Spanish and English for International Communication BA (Hons)

What you'll study

Programme overview

We teach in the target language from the outset and use state-of-the-art language-learning facilities. Our degrees are fully integrated and the different elements of your degree, including the placement period, complement each other. By the end of your degree, you will have developed the linguistic competence and confidence to excel in the professional and academic world.

In your third year, you are given the opportunity to combine a work placement in an English-speaking environment with a study or work placement in one of the countries where Spanish is spoken, thus providing you with the linguistic skills and experience that employers value. You may also choose to spend the whole year in a Spanish-speaking environment.

At the end of the programme, you will have a high level of linguistic and cultural competence and will be well prepared for the professional world.

Year 1 (FHEQ Level 4)

In Year 1, you study language modules, developing the full range of language skills in an academic, professional and international context. If you have chosen ab initio Spanish, you study the language intensively, using modern multimedia techniques. Depending on your programme choice, you also attend introductory modules covering relevant aspects of translation, culture and society, and history.

In addition to language and culture-specific modules, all students take the module Skills for Language Specialists, taught in English. This allows a deeper understanding of essential themes in language study and of your own foreign language acquisition.

• Skills for Language Specialists
• Written and Spoken Language for Academic and Professional Contexts
• Cultures and Societies (of countries concerned)
• Intensive Language Learning (ab initio Spanish)

Year 2 (FHEQ Level 5)

In Year 2, you build on the language modules studied in Year 1, enhance your linguistic skills and deepen your understanding of the target countries’ cultures and political and economic systems. All students take the module Introduction to Intercultural Communication. This module, taught in English with tutorials in the foreign languages, enables you to understand many of the issues that you will be facing whilst on placement, and provide you with the research skills to write your dissertation in Year 3.

There is also an optional non-language-specific module, Languages in Education, which offers an insight into the teaching profession while allowing you to participate in the National Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.

• Introduction to Intercultural Communication
• Advanced Written and Spoken Language for Academic and Professional Contexts
• Range of options, including: Politics and Economics (of countries concerned); Introduction to Sociolinguistics; Languages in Education

Professional Training placement

The Professional Training year is an integral part of our programmes. You spend the third year of your degree in the countries of the languages you study, working in a new, exciting environment, studying at some of the most renowned continental universities, learning more about others and yourself. You normally spend 46 weeks on placement. The Professional Training Year can be arranged for one or two countries, depending on programme requirements and your interests.

We have links with internationally renowned companies and institutions such as EDF, Johnson and Johnson, Lloyds Banking Group, Eurosport, Hilton Hotels, Volkswagen, Mazda Motor Europe, Ernst & Young and the German Academic Exchange Service. If you opt for a study placement, you can choose from a number of universities with which we have bilateral Erasmus agreements. These include universities in Paris, Lyon, Heidelberg, Munich, Freiburg, Alicante, Castellón, Madrid and Aarhus.

Year 3 (FHEQ Level 6)

In Year 3, you combine the knowledge, skills and experience you have acquired during the previous levels and whilst on placement. In your final year, you specialise in a research topic of your choice and write a dissertation in your target language.

At this high level of linguistic competency, you are able to choose from a range of options, covering topics such as the arts, sociolinguistics and professional communication, all of which are designed to cover varied academic and professional interests and to prepare you for your future career.

• Dissertation and Advanced Oral Skills
• Range of options for each language, including: Multicultural Societies; The Arts; Professional Communication; Languages in Business Contexts

Professional Training and placements

We have an experienced placement team that helps you to obtain the placements most suitable for your degree. Our placement co-ordinators have kept contacts with foreign companies for many years, and are establishing new ones all the time. The choice of destinations is wide, with placement providers in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Peru.

We have links with internationally renowned companies and institutions such as EDF, Johnson and Johnson, Lloyds Banking Group, Eurosport, Hilton Hotels, Volkswagen, Mazda Motor Europe, Ernst & Young and the German Academic Exchange Service. If you opt for a study placement, you can choose from a number of universities with which we have bilateral Erasmus agreements. These include universities in Paris, Lyon, Heidelberg, Munich, Freiburg, Alicante, Castellón, Madrid and Aarhus.

Preparation starts in the first year when you learn about the cultures and societies related to your chosen languages and practise CV writing and presentation techniques. In the second year, placement preparation intensifies, with a series of workshops and seminars especially developed by the placement team, accompanied by individual meetings with the placement co-ordinators of your chosen languages. In these meetings, you identify the placements best suited to ensure your academic, professional and personal development.

In the case of work placements, your placement co-ordinator helps you with the application process, from CV writing and interview practice in the target language through to signing the contract.

Throughout the second year, you attend a series of workshops focusing on a specific aspect of your year abroad. The topics covered are skills development and on-placement online support, as well as intercultural communication, business culture, financial matters and accommodation, and other relevant aspects of daily life in a foreign country covered in country-specific workshops.

You are also invited to presentations given by final-year students returning from their placements to hear first-hand accounts and to find out more about what it is like to live in a particular country, town or city.

Once abroad, your placement co-ordinators are available for you if you need help or advice. They keep in regular contact with you and also visit you on your placements, up to three times during your whole year. These visits serve to discuss your progress, to address any issues that may have arisen and to advise you on how best to prepare for your final year at university.

Upon successful completion of your Professional Training Year, you will have improved your language skills and found out more about the people whose languages and cultures you study, and you will also have gained more life experience, independence and self-confidence. This will help you to focus your studies and career planning, and you will have acquired the skills that employers value.

Teaching

We are keen to support you in becoming an independent language learner and confident communicator, and place great emphasis on the teaching of study skills. The teaching style is innovative and highly engaging, in both lectures and seminars. You are taught mostly in small groups, and almost always in the target language.

Tutors encourage you to participate in discussions. Individual module tutors happily discuss academic concerns and personal tutors are always ready to advise and assist you if any issues, personal or academic, should arise.

Assessment

We operate a modular system, and you are required to achieve 120 credits per year. You are normally assessed throughout and at the end of each semester, which enables you to track your progress. Most modules are assessed through a combination of examination and coursework, which may involve essay writing, presentations, short language assignments and class tests.

Facilities

Our language teaching facilities include digital language labs, a multimedia lab, state-of-the-art interpreting facilities, our own virtual learning environment and an e-portfolio system that appeals to the most creative amongst you.

Between classes, you can use our Language Study Area, designed for independent language learning, in the University’s purpose-built Learning Centre, which is open 24/6 and most of Sunday during semester times. Here, you can work at your own speed and concentrate on aspects of the language that are most important to you. Practice and building confidence are crucial to successful language learning.

We have a computer network of 28 PCs offering the latest in language learning technology, including specialist software to practise subtitling and audio description, and interactive programmes in 18 different languages to develop your language skills. You can read the international press and choose from a range of books and audio materials which are graded and colour-coded for easy access to your language and level. If you prefer film or video as a means of learning, you can access our media store of programmes and films and watch online, or you can watch live satellite TV from five countries, or choose a foreign film from our world cinema collection.

Career opportunities

Our graduates do exceptionally well in the employment market as a result of their academic excellence and their experience abroad. Our students’ proficiency in languages, combined with their significant understanding of intercultural processes and socio-political contexts, gives them a distinct advantage in an increasingly competitive international employment market.

Our emphasis on transferable skills such as presentation and research techniques, and communication across linguistic and cultural boundaries, ensures that our graduate profile fits the expectations of prospective employers.

Language graduates from the University of Surrey have gone into a wide range of careers. Some examples of companies in which our graduates have found employment in recent years include: Electricité de France; Santander; Bouygues UK; Crédit Lyonnais; Eurosport; Goldman Sachs; BMW; Siemens; Mazda Motors Europe; BAE Systems; BT; Eurotexte (translation company); L’Oréal; LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy); JP Morgan.

Many students go on to further study across Europe. Examples include: MSc in Development Studies at SOAS; ESCPEAP (Madrid/Berlin); MBA European Business, University of Reutlingen, Germany; MBA International Marketing, Sorbonne, Paris; MA European Studies, Cambridge/Sorbonne; PGCE/CAPES.

Our own Department offers a broad range of postgraduate degree programmes in Translation Studies. Graduates of our internationally recognised programmes are well prepared for the professional market, as well as for further research. We are proud that the MA Translation programme has been selected to join the European Commission’s European Masters Network (EMT).

Graduate prospects

Graduates over the last few years entered employment in organisations such as:

• BAE Systems
• Banque PSA Finance
• BMW
• BT
• Crédit Lyonnais
• Electricité de France
• German Embassy
• Goldman Sachs
• JP Morgan
• LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy)
• L’Oréal
• Rolls-Royce
• Santander
• Siemens

The Global Graduate Award in Languages

This programme gives you the opportunity to study an additional foreign language alongside your degree programme. You can start a new language, brush up a half-forgotten one or continue a language you have learned previously. The programme is open to all Surrey students free of charge, and students from departments across the University are brought together by their mutual interest in foreign languages and cultures.

All language modules are accredited for undergraduate students. While these credits do not count towards your degree, they are recorded on your transcript as the Global Graduate Award in Languages. You may opt for a language module in each year of your undergraduate studies.

We offer ten languages at different levels: Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, English (Advanced), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The teaching is communicative and student-centred. Special emphasis is placed on listening and speaking skills, and the programme materials are authentic and related to real-life contexts. We have a team of about 30 dedicated and experienced tutors, all of whom are native speakers or of native-speaker qualification.

This programme comprises one two-hour session per week for 19 weeks over two semesters.

• Come to an Open Day
• Build your own prospectus

Come to one of our Open Days, when you can tour the campus, speak to students and academic staff, see our student accommodation and ask as many questions as you like. In the meantime, order a personal prospectus – tailored to only include the subjects that interest you.