Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge Transfer and Community Engagement

The School of Modern Languages has been engaged in a wide range of activities which have an impact beyond the academic world. These cover knowledge transfer, school liaison, widening participation and community engagement. The Spanish Department’s Taller programme for school teachers – to give an example – has been running for fifteen years. Our research seminars are always open to non-academics. Events under the umbrella of Lectura Dantis Andreapolitana and the Poetry Forum have become very popular with the general public. We also work extensively with schools in Fife and the rest of Scotland. Frau Annette Zimmermann as the School’s Language Development Officer and Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger, the Director of External Relations, are involved in a number of projects with local schools, offering talks and language taster sessions. These aim at helping to integrate Modern Languages teaching from primary via secondary level to university. The focal point is the implementation of CPD programmes for teachers. The School has also joined the ID4001 initiative that provides St Andrews students with an opportunity to expand their work-based learning by doing a monitored and credited internship at a local school. We support the Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages. Furthermore, the School of Modern Languages is currently developing CPD (Continuing Professional Development) with companies in Scotland that understand the relevance of modern languages and cultural awareness training in the global economy.

The School of Modern Languages also offers teachers help of a very practical nature. By emailing language@st-andrews.ac.uk you can tap into our the School's resources and obtain advice and support from our Language Development Officer on a whole range of language-related issues such as grammar, spelling and usage of any of the six Modern Languages taught at St Andrews.

If you are interested in any of our initiatives and programmes please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

Dr Elise Hugueny-Leger
Director of External Relations
langsdoer@st-andrews.ac.uk

ScotBac Policy

The School of Modern Languages at St Andrews has adopted the policy of the University Council of Modern Languages Scotland on the Languages Baccalaureate.

This means...

• we are happy to liaise with teachers and pupils and to provide advice on topic choice and research methodology;
• candidates can ask for access to our University Library (not borrowing rights);
• we encourage our admissions officers to take a positive view on the Languages Baccalaureate.

You can learn more about Modern Languages staff, their contact details and research interests on our web pages.

Knowledge Transfer Highlights

Talks

Colleagues who do research in Modern Languages have been giving talks to bigger audiences outside the university on topics such as women intellectuals in France, the author Charles Perrault, the flim La Princesse de Clèves, Federico Garcìa Lorca and travel writing at venues as varied as the Barton Peverill Sixth Form College in Southampton, the National Galleries of Scotland, the Institut Français and The New Picture House in St Andrews. Dr Finer from the Russian Department even wrote a report on ‘A Christmas Carol on Russia’ on behalf of Disney Motion Pictures.

German Exhibition

Nathalie Vogelwiesche (German Dpt & DAAD) and Alison Hadfield (MUSA) organised the exhibition 20 years after the fall of the Wall which was shown at the German Academic Exchange Service (London/ Bonn), the Consulate General in Edinburgh, the German Embassy in London, the Goethe Institut in Glasgow and London. More than 155 pupils and fifteen school teachers from around Scotland, students, lectures and other guests attended the launch event in St Andrews. Students and pupils of German and History benefited from the opportunity to develop their language skills outside the classroom setting and to learn about this important period in German history. This project raised awareness of and gave an insight into the reality of the divided Germany and the life in the former GDR.

For more information, see the STV news article about the exhibition.

Autobiography and Creative Writing

Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger has been organising workshops on autobiography and creative writing for and with Honours students of French and the French ‘Association pour l’autobiographie’ which promotes the practice and study of life-writing in France and abroad. Some of the texts have been published on the APA website.

French Song

On Weds 1st Dec 2011, in the Younger Hall from 2pm-4pm, pianist Roy Howat ran a masterclass on French Song for Music Centre scholarship holders, in collaboration with Michael Downes (Music Centre) and David Evans (SoML). The session was open to members of the public, and French students, particularly of FR4078 'Music in French Poetry', were encouraged to attend. The songs studied were:

Annabel Philips (mezzo): Fauré, Chanson d'amour (Silvestre)
Jennifer Murray (soprano): Berlioz, Villanelle from Nuits d'été (Gautier)
Emma Rettie (mezzo): Fauré, Les Berceaux (Sully Prudhomme)
Charlotte Lawley (soprano): Fauré, Rêve d'amour (Hugo)
André Holmqvist (tenor): Fauré, Lydia (Leconte de Lisle)