop knowledge and practice of work and business-related terminology.

Students not undertaking a study placement during their Year Abroad are required to take SML3007, SML3008, SML3009 or SML3010. Students splitting their Year Abroad between several work placements may choose which work placement to base their report on.

SML3008 is offered as an alternative to students who do not wish to take SML3010 Year Abroad Project 2 and prefer to concentrate on an evaluation of their work placement (or one of their placements). SML3007 and SML3008 are the same module, except that SML3007 runs in Semester 1 and SML3008 runs in Semester 2.

Outline Of Syllabus

At the beginning of the academic year abroad, the SML will provide students with a Module Guide including details on the assessment and a set of questions to be considered when reflecting on their work placement.

Students will be strongly encouraged to keep a non-assessed diary – and/or use their e-portfolio - throughout their placement in order to identify objectives relating to their work placement and reflect on the skills developed via their work placement. Students will be given the opportunity to submit an optional formative draft of their report, on which feedback will be provided.

Given the placement-based nature of the module, there is no specific syllabus. The 3000 word summative report on the work placement undertaken should be presented in the Target Language and include the following components:

- Introduction
- Presentation of the sector, the host company / institution
- The student’s role within the institution
- Reflection on the work placement and assessment of achievements and skills developed
- Recommendations to the host company / institution
- Reflection on the impact the work placement will have on the student’s future career plans

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of the module students will know how to:

1. Evaluate and present examples of progress in developing skills from the University’s Graduate Skills Framework.

2. Demonstrate improved, near-native knowledge of the target language and in-depth knowledge of a given work environment in the country where the language is spoken.

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module students will be able to:

1. Reflect on, critically analyse and accept accountability for managing their own learning and personal development in a foreign culture and workplace environment.
2. Use existing and new knowledge to enhance personal performance and evaluate its impact in a foreign workplace environment, and communicate this process formally in the target language.
3. Use and develop graduate skills in a professional manner in a workplace environment, evaluate and report on their impact and make recommendations when deemed necessary.
4. Write formally in a detailed, structured, critical and analytical manner in the target language.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

At the beginning of the academic Year Abroad, students will be provided with a Module Guide including a set of questions intended to guide them through the learning and reflective process leading to the final assessment.

The work placement provides students with a context within which they are expected to practice experiential learning through reflection, critical analysis, independent proactive and reactive action as well as continuous improvement.

Private study allows students to develop their knowledge of the work environment and related terminology to develop their ability to work and learn independently, reflect on their experience and gather the information and data necessary to complete their report.

The combination of work placement and private study will equip students with key skills which will enable them to develop better understanding of the workplace environment, their own learning style as well as social and cultural differences.

In 2022-23, if Covid still stops any students from travelling to their work placement, the following arrangement (first used in 2020-21) will continue to apply. If students cannot travel to the country of the placement in order to do it in person, but the company offers online placements, the students in question will be expected to take up the online offer for as long as necessary. They will then be expected to travel to the placement to finish it in person if that becomes possible. This concession will be available for as long as Covid makes travel impossible to any given destination. Online placements will also contribute to students’ understanding of the workplace environment, given the vital and ubiquitous nature of electronic communication in the modern workplace.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

*Components of a Work Placement Report:
- Introduction
- Presentation of the sector, the host company / institution
- The student’s role within the institution
- Reflection on the work placement and assessment of achievements and skills developed
- Recommendations to the host company / institution
- Reflection on the impact the work placement will have on the student’s future career plans (these components can be modified if the placement is in an educational context)

The assessment is designed to give students the opportunity to present and evaluate the knowledge and skills that they have developed and gained while on their year abroad work placement.

This assessment method gives students latitude to design their report according to their own work experience, while providing them with a framework to help them reflect on their placement and key skills from the University’s Graduate Skills Framework.

The main objectives of the report are to allow students:

- To demonstrate their ability to write and formulate critical ideas in the Target Language, in a formal and structured way.
- To demonstrate their business awareness and in-depth knowledge of their work environment.
- To evaluate and reflect on the placement (expectations, challenges, success) and the skills that have been developed.
- To evaluate the impact of the placement on future career plans

Submission is electronic only.

General Notes

N/A