University of Bristol
SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION FOR
FINAL YEAR STUDENTS OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE
DEPARTMENTAL STAFF
Head of Subject: Professor David Hook
david.hook@bristol.ac.uk
Head of Education: Dr Caroline Williams
caroline.williams@bristol.ac.uk
Director of Portuguese Studies: Professor David Brookshaw
D.R.Brookshaw@bristol.ac.uk
Acting Director of Portuguese Studies (Teaching Block 2): Dr Lorraine Leu
Lorraine.Leu@bristol.ac.uk
Full-time members of staff
Ms Carmen Brauning
Mr Juan López-Ramal
Dr Matthew Brown
Dr Joanna Crow
Dr Sally-Ann Kitts
Dr Paul Lewis-Smith
Ms Madalena Pires
Dr Francisco Romero-Salvadó
Mr Rogelio Vallejo
Ms Rossana Vanni
Dr Caragh Wells
C.Brauning@bristol.ac.uk
J.Lopez-Ramal@bristol.ac.uk
Matthew.Brown@bristol.ac.uk
Jo.Crow@bristol.ac.uk
S-A.Kitts@bristol.ac.uk
P.Lewis-Smith@bristol.ac.uk
Madalena.Pires@bristol.ac.uk
F.Romerosalvado@bristol.ac.uk
R.Vallejo@bristol.ac.uk
Ross.Vanni@bristol.ac.uk
C.Wells@bristol.ac.uk
Please note that the following members of staff will be on research leave
during the academic year 2006-07:
Dr Sally-Ann Kitts (1 August 2006 to 31 July 2007)
Dr Caragh Wells (1 August 2006 to 26 January 2007)
Professor David Brookshaw (29 January 2007 to 18 May 2007)
Part-time members of staff
Mr J Cosme
Prof. M Costeloe
Dr I Cusack
Mr M Goebel
Mr J Hollyman
Mrs P Sullivan
Mr J Vilaró
Dr M Vizcaya
Mr Edmond Schnitker
Ms Sarah Kent
Mrs Augusta Hole
j.a.d.cosme@bris.ac.uk
m.p.costeloe@bris.ac.uk
igor.cusack@bris.ac.uk
thomasmichaelgoebel@yahoo.co.uk
johnhollyman@hotmail.com
palmira59@onetel.com
spjvb@bris.ac.uk
martavizcaya@hotmail.com
edmondschnitker@hotmail.com
sarah@lawsonkent.co.uk
romaria@btopenworld. co.uk
YOUR FINAL YEAR PROGRAMME IN SPANISH
In each year of your programme, you must take 120 credits, distributed amongst the
various units as shown below. You obtain the credits by attending lectures and
seminars, submitting written work of an acceptable standard by the specified times,
and where applicable satisfying the examiners in the examinations.
As in Year 2, your 120 credits are made up of a combination of Optional Units and
Mandatory Units. In order to allow for reasonably sized seminar groups and rational
arrangements for marking and returning written work, there is a limit on the number
of students who may take any one optional unit. Where a unit was oversubscribed,
performance in units of a similar type in Year 2 was used to decide who would get
preference on the unit. Individual unit tutors are not permitted to take additional
students on to a unit once all places have been allocated: only the Head of Education
can make changes to oversubscribed units and under no circumstances will the
numbers be allowed to go above the agreed maximum for the year. Any requests to
transfer to units where there are places available should be made through the School
Office. However, changes will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances.

Students in Spanish take 5 optional units: two units from List A; two units from
List B; one unit which may be chosen from Lists A or B.
+ HISP 30101
Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)

Students in Hispanic Studies (Portuguese) take 4 optional units: three in
Spanish - of which one unit must be from List A, one from List B, and one other
which may be from either List A or List B – and one in Portuguese, from List. D.
+ HISP 30101
Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)
+ HISP 30007
Portuguese Language (Mandatory unit)

Students in Hispanic Studies (Catalan) take 3 optional units in Spanish, of
which one unit must be from List A, one from List B, and one other from either
List A or List B.
+ HISP 30101
Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)
+ HISP 30006
Catalan Language (Mandatory unit)
+ HISP 30024
Catalan Literature (Mandatory unit)1
+ HISP 30025
Catalan Literature 2 (Mandatory unit)

Students in Modern Languages (Spanish and another Modern Language
other than Portuguese) take: 1, 2, or 3 Optional Units in this Department, giving
a total of 40, 60 or 80 credits in Spanish, balanced by 80, 60 or 40 in your other
language. The norm would be two optional units, thus dividing your units equally
between the two languages. If you choose one unit in Spanish, it can be from Lists
A or B; if you choose two units, one must be from List A and the other from List
B; if you choose three, one must be from List A, one from List B and a third can
be from Lists A, B or C. Please note that you may take either Portuguese or
Catalan only if you are also taking 40 credits of optional units in Spanish. Please
ensure that you balance your unit choices across the two teaching blocks.
+ HISP 30101
Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)
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
Students in Modern Languages (Spanish and Portuguese) take: 1, 2 or 3
optional units in Spanish, as set out above, and 1, 2 or 3 units in Portuguese, from
List D.
+ HISP 30101
Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)
+ HISP 30302
Portuguese Language (Mandatory unit)

Students in Joint Schools (Spanish and either Drama, History of Art, Politics,
or Philosophy) take: 2 Optional Units, of which one must be from List A and one
from List B
+ HISP 30101 Spanish Language (Mandatory unit)

Students in Modern Languages (Portuguese and another Modern Language
other than Spanish) take: 1, 2, or 3 Optional Units in this Department, giving a
total of 40, 60, or 80 credits in Portuguese, balanced by 80, 60, or 40 in your other
language. The norm would be two optional units, thus dividing your units equally
between the two languages. However, you can take as little as one Portuguesebased unit or as many as three. Please ensure that you balance your unit choices
across the two teaching blocks.
+ HISP 30302 Portuguese Language (Mandatory unit)

Students in Joint Schools (Portuguese and either Drama, History of Art,
Politics or Philosophy) take: 2 Optional Units from List D.
+ HISP 30302 Portuguese Language (Mandatory unit)
CALL (COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING)
At present, the Faculty of Arts computer laboratories offer:






Elements of Spanish Grammar – a series of five tutorials on central aspects of
Spanish grammar, designed specifically for second-year students who were
beginners/post-GCSE in their first year, but suitable for all students wishing to
revise their grammar.
Catacroc – a package of Catalan syntax and morphology exercises, suitable for
students of all levels of Catalan as a useful grammar reinforcement exercise.
Fun With Texts – a text-manipulation and reconstruction package offering a series
of graded texts in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan labelled 1, 2 or 4 depending on
the year at which they are aimed.
Spanish Encounters – a CD-ROM course for ab-initio students, also useful as a
revision tool for post A-level students.
Portuguese Encounters – a CD-ROM course for ab-initio students, also useful as
a revision tool for post A-level students.
Caminos a la expresividad – computer-based learning tutorials for second and
fourth-year students (Please see also the Second and Fourth Year Handbooks).
Your Language tutors will provide details of how to access these facilities at the
beginning of term.
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SPANISH, PORTUGUESE AND CATALAN ON THE INTERNET
The Hispanic section of the School website offers a variety of useful information on
matters of interest to students of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
(including details, for instance, of the Semana Cultural), and links to interesting sites
relating to the subjects taught in those fields. Those Web pages provide you with
access to, for example, many on-line periodicals, as well as information on
universities in Spain with a number of interesting links to Catalonia, Portugal, and
Latin America. In addition, a number of verb-conjugation and simple language
courses will also be accessible on-line to our students, with links from our home page:
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Hispanic/
DEPARTMENTAL RESEARCH SEMINARS
The Department holds regular research seminars, usually on a Wednesday lunchtime,
at which lecturers, postgraduates and occasionally visiting speakers present papers
based on their current research. The seminars are advertised on posters around the
Department, and all final-year students are welcome to attend any seminar. They may
be of particular interest to anyone intending to pursue postgraduate research, or to
those undertaking the final-year Dissertation Option.
STUDENT SOCIETY
There is a society, Movida Latina, run by students, which arranges social events
related to Spain, Portugal and Latin America. You can join this society by paying a
subscription during Freshers’ Week.
STUDENT PRIZES
The School awards the following prizes annually, following the examination period:

Cervantes Prize. Awarded for outstanding performance in the field of Spanish
Studies.

Camões Prize. Awarded for outstanding performance in the field of
Portuguese Studies.

Eça de Queiroz Prize. Awarded for outstanding performance in the field of
Portuguese Studies.

Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Prize. Awarded for outstanding performance in the
field of Latin American Studies.

Manuel Azaña Prize. Awarded for outstanding performance in the field of
19th and 20th Century Spanish History Studies.

Bristol Enterprise Centre Prize for Spanish and Business Studies. Awarded
to finalists for outstanding performance in Spanish for business purposes.

Mark Mueller Prize. Awarded to any student studying in joint honours
German and Spanish who is deemed to be academically outstanding.
A list of students who have been awarded these prizes in previous years is
displayed in a cabinet in the foyer of 15, Woodland Rd.
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ACCENTS AND LEXICAL VARIATIONS FOR ORAL PRESENTATIONS
AND WRITTEN WORK IN SPANISH
The strength of the Spanish language resides in the wide variety of peoples and
cultures using it, and it constitutes a strong bridge for communication between widely
separated and hugely diverse countries and regions. To avoid any misunderstanding,
this Department has always emphasised that any authentic regional accent or lexical
variation is acceptable, both in oral presentations and all written work in Spanish,
provided that language is used correctly, intelligibly and follows the general
grammatical rules and structures currently observed and taught. Regional vocabulary
or particular dialect usage must be used with care and sensitivity – and always in the
appropriate context! Similarly, the use of slang or street neologisms must be limited
to illustrate particular experiences or situations. Just as the North Americans and
British understand that a pavement and sidewalk, or elevators and lifts, are different
names for the same object, we believe serious students of Spanish should be fully
aware of variations in usage and have the capacity to employ and explain them in
order to communicate with others as appropriate.
The Department has been fortunate in having professional language teachers from
different parts of both Spain and Latin America in order to reflect the wealth of
cultural and linguistic variety. We believe that we must be highly attuned to cultural
difference and respect and appreciate ‘otherness’. It is not always a simple matter of
correct grammar and vocabulary; it is also extremely important to be aware of
register, whether in expressing ourselves or interpreting another’s meaning. Mastering
the appropriate nuance of register always needs practice but also awareness,
knowledge and sensitivity are essential, particularly when dealing with a foreign
language.
R. Vallejo
Senior Language Tutor
Languages Teaching Programme Coordinator
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