Module LANG3651: DISSERTATION IN GERMAN (EUROPEAN STUDIES/LANGUAGE CENTRE)

Department: LANGUAGE CENTRE

LANG3651: DISSERTATION IN GERMAN (EUROPEAN STUDIES/LANGUAGE CENTRE)

Prerequisites

• Year Abroad portfolio.

Corequisites

• Advanced Communication skills in German.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• Any foreign language dissertation modules from SMLC.

Aims

• To increase the students' facility for expressing themselves at a suitable academic level in the target language and in presenting and referencing academic writing.
• To develop students' ability to analyse and interpret a significant body of knowledge, relevant to European Studies, in a disciplined, dispassionate and lucid fashion.
• To promote higher level of academic writing in target language.
• To provide the students with experience in planning, documenting and writing a relatively extensive piece of work (5000 words).

Content

• Dissertation topics will be chosen independently by the students during or at the end of their year Abroad. The appointed supervisor will advise on the appropriateness of the topic and the most relevant methods during tutorial sessions, as well as monitor progress. The student will be responsible for the research design, data collection and writing up of the dissertation, within the published deadlines. The topic must be relevant to the field of European Studies.

Learning Outcomes

• On the successful completion of these modules students will:
• understand the formulation of a research question and the methods of collection of appropriate information from theoretical and empirical sources;
• have developed their skills in the execution of a research project by selecting appropriate methods of analysis, combining primary and secondary data sources, and providing a logical evaluation of their evidence;
• have further developed his/her ability to express complex ideas in a suitable academic register of the target language.
• have improved their ability to present a clear extended argument, complete with accurate documentation and bibliography.
• have acquired a deeper level of knowledge of one area of the culture the student is studying

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Mainly individual tutorials to monitor students' progress.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

400 word discursive plan to be submitted by the end of the Michaelmas Term. 1500 word extract to be submitted during Epiphany Term.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University