Language learning opportunities for postgraduate students
The following information is mainly about languages other than English. However, we do have a comprehensive programme of Academic Development and Training for International Students (ADTIS) support also available.
Postgraduate students (both MPhil and PhD) often need language skills for the following purposes:
- Reading texts in a language other than English
- Communicating in other languages when doing fieldwork or collaborating with researchers in other countries
- Building their employability skills
The Language Centre can help by providing:
- courses (see below),
- resources (see below),
- advice on alternative study opportunities (see below),
- advice on possible sources of funding, including eligibility to apply for language training bursaries.
Languages for Academic Purposes Courses for postgraduate students
Dedicated provision on reading texts in a language other than English and relevant oral skills
- If you are in the Schools of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences* you can join academic purposes courses in Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish free of charge, funded by the University's Researcher Development Funding. Please visit the information about academic purposes courses for course details, timetables and enrolment information.
- Enrolment on academic reading skills courses for students of other faculties/departments may be possible if space is available. A fee will be chargeable.
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Developing communicative language skills for fieldwork, research collaboration and employability purposes
- Join a 'general purposes' CULP course. These are available in 12 languages at a variety of levels. They are offered in 2 cycles per year: standard (one class/week, during Michaelmas & Lent Terms) and semi-intensive (2 classes/week in Easter Term).
- See the CULP pages for course details, timetables and enrolment information. A fee is charged for these courses, but go to the Funding Opportunities page for information on possible support.
- Click tab above for alternative study opportunities.
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Dedicated workshops for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Students
- We offer workshops on specific areas of language needs on the basis of demand from postgraduate students in the Schools of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences*.
- These are intended to supplement language learning in our Academic Purposes (LAP) courses or in our general CULP courses and are free to access, with funding provided via the University's Researcher Development Fund.
- Plans already include a workshop on Accessing Archives in German. Additional provision will be added on the basis of feedback and demand.
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* The School of Arts and Humanities and School of the Humanities and Social Sciences comprise the Faculties listed below and include all the Departments that fall within the scope of those Faculty Boards. Also included are the Centre for Research in Arts and the Language Centre.
| School of Arts and Humanities |
School of the Humanities and Social Sciences |
- Faculty of Architecture and History of Art
- Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
- Faculty of Classics
- Faculty of Divinity
- Faculty of English
- Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
- Faculty of Music
- Faculty of Philosophy
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- Faculty of Economics
- Faculty of Education
- Faculty of History
- Faculty of Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science
- Department of Politics and International Studies
- Faculty of Law
- Department of History and Philosophy of Science
- Department of Land Economy
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Engineering Centre for Languages and Inter-Communication (CLIC)
- The Centre for Languages and Inter-Communication (CLIC) offers free foreign language courses (in French, Chinese, German, Japanese and Spanish) to all students from the Department of Engineering.
- English language support is also available to postgraduate students and researchers from that department.
- The Centre for Languages and Inter-Communication (CLIC) foreign languages courses are also available to postgraduate students from the Computer Laboratory.
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Please see the Centre for Languages and Inter-Communication (CLIC) or email clic-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk for more details.
Resources and alternative study opportunities
Resources
- Anyone can study one of the 180+ languages for which we house resources in the John Trim Centre, supported by advice on developing appropriate language skills from our Language Advisers.
- The Language Centre has developed a range of interactive online learning resources designed to develop reading skills in French, German, Italian and Spanish, which can be used standalone, or in conjunction with taught courses. These can be accessed from LC Online (Raven access) or by downloading them from our Open Courseware pages.
- The Language Centre makes many of its interactive online learning resources, developed for CULP courses, widely available to members of the University and beyond as Open Courseware.
- We provide a language teaching resource for postgraduate students considering future careers in language based academic roles / language teaching. This is derived from workshops delivered in association with the Faculties of MML and AMES.
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Alternative study opportunities
- Come for a half hour appointment with an Adviser to:
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Decide on your short term and longer term goals
- Discuss learning strategies for independent language study
- Formulate a personal learning plan
- Evaluate your progress so far and identify your next steps
- Tackle more challenging aspects of your language learning, e.g., strategies for developing listening
- Talk about ways of shaping a self-study session
- Explore resources in specialist areas (though please look at our Resources guide, Online Video Resources and LC Online interactive learning resource collection first to find out what we already have available to you).
- Funding opportunities.
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Please come and see us or contact: enquiries@langcen.cam.ac.uk to let us know your requirements.
The Language Centre
