BA Film Studies and Portuguese / Course details

This is an advanced Portuguese language course for students who have completed SPLA52050 Portuguese Language 5 before the final year. It is designed to allow students with near-native proficiency in Portuguese to put their language skills to work through the completion of two independent projects: a 20-minute oral presentation in Portuguese, a Translation Project  and an extended essay in Portuguese. Students enrolled in the course will decide the topics of the assessed elements on the basis of their academic and vocational interests and in consultation with their tutor. Students will report and gain feedback on their progress in weekly hour-long tutorials. Tutorials may also be used to practice informal and formal topics of advanced conversational Portuguese, with feedback provided.  

This course aims to: 

• Consolidate students ability to learn independently 

• Help students to set their own learning targets 

• Train students to analyze and critique their own work  

N.B. The content of the assessed elements, which will form the basis of the weekly tutorials, will be decided by the student in consultation with the tutor, and will therefore vary each year.  However, the following serves as a guide: 
 

Semester I

Students to translate a 1000-word piece of Portuguese into English, or English into Portuguese (depending on their native tongue), accompanied by a 500-word commentary in English.  The text can be taken from a literary or a non-fictional work, or from a film script (subtitling).

Semester II

Students to write an extended essay in Portuguese of 2500 words.  They must also give a 15-minute oral presentation in Portuguese at the end of the semester on either the essay or the translation project, with 5 minutes of questions taken at the end. 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Confidently display their proficiency in the target language, using both written and oral skills 

• Further develop translation skills and approach the task of translation in a critical manner 

• Equip themselves with the strategies to maintain and extend their skills in the target language in the future 

• Become more self-aware and self-critical in the field of language learning and language development 

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Explore issues and subject matters of interest to the student with a high level of linguistic and intellectual sophistication.  
• Conduct independent research using primary and secondary materials in Portuguese.
• Improve their oral and written communication skills in Portuguese  through the completion of a Translation Project, a Written Essay and an oral presentation on one of them. 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Identify and make use of a broader, more sophisticated range of Portuguese-language materials 

• Better manage their own pace of learning  

• Learn independently more effectively 

By the end of this course students will be able to: 

• Work in a sustained fashion, and in detail, on a single project or topic 

• Evaluate and draw on a range of primary and secondary sources 

• Appreciate and explain subtle differences in cultural understanding 

N/A; students are encouraged to consult as many Portuguese-language sources as required for their independent learning. The instructor will make suggestions regarding relevant materials as necessary. 

 
This unit is only available to students on a Portuguese degree programme who have taken SPLA52050 before the final year of their degree.