BA (Hons) International Communications Studies

Students will learn and practise the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing together with basic grammatical structures. This will enable them to manipulate the language and participate effectively in everyday social situations.

Learning outcomes:

• Pronunciation.
• Standard spelling.
• Ab initio syntax.
• Ab initio sentence semantics.
• Gist comprehension and more detailed reconstruction of audio material.
• Basic oral skills.
• Intellectual skills.

• To familiarise students with the discipline of cultural studies and question the taken-grantedness of the ‘everyday’ in society.
• To enable students to undertake basic cultural analysis.
• To develop a critical understanding of key areas of culture and society.
• To appreciate the relation between particular cultural phenomena and the representations of everyday life, and their broader context.

Learning outcomes:

• Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of culture and epistemological problems associated with archiving and representing the everyday.
• Key areas of contemporary culture.

• To familiarise students with the interdisciplinary field of communications theory, including communication technologies.
• To encourage students to discriminate between particular theoretical positions.
• To enable students to analyse a range of communicative texts, acts and contexts and the impact of technology upon communications practice.
• To enable students to reflect upon their own technologised communications practices.

Learning outcomes:

• A broad knowledge of the terrain of communications theory as well as an understanding of the historical evolution and contemporary forms of information and communications technologies.
• The theoretical equipment to deal with a wide range of communications situations.
• A glossary of key terms, concepts and models relevant to the field of communications studies.

The module aims to introduce students to:

• A wide range of contexts and styles of music from around the world.
• Facilitate the development of critical skills for the analysis of diverse musical practices.
• Give students an introductory grounding in the terms, concepts, and principal debates in the fields of ethnomusicology and popular music studies.

Learning outcomes:

• Awareness of cultural differences and ethnomusicological approaches to the study of other cultures.
• Development of critical perspectives on the meanings of musics in different cultures.
• Introduction to a diverse range of music cultures.
• Ability to situate one’s own musical experience(s) in global contexts.
• Awareness of debates surrounding the term ‘World Music’.
• Development of a critical understanding of the key issues in Anglophone and Asian popular music.

The overall aim of the module is to develop further competence in the language by improving the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing. Students will continue to develop their awareness of autonomy in language learning under the guidance of their language tutor. Teaching is communicative with regular opportunities for pair- and group- work. Emphasis is placed on oral and aural skills, making full use of multi-modal resources available.

Learning outcomes:

• The language structure at post- beginner level.
• More complex grammatical structures through the study of a broader range of topic areas across the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

• To familiarise students with the history of political communication and public relations.
• To enable students to spot ‘spin’ and propaganda.
• To enable students to understand the links between public relations, politics and the exercise of power in liberal democracies.

Learning outcomes:

• An understanding of the historical evolution and contemporary forms of public relations and news management techniques.
• A knowledge of the theoretical debates around the ideological effects of public relations and propaganda campaigns.
• An appreciation of the overt and covert information strategies employed by politicians.

• To familiarise students with the wide range of interdisciplinary approaches to knowledge production.
• To encourage students to make informed decisions regarding the appropriateness of particular methodological approaches to concrete communications contexts.
• To enable students to identify, plan, and carry out a communications research topic of their own choosing.

Learning outcomes:

• An understanding of the varied and interdisciplinary methods used in cultural research.
• An appreciation of the distinction between qualitative and quantitative methods and the uncertainties and limits of particular methodologies and theoretical approaches.
• An awareness of the implications of technological, discursive and generic mediation upon communication processes.
• An appreciation of the importance of audiences and contexts to the understanding of communications processes.
• An understanding of the pragmatics of research processes.

• To help students acquire language interpreting skills appropriate to the context of community interpreting.
• To review and identify examples of good interpreting practice, and to encourage students to demonstrate extended competence in both languages.
• To encourage students to reach their own decisions about dilemmas and challenges encountered while interpreting a foreign language.
• To explore the main linguistic and cultural issues associated with the profession of liaison interpreter.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of linguistic, textual and cultural issues relating to interpreting.
• Use different techniques to resolve interpreting difficulties.
• Have developed a reasonable range of specialised vocabulary used in the process of interpreting.
• Have developed a wide comprehension of sophisticated written and spoken language.

• To familiarise students with the ethical and political dimensions of cultural and critical theory.
• To encourage students to make politicised decisions regarding the appropriateness of particular theoretical approaches to concrete situations.
• To enable students to analyse the complex cultural politics of their own everyday lives.

Learning outcomes:

• A broad knowledge of the terrain of cultural politics.
• Theoretical techniques for the analysis of cultural forms and practices with an awareness of their political impact.
• Knowledge of the forms taken by power relationships within culture.
• An appreciation of the processes by which power/ideology enters our lives and affects everyday experience.

• To help students acquire translation skills appropriate to a variety of types of general texts, and to develop an awareness of the main socio-linguistic and cultural issues associated with the job.
• To review and identify examples of good translation practice, and to encourage students to demonstrate extended competence in both languages.
• To encourage students to reach their own decisions about the most convenient translations methods and choice of words.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an understanding of linguistic, textual and cultural issues relating to translation.
• Use different techniques to resolve translation difficulties.
• Critically analyse the source text. Have developed a reasonable range of specialised vocabulary used in the process of translation.
• Demonstrate some knowledge of the variety of translation approaches appropriate to a range of texts.
• Have developed a wide comprehension of sophisticated written and spoken language.

• To provide an introduction to Japanese literary works
• To increase understanding of Japanese literature and cultural background, society and people in which the chosen authors worked
• To develop the skills to identify and examine key themes or issues of the period in relation to the literary works studied
• To develop further the skills of the target language
• To develop further the skills needed for close reading and textual analysis
• To develop further the skills needed for research and presentation

Learning outcomes:

• Knowledge and awareness of the cultural, historical and political contexts appropriate to Japanese culture
• Knowledge and understanding of the key features of literary works produced by the selected authors
• Knowledge and understanding of the authors and their work in relation to their literary and cultural context

The overall aim of the module is to consolidate and extend students’ competence to an intermediate level in the four skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing. Special emphasis will be placed on developing more sophisticated oral and written skills. Students will continue to develop their awareness of autonomy in language learning under the guidance of their language tutor. 

Learning outcomes:

• The language structure at intermediate level.
• More complex grammatical structures through the study of a broader range of topic areas across the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

• To give students the opportunity to develop a critical argument within a sustained piece of writing, extending research competence through the gathering, organising and processing of primary and secondary materials.
• To teach skills of planning, developing and presenting project-based work, paying attention to issues of research methodology and to the critical apparatus that supports scholarly work.

Learning outcomes:

• Close understanding both of the chosen subject and of its related field of study.
• Familiarity with an appropriate range of secondary literature.

• To provide a sound breadth and depth of knowledge of a broad range of contemporary digital communication and media.
• To cultivate critical engagement with the different factors that have shaped and continue to shape the development of digital communication and associated media cultures.
• To develop analytical and conceptual skills in both oral and written engagement with digital communication and media contexts from cultural, political, economic, technical and regulatory perspectives.
• To advance students' familiarity with key debates and discourses in the field of digital communication and related media cultures.
• To convey the skills required to carry out analysis of digital texts in their social, cultural, political and technological contexts at an advanced level.

Learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate knowledge and robust critical understanding of the numerous contexts within which digital communication and media are applied.
• Knowledge and critical understanding of the historical contexts of digital communication and media, how these have evolved, and continue to evolve.
• Ability to assess the wider impact of the constantly evolving digital communication and media contexts including the emergence of new modes of interactive forms and practices.
• Show a good awareness of key scholarship and other significant discourses and how they inform the study of digital communication and media and their relationship to various social, economic and cultural practices.

• The purpose of the module is to familiarise students with key concepts, theories and debates in feminist media studies and queer media studies.
• To encourage students to discriminate between particular theoretical and political positions in feminism and queer theory.
• To enable students to analyse a range of media and cultural texts, contexts and practices through the perspectives of feminism and queer theory.

Learning outcomes:

• Knowledge of concepts.
• Theories and debates on gender and sexuality.
• Understanding of the ways in which media and popular culture are shaped by, and at the same time shape gender and sexual norms, practices and identities.
• Understanding of the political potential of media engagement with issues of gender and sexuality.
• Students will be able to critically analyse, interpret and evaluate representations of gender and sexuality in media and popular culture; and draw on the industrial context of media and reflect on its impacts.

This module aims to:

• develop skills to write for the media.
• Equip students with the necessary knowledge of writing with clarity and coherence and with responsibility.
• Developing students’ skills and methods in researching and gathering information.

Learning outcomes:

• The module will be taught through a combination of interactive lectures and workshops. By the end of the module, students will be able to put together a news report, researching and writing a feature article. You will explore the differences and similarities between writing for a newspaper and writing for a radio or TV news program. This module will help you understand the legal and ethical framework in which journalists must operate.