University Language Ambassadors – An inspirational strand in UK schools’ language strategy

It seems that rarely a day goes by without a negative news story about the decline of languages in UK schools (see BBC News, Language learning: German and French drop by half in Schools and The Independent, Britain’s dwindling language skills are a disaster for the country and needs action, MPs warn  for recent examples). …

Work experience in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures

Bienvenue! This week, at the University of Nottingham, we certainly received, as the French would say, an ‘acceuil royal’, during our work experience here in the Faculty of Arts. Thanks to the organisation of Tara Webster-Deakin, we’ve had a brilliantly varied week, all whilst getting an insight into the intricacies of the University of Nottingham …

Work experience: a week in the University of Nottingham

Olivia Colley, Year 10 student from the Carlton Academy, came to work for the Faculty of Arts in March 2018.  Read her blog about her experience of working with us. Olivia’s blog Hey, I’m 14 and my name is Olivia and this is my blog of a week in the University of Nottingham for my …

Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, 4-5 December 2015: Images from Jo’burg

As part of an AHRC-funded project exploring China-Africa relations, I recently travelled to Johannesburg, South Africa, to observe the FOCAC (Forum on China-Africa Co-operation), a triennial event which this year had been elevated to the status of a summit. While the goal of this AHRC project is to get a sense of how cultural exchange …

The First CLAS PG Symposium: 27-28 April 2015

Something that was often said amongst postgraduate researchers in our school was that we didn’t really know many people outside of our own individual departments. We sat in our separate PhD workspaces, divided by subject, and had a vague idea of what our neighbours were doing, but not much more than that.  So at the …

Routes into Languages: a student ambassador’s experience

Fresh from her speech at the recent Routes into Languages national training event, Hayley Smith (BA Economics with French) speaks about her experience as a student ambassador for the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies. Routes into Languages”is a consortium of universities working together with schools and colleges to enthuse and encourage people to study languages. …

Nottingham Advantage Award: Students Become Teachers!

During the Autumn Semester 2013-14, and fresh from their year abroad as British Council Language Assistants, three CLAS final-year undergraduate students – Olivia Gowie and Matthew York from the Department of German Studies, and Melissa Watson from the Department of French & Francophone Studies – undertook a language-teaching project at Greenfields Primary School, Nottingham, as …

Subtitling for Beginners in the Department of French and Francophone Studies

Earlier in December, the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies (CLAS) welcomed a group of burgeoning local Year 11/12 language students for a taste of academic life here at the University of Nottingham. During their half-day ‘taster’ visit, the students attended a French-English subtitling mini-lecture and workshop led by Drs Pierre-Alexis Mével and Dalida …

Widening participation in CLAS: summer schools and beyond

As the summer draws to a close and an autumnal chill hints at shorter days, a group of young people from all over the UK will be settling down to their final year of A level study with a renewed vigour and an eye on their future at a University. These young people were lucky …

Translating the heroines of Latin American Independence

On Thursday 25 April 2013 a group of budding linguists from Bluecoat School and Bilborough College attended a translation workshop in the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies. The aim of the session was to translate a number of biographies from English into Spanish that would be included on the Genderlatam database (this forms …