This module builds upon the Year 2 module ‘Introduction to Catalan Language and Culture’ to strengthen, extend and refine students’ knowledge of written, aural and spoken Catalan. Year 4 students taking this module should have passed the Year 2 optional module Introduction to Catalan Culture and Language. The module concentrates on four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) to enable students to communicate effectively in Catalan and to reach a level corresponding to B1 within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (see http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/cadre_en.asp). The main focus is on developing oral fluency, improving aural and reading comprehension skills, learning complex syntactic structures as well as new vocabulary, and perfecting students’ writing skills. The main activities will be translation (from and into Catalan), conversation, practising different types of language exercises and essay writing in Catalan. Teaching materials are selected with a view to introducing students to Catalan literature, culture, and society. With that in mind, students will be exposed to a number of literary and cinematic texts, and they will be expected to participate actively in discussions in the classroom and to prepare prescribed written material afterwards. Catalan sociolinguistics will also be a crucial area of knowledge to which the students will be introduced. 

1. Read, understand and speak Catalan to a level comparable with B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR). This includes extracting and synthesizing data and ideas from a range of authentic written and/or audio/audio-visual texts.
2. Engage confidently and with appropriate grammatical correctness and spontaneity in everyday conversation in Catalan. This includes describing experiences, dreams, hopes and ambitions, offering opinions and outlining the advantages and disadvantages of various topics of personal interest and/or relating to Catalan culture and society.
3. Write coherent Catalan texts in a range of registers on a range of topics relating to Catalan culture and society with appropriate grammatical and lexical accuracy.
4. Critically assess the social and cultural background of Catalan.
5. Translate passages of text from and into Catalan, evidencing an enhanced capacity for dealing with linguistic problems encountered in translation.

The module will be taught through a blend of live classes and guided, interactive online tasks and activities, designed to fulfil the learning outcomes. These will be on-campus if the University deems it safe and practicable and remotely (online) where on campus activity is not possible.

Independent Learning: You will be expected to spend a significant amount of time studying and participating in individual and collaborative activities outside the live sessions. Materials will be provided on Learning Central which will help you develop your expertise as an independent language learner. You will be asked to consolidate your language learning by learning vocabulary and linguistic structures, and by reading, watching and/or listening to material in Catalan. You will also be expected to prepare and complete exercises and activities online, to complete written, listening and oral tasks and, where appropriate, to engage with tutors and peers through discussion boards and forums. Over the course of the year you will begin to acquire a repertoire of effective language learning strategies.

This module will provide students with a solid knowledge of complex grammatical structures of Catalan as well as new vocabulary and reading material, therefore enabling them to communicate in the four key language skills at a straightforward level on a wide range of topics, and to have a deep understanding of the culture and society of the places where Catalan is spoken. The emphasis of the module will be placed on achieving the following objectives:

• Reading skills: Read texts that consist mainly of high frequency everyday related language (news, descriptions, narratives, letters, discourses, short stories). Understand the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal diaries, letters and narratives.
• Listening skills: Understand the points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school or leisure as well as follow the main points of many radio or TV programmes on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery in a clear standard variety.
• Speaking skills: Deal with most situations likely to arise when travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Interact with natives, having conversations on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or of everyday life, being able to connect phrases in an orderly way to describe experiences, events, feelings and hopes. Give reasons and opinions on a different range of topics, give advice about plans or organise events. Narrate stories, summarise the plot of a book or a film, showing its good and bad points.
• Writing skills: Write texts on topics which are familiar or of personal interest (descriptions and narratives) as well as personal letters describing experiences and impressions. Give arguments and contra-arguments on a current affair topic and give your opinion about topics of your interest (a book, a film, a trip...). Be able to translate texts of an intermediate level from both Catalan into English and English into Catalan.
• Transferable skills: Identify key aspects of Catalan culture, literature and art, relating them to the sociolinguistic context. Be able to use the linguistic points studied to read the texts of the different literary periods analysed in class.

The key language skills are receptive (reading and listening), production (speaking and writing), mediation (translation between two languages) and intercultural awareness. Developing these skills involves acquiring metalinguistic and lexical competence, i.e. studying the building blocks of the language including grammatical and lexical patterns and structures. All of these skills are assessed through continuous assessment over the course of the module which reflects the progressive and accumulative nature of language learning.

The method(s) of assessing the learning outcomes for this module are set out in the Assessment Table, which also contains the weightings of each assessment component.

Assessments on this module are subject to change up until September 2021. Where a change of assessment occurs, students will be notified, prior to the start of teaching in the next academic year.

Mapping of Assessments to Intended Learning Outcomes:

Coursework 1 assesses ILOs 3

Coursework 2 assesses ILOs 1, 2

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

Reassessment takes the form of a written assessment (100%) for a maximum of 40%

Syllabus content

Introduction and review

• Presentation of the course
• Present: verbs tenir, ser, dir-se, voler, viure
• Possessive pronouns
• Pronoun “hi”
• Pronoun “en”
• Locatives
• Vocabulary: family relationships, food and measurements…

2. Past events

• Passat perifràstic (vaig cantar) vs Perfet (he cantat)
• Irregular past participles
• Talking about past events: recent and less recent actions.
• Appropriate use of adverbs of time for each verb
• Giving information about oneself and a third person in the past
• Temporal expressions
• Personal diaries, calendars, news
• Exclamations: quin+nom

3. Immediate actions

• Describing what someone is doing (estar+menjant)
• Gerund: regular and irregular
• Talking about habits and everyday activities
• Expressions with fer/fer-se
• Expressing agreement and disagreement: estar d’acord/en desacord, estar a favor/en contra
• Adverbs of manner: a poc a poc, de mica en mica…
• Matthew Tree’s conference. Catalonia: the future is another country

4. Instructions and orders

• Periphrasis of obligation: haver de+inf, caldre+inf
• Structures to express obligation, necessity: és imprescindible, és necessary, és millor...
• Pronouns before and after the verb
• Vocabulary about education and professional life
• Adjective bé/adverb bo before and after the verb
• Talking about behaviour: give positive and negative instructions
• Giving instructions and orders to someone about specific tasks: receipts, manual instructions, orders to carry out an specific activity
• Conditional form of the periphrasis of obligation (hauria de/caldria que) to make suggestions and give advise

5. Habits 

• Imperfet d’indicatiu: irregular verbs beure, creure, deure, treure, veure, seure, moure, escriure, viure…
• Asking and providing information about habits in the present and in the past
• Conjunctions: perquè, com que, doncs i per tant, encara que, en canvi
• Structures related to habits in present and past: acostumar a/soler+inf
• Narratives in the past: passat perifràstic vs perfet vs imperfet
• Talking about appearances and ways of being: adjectives in relation to physical characteristics, behavior, dressing, character, tastes
• Verbs to describe people and ways of dressing in the present and the past: semblar, assembler-se, posar-se, tornar-se, vestir-se, aprimar-se

6. Description of places 

• Verb haver-hi in different tenses in indicative: present, imperfect, perfet, periphrastic, future
• Pronoun “en”: haver-n’hi
• Comparing and contrasting your city, town, neighborhood using different tenses
• Description of urban spaces and private spaces
• Talking about the services, entertainment and transport in the city/town
• Quantitatives adjectives and adverbs: poc, molt, gaire, prou, bastant
• Indefinite adjectives and pronouns: Algun, qualsevol, tot, ningú, res...

7. Probability

• Probability in the present, the past and the future: deure+inf
• Present of indicative of irregular verbs: beure, creure, deure, treure, veure, seure, caure, entendre, escriure, moure, prendre, riure, prendre, riure, vendre, venir
• Structures of possibility: potser és, pot/podria ser
• Exclamations: que+adjectiu
• Adverbs of time: després, sempre, aleshores, ara, mentrestant, abans
• Verbs anar, venir, anar-se’n
• Expressions (frases fetes) related to go or leave: fer drecera, fer via, girar cua
• Present subjunctive: to express probability, possibility, wish...
• Contrast between indicative and subjunctive mode

8. Publicity

• Different types of advertisement: job, accommodation, sale, contacts
• Formal letters to reply to advertisements
• Talking about commercials on TV and the world of publicity
• Gender and number of the adjective: irregularities
• Different degrees of comparison: més que, menys que, tant com…
• Interrogatives
• Tan/tant
• Textual markers to express agreement (sens dubte, naturalment, evidentment), disagreement (de cap manera, no hi estic d’acord), to express doubt (potser, tal vegada)
• Pronoun “en” and “de” partitive
• Frases fetes with “tenir”: Treure el fetge per la boca, tocar totes les tecles, tenir la mà trencada…

9. Trips and ways of transportation

• Expressing preference for different ways of travelling
• Organising and plan trips: to ask about destinations, timetables, accommodation, transport, prices, bookings
• Conditional: to ask and provide advice on a particular matter
• Conditional of regular and irregular verbs: anar, fer, haver, poder, saber, tenir, venir, voler
• Futur vs Condicional
• Talking about future plans, wishes and desires
• Frases fetes with future tense: riurà bé qui riurà darrer, demà m’afaitaràs...
• Locutions with “de”: d’estar per casa, de nyigi-nyogi, de l’altre món, de gorra

10. Entertainment

• Asking and providing information about regular activities as well as leisure and entertainment
• Talking about preferences and taste
• Direct object pronouns
• Indirect object pronouns
• Direct and Indirect object pronouns before and after the verb
• Pronouns of place
• Verbs ser /estar
• Structures to define things: ser+adjective, tenir+substantiu
• Frases fetes with “boca”: anar de boca en boca, anar-se’n de la boca, treure el cor per la boca…

11. Environment

• Talking about the climatic characteristics of a specific place and compare it to others
• Talking about different ways of recycling
• Giving orders: positive imperative
• Prohibitions: negative imperative
• Adverbial pronouns: hi/en
• Combination of pronouns
• Imperfect subjunctive, regular and irregular verbs: estar, fer, poder, ser, tenir, voler, veure
• Locatives: davant, darrere, sota, baix…
• Conditional sentences with “Si”: si+imperfect subjuntive...conditional
• Frases fetes: fer el préssec, fer comèdia, ser oli en un llum, anar escanyat…

12. Catalan History and Culture to be introduced throughout the year (as seen in the previous units)

• Introduction to Catalan history and sociolinguistics
• Introduction to Catalan literature: from the origins to the medieval period
• Catalan literature: from the Decadence to the Renaixença
• Modern Catalan literature (I): Modernisme, Noucentisme and Avantguardisme
• Modern Catalan literature (II): Post-war literature, dictatorship and exile
• Contemporary Catalan literature
• Catalan institutions, national identity and symbols
• Popular culture: festes majors, castellers, falles, local festivities
• Catalan theatre and cinema
• Catalan architecture: Gaudí and Modernism
• Catalan art: Miró and Surrealism
• Catalan TV and publicity
• Catalan Cultural Traditions: La castanyada, Christmas, Easter, Sant Jordi