BA Arabic and Portuguese / Course details

BA Arabic and Portuguese is a four-year degree with a year of study abroad divided between a Middle Eastern country and Portuguese-speaking country.

The course combines compulsory language elements on both sides, delivered by native-speaker staff and with the possibility of pathways in business language, translation and interpreting.

Alongside this, you will study the culture, politics, history, literature, popular culture, linguistics and religion of the areas in question.

Arabic

• You have the opportunity to achieve near-native proficiency in modern Arabic while studying the language within its cultural and historical context.
• You will also look more widely at Arab culture and literature from the medieval period to the present day, and be introduced to social and cultural trends in the Arab Middle East and beyond.
• The range of culture units offered across all years of the programme combine the study of the history, politics, literary, and visual culture of the Arab world and are taught by a range of specialists within these fields.
• The course is carefully structured so you can measure your progress step by step. Learning modern Arabic also opens the door to the vast literature of classical Arabic, including religious and secular texts, and provides a perfect platform from which to learn one or more of the colloquial dialects. 

Portuguese 

• You will study both European and Brazilian Portuguese. 
• You will also explore a range of options in areas such as contemporary culture, colonialism, literature and cinema from Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique and Angola. 
• You will be taught by both Portuguese and Brazilian language teachers with specific training and, as a result, both your written and your oral work will be enhanced by constant exposure to accurate, idiomatic, and documented language. 
• Cultural content courses are led by academic staff with broad expertise and who publish widely in their field 
• You will benefit from outstanding resources, including world-leading collections on Lusophone Africa within the library, and access to hundreds of films and texts on Portugal and Brazil. 
• You will also benefit from us working closely with the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and we maintain strong links with the Instituto Cervantes located here in Manchester.

The course unit details listed below are those you may choose to study as part of this programme and are referred to as optional units. These are subject to change and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this programme. Although language units may show here as optional, they are a mandatory part of your modern languages degree and you will take the units relevant to your level of language in each year of study. It Is compulsory to study language at all levels of your modern languages degree.

Residence abroad

You can  study and/or work   for up to a year in a country or countries relevant to your chosen language(s) to improve your communicative language skills in a native-speaker environment.

Collaborations and partnerships

The University has links with language and cultural institutions across the city, including:

• HOME - international and contemporary art, theatre and film

Societies

The University is home to over 30 international and language-related   student societies   offering a breadth of cultural activities and experiences.

You can also join the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Student Society and enjoy a wide range of cultural events and activities. 

Engage in cultural activities  

Manchester is a multicultural city that provides excellent general opportunities for contact with speakers of Arabic and the pursuit of Arabic and Islamic interests outside of the University (eg public lectures, societies, cultural events).

You'll learn through a mixture of formal lectures, seminars and tutorials, spending approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions.

For every hour of university study, you will be expected to complete a further 2-3 hours of independent study. You will also need to study during the holiday periods.

The individual study component could be spent reading, producing written work, revising for examinations or working in the University's Language Centre .

You'll benefit from excellent teaching, student support and cutting-edge study facilities, as well as from the vibrancy and cultural diversity of Manchester itself, Western Europe's most multilingual city.

You will be assessed in various ways, including:  

• written and oral examinations; 
• presentations; 
• coursework (which may include library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection, or web-based research); 
• in your final year, a dissertation based on a research topic of your choice.  

Assessment methods vary from course unit to course unit - see individual course unit listings for more information.

My languages enabled me to get jobs. I would not have even been considered without them.

Kate, BA (Hons) Arabic and French Graduate, now working as a Journalist

The  University Language Centre is home to language resources, including a new interpreting suite, purpose-built recording rooms and resources for over 70 languages.

The Centre also offers multilingual word processing, language learning software, off-air recording and AV duplication, multilingual terrestrial and satellite TV, and extensive support and advice for learners.

Learn more on the  Facilities page.