SOS employability: a support structure for language students

It is readily recognised that “study and residence abroad are significant contexts for second language learning and development” (Mitchell, Tracy-Ventura, & McManus, 2015, p. 1), but the Year Abroad (YA) also provides Modern Foreign Language (MFL) students with a unique opportunity to develop personal and professional skills. YA students go through what is often termed a ‘transformative experience’ (British Academy/UCML, 2012). However, the problem of skills self-recognition and articulation remains. Without strong support structures students struggle to understand these skills and how to talk about them. This case study explores the creation of an employability-focussed support structure for MFL undergraduate students centred on preparing for, getting the most out of, and articulating the ‘soft skills’ learnt from the YA. The study presents evidence from three core activities: 1) interviews with YA returners, now final-year students; 2) support through tailored employability modules; and 3) the launch of an interactive online resource for students who are on their YA

Understanding the National Student Survey: investigations in languages, linguistics and area studies

This report is a summary of interviews and focus groups with around 100 students and 50 members of academic staff in departments of languages, linguistics or area studies at nine universities in the UK. In recent years, concerns have been expressed about the ambiguity of some of the statements which students are asked to respond to in the National Student Survey (NSS). This project set out to get a better understanding of how students and staff understand the questions. The interviews and focus groups were carried out by members of academic staff at the nine institutions who each then wrote an individual report of their findings. This summary is designed to enable wider distribution of these findings without identifying individual staff, institutions `or departments

The Flemish movement of French Flanders and the maintenance of Vlaemsch

This thesis will trace the history of the Flemish movement of French Flanders, the various associations involved in it and its prominent figures and examine the importance of the regional language - Vlaemsch - to the movement and to regional identity. It will seek to account for the decline of Flemish in French Flanders with particular reference to economic and social change in this region as well as to central government attitudes and policies regarding minority languages in France. The thesis will analyse the efforts of the Flemish movement of French Flanders to ensure the survival of Vlaemsch, in particular focusing on the support the movement enjoys from Belgian organisations. This will necessitate a discussion of the differences between Vlaemsch and standard Dutch and attitudes within the Flemish movement - and French Flanders as a whole - towards the two language varieties. It will examine the role of education in the maintenance of the regional language and seek to illustrate the limitations of a programme of promotion of a minority language based principally on the teaching of that language. Finally, the thesis will seek to demonstrate that, while Vlaemsch is likely to continue to decline as a language of usual communication in French Flanders, both it and standard Dutch standard Dutch may have a cultural, symbolic and practical role to play in the region of the foreseeable future.</p

DICHANTHELIUM SCOPARIUM AND MUHLENBERGIA GLABRIFLORIS: NEW TO THE FLORA OF OHIO

Volume: 21Start Page: 465End Page: 47