Portuguese Higher Advanced 1 (MLT911)

• University credits: 10
• University levels: 1-4
• Pre-requisite: MLT915, A Level + 1 year or stay abroad, CEF B2
• Co-requisite: N/A.
• Availability: Students, members of staff, members of the public
• Teaching period: Autumn semester (timetables and course dates)
• Contact times: Three hours per week over 11 weeks, starting in Week 1 of the semester.
• Group size: Maximum of 23 students per class-group and 10-15 per lab-group.
• Language Co-ordinator: Diana Mesa Torres
• Module Leader: Diva Fleming
• Pathway: MLT905

Assuming a one-year post-A-level study of the language possibly including an extended stay abroad, successful completion of the unit below (Portuguese Higher Advanced 1), or equivalent learning experience at level B2+ of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), this unit aims to consolidate the linguistic and cultural skills required to operate as a near-native speaker in the target country, whether for professional, academic or recreational purposes, and to develop strategies and techniques to become a fully autonomous, life-long learner of the language and culture.

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

• perform at Level B2+/C1- of the CEFR
• understand television programmes and films without too much effort, and extended speech even when it is not clearly structured and when relationships are only implied and not signalled explicitly
• understand fairly long and complex factual or literary texts, including specialised articles, appreciating distinctions of style and genre
• express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions, using language flexibly and effectively for social and professional purposes, formulating complex ideas and opinions with precision, and relating their contribution skilfully to those of other speakers
• write about fairly complex academic, professional or personal subjects in a letter, essay or report, expressing their points of view at some length within a logical structure and in a style appropriate to the reader in mind
• demonstrate a critical understanding of cultural and social trends and associated behaviours in areas where the language is spoken so as to engage efficiently with native speakers in most communicative situations, including academic or professional ones
• demonstrate a strategic ability to study the language by themselves for specific purposes, assessing their long-term language needs and cultural interests, setting themselves goals in relation to these, and using specialist tools as well as experimenting with a range of resources and techniques to achieve these goals with maximum efficiency
• demonstrate advanced competence in a number of transferable skills such as IT skills, researching, presenting and analysing information, defending an argument and negotiating, intercultural and language awareness, autonomous learning, social media communication, etc.

• Textbook*:

Material provided by the department.

• Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard):
  • Weekly scheme of work
  • Summary of activities done in class, with slides and corrections
  • Follow-up and preparatory homework
  • Additonal resources, inc. free-view film selection and grammar exercises

• Validation - This module can be validated as part of the following schemes:
  • Undergraduate degree
  • MLTC Confirmation of Attendance or Completion
  • Higher Education Achievement Record
  • Doctoral Development Programme & Research Training Programme
• Assessment:

Important: the method of assessment to be used in 2023-24 is subject to change and the below is for the 2022-23 academic year. This page will be updated with further information in due course.

• Oral Assessment: 50%
• Written Examination (in the examination period): 50%  
• Feedback: In addition to on-going individual and collective feedback during class-activities, learners will receive individual written feedback on the three pieces of assessment above.

Portuguese Timetable