Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Handbook of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Language work
- Part I Language Papers
- Beginners' Language Courses (Part IAab initio)
- Advanced Language Courses at Part IA and Part IB
- Part II Language Papers
- Recommended Dictionaries and Grammars (all levels)
Part I Language Papers
The Part I language courses put on by the Department are designed to develop your knowledge of and skills in Spanish or Portuguese to a very high level of proficiency (Part I in a language is recognised as an independent qualification in itself), and to prepare you for the advanced study of the culture (and/or languages) of the many Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries as offered in Parts IB and II of the Tripos.
Language work at Part I has been carefully distributed between Part IA and Part IB, with the aim of providing you with a progressive language course taking you to a very high level of competence before you embark on your year abroad. Evidently, the course content for students who are starting Spanish or Portuguese from scratch will be somewhat different from the course for students who already have an 'A'-level in one of these languages.
Besides the courses and classes mentioned here, there will be plenty of opportunity for self-access study, both in the Language Laboratory, which has satellite television and integrated language courses, and in our Computer Aided Language Learning facility (CALL), which teachers will increasingly integrate into class work.
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Beginners' language courses (Part 1A ab initio
If you are taking Spanish from scratch or GCSE, then at the very beginning of the first year you will be given an assessment test to gauge the level of your linguistic ability in your new language. Students start Spanish or Portuguese with a wide range of linguistic ability, from absolute zero (except that you should have made a start over the summer before coming) to those who have GCSE or have lived and travelled in Spain/Portugal or Latin America for an extended period of time. For this reason it is important to get you into the correct group from the outset. (An assessment test will not be given for Portuguese.)
The ab initio course is designed to take you from scratch (or GCSE) to 'A'-level standard in the space of eight months (October-May). The course is, therefore, very intensive. You will attend two language classes per week which will take you through the major points of the language's grammar and syntax, while in a weekly supervision (in your College) you will practise writing in the language from day one. The language supervision is complemented by a weekly oral supervision with a native speaker, and both of these supervisions will take you through a graded series of topics designed to place language in context (for example, 'Smoking', 'Euthanasia', 'the Environment', etc.). From the beginning of the second term (Lent), the language supervision will alternate fortnightly with a literature supervision designed to introduce you to advanced reading in the language and to the literature of Spain/Portugal and Latin America.
In Spanish, you will have a series of 7 lectures (weeks 2-8 of Michaelmas Term) on Introduction to Spain and Latin America.
The examination itself will consist of an oral (Oral Examination A), two language papers (MLT0/SP A1 or PG A1, Use of Language and MLT0/SP A2 or PG A2, Translation) and an introduction to literature paper (MLT0/SP A3 or PG A3).
At Part IB you will follow the same language course that post A-level students take in their first year, for which read on.
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Advanced language courses at Part IA and IB
The advanced language course is for first years who already have an A-level (or equivalent) in Spanish or Portuguese and for second years who started these languages from scratch in their first year. All such students have classes in 'Use of' the language, Translation from the language, and language/oral supervisions. However, Translation into the language and Listening Comprehension are only taken by second-year students who started the course with an A-level or equivalent in the language concerned.
1. Use of Spanish/Portuguese (MLT0/SP B1 or PG B1)
This is a weekly class, and it is the core of your Part I language course. The class is designed, as its name implies, to encourage the active use of the language, in reaction to both spoken and written Spanish or Portuguese. Your knowledge of grammar and syntax will be reinforced and built upon in this class, and you will be shown how to extend your vocabulary and put it into active use. The three-hour examination paper will consist of one or more passages in Spanish or Portuguese, with various different exercises on the passage(s) designed to test: (i) your understanding of grammar, syntax and vocabulary; (ii) your ability to respond critically to the text(s); (iii) your ability to summarise an argument clearly; and (iv) your inventiveness with writing and argumentative skills by means of a short guided composition in reaction to the text(s). Needless to say, you will be required to write your answers in Spanish or Portuguese. In their Use of Spanish classes students will be using Practising Spanish Grammar, A Workbook.
2. Translation from Spanish/Portuguese (MLT0/SPB2 or PGB2)
This is a fortnightly class, designed to introduce you to the wide range of styles and registers in Spanish or Portuguese, from the Golden Age to the present day, and from Europe through to Latin America (and Africa in the case of Portuguese). Each fortnight you will be given a passage to translate and hand in in advance of the class. Your teacher will correct your version and then discuss the style, register, vocabulary, and syntax of the passage with you in class in a way that is aimed at developing both your comprehension of written Spanish or Portuguese, the range of your vocabulary, and your ability to produce a good, stylish English translation. You will occasionally also be asked in class to discuss and compare, perhaps in small groups, one or two professional translations of a passage or a poem in Spanish/Portuguese, with the aim of raising your critical awareness of the problems, both technical and stylistic, involved in translation. The two-hour examination will consist of four passages, of which one will be a commentary (a passage or poem with one or two professional translations for you to comment on), but you will only have to translate (or produce a critical commentary of) three of the passages.
3. Language/Oral supervisions
Teaching aimed to develop your oral and general language expression skills in the language consists of a weekly supervision with a native speaker in small groups of 2-4 students (these supervisions are arranged by your Director of Studies). This is your chance to converse with a native speaker on a series of topics, where the onus will be on you to speak the language and increase your fluency. The oral examination (Oral Examination B) is held in the first week of the third term (Easter Term) and consists of: (i) reading aloud a passage taken from a text chosen by the Examiners; and (ii) conversation on the subject matter of the text. During the four teaching weeks of the Easter term, supervisors will concentrate on revising relevant grammatical points.
Please remember that the Language Laboratory provides you with ample opportunity to listen to authentic Spanish and Portuguese, even if it is only watching the News or the latest episode of your favourite Latin American soap (telenovela)! There are also the Hispanic and Portuguese Societies in the University which will help you meet the many young native-speakers who study in Cambridge. We shall also give you advice, help, and encouragement to go on courses in Spain or Portugal during the holidays. The Language Centre (11, West Road) has a system of 'pairing up' Modern Languages students with foreign students currently studying in Cambridge for language exchange sessions. You may be able to arrange an informal language class in this way.
4. Translation into Spanish/Portuguese (Part IB 'Option B' only) (MLT1/SP B3 or PG B3)
This class is only available to Part IB (i.e., second-year students) who had an A-level or equivalent in the language when they arrived. In addition, if your other language (say, Italian) is ab initio, you can choose not to do this paper in Spanish/Portuguese and instead do an extra literature/linguistics paper. If, however, both your languages are post A-level, then this paper, together with the Listening Comprehension, is compulsory.
You will practise the advanced exercise of translation into Spanish/Portuguese (sometimes called Prose Composition) in a fortnightly class. Apart from giving you the skills and the confidence to translate complex English structures and registers into the foreign language, this class builds on your grammatical and lexical knowledge of the language through systematic practice and correction.
For Spanish we recommend Curso intensivo de español: niveles intermedio y superior; ejercicios prácticos, J. Fernández, R. Fente, José Siles (Madrid: Sociedad General Española de Librería, 1996 or most recent edition).
5. Listening Comprehension (Part IB 'Option B' only) (MLT1/SP LC or PG LC)
The Listening Comprehension, like Translation into the language, is only for second-year students who did Spanish/Portuguese Part IA Option B in their first year.
The training in the skill of listening comprehension in Spanish will combine the guided use of web-based materials with a number of hours contact teaching. In Portuguese, there will be a fortnightly class involving work with video. In all cases, the clips will deal with topics of general cultural interest seen from a Spanish/Portuguese perspective. You will be asked to answer questions about what you have seen and heard in the language.
The aim of this course is to develop your ability to extract and note down in the language relevant and accurate information from authentic spoken material. The examination will have a similar format to the practice exercises (the passage, lasting between five and ten minutes, is played to you twice in the examination).
Remember that ample material is provided in the Language Laboratory for self-study, from films in the foreign language to satellite television. The more you make use of this facility, the more you will improve your linguistic skills.
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Part II language papers
You only take language papers in one of your two languages
in your final year. It is usual (and wise) for students to take
both Part II language papers in the language of the country
they lived in during their year abroad. All students must take
the Part II Oral, the Translation paper, and the Essay
paper. At least one of the language papers must be
in the language in which you take the Part II Oral
examination. This examination is seen as a test of the oral skills which
you have perfected during your year abroad, and it is taken at
the beginning of the Michaelmas term of your final year, just
before term starts. The examination consists of a twenty-minute
discussion between the candidate and the examiners on a topic
chosen by you from a list of topics appropriate to the range of
Part II literary/cultural/linguistics papers available in the
examination that year. The topics are announced in the middle
of the Easter Term preceding your departure for your year
abroad. You are required to decide on your choice of language
for the oral before you go abroad. This consists of two exercises: translation into
Spanish/Portuguese (called Composition), and translation from
Spanish/Portuguese, which are alternated in a weekly language
class (one week Translation, the next week
Composition). For translation from the language, passages of an
appropriate length and type (usually a piece of literary prose
or sophisticated essayistic style) are set, translated by
students in their own time, and discussed in class. Students
are encouraged to approach translations strategically,
responding to the significance and character of a whole passage
rather than its parts. Particular attention is paid to the
decisions which govern your choice of what to prioritise in a
given passage and to issues such as rhetorical effect,
rephrasing and translation loss. You should obtain the
following book which will be used throughout the course:
Thinking Spanish Translation: A Course in Translation
Method: Spanish to English, Sandor Hervey, Ian Higgins
& Louise Haywood (London: Routledge, 1995) For composition, or translation into the language, attention
is paid to sound grammatical and syntactical competence, but
after a year in the country, it is assumed that you will have
achieved a sufficient mastery of the main structures to allow
the teacher to concentrate on the finer points of register and
style, shades of meaning and sense of idiom. After your third
year abroad, you should have acquired enough confidence and
feel for the language to be able to experiment on renderings
that (while faithful to the overall meaning of the text) sound
and flow as if they were original Spanish/Portuguese, ideally
without any trace of underlying English structure or turn of
phrase. You will be expected to write in Spanish or Portuguese, on a
theme relating to one of your Part II scheduled papers in
literature, cinema, history, or linguistics. A
sophisticated and informed presentation of points should match
your use of grammatically and syntactically accurate language,
while suitability of register and a sense of idiom should go
hand in hand with a competently mastered fluency of
style. Any underlying English structure and turn of
phrase should have been banished by the linguistic cleansing of
your year abroad! Your work will be discussed in supervisions (you are
entitled to four separate Language Essay supervisions in
your final year), usually with your supervisor for the
scheduled paper(s) on which you plan to write. You are strongly
recommended to start writing you language essays as soon as
possible after returning to Cambridge in the Michaelmas Term --
it is too easy to let it slip and find yourself panicking a few
weeks before Finals. Back to Language Work
Contents 1. The Part II Oral (Oral Examination
C)
2. Translation Paper (MLT2/SP C1 or
PG C1)
3. Essay Paper (MLT2/SP C2 or PG C2)
Recommended
dictionaries and grammars (at all levels)
Spanish
[this is a very useful Thesaurus, similar to Roget's
Thesaurus]Portuguese
Dictionaries
Grammars and exercise books
Text books
Auxiliary material
