Modern Languages

Fellow:
Dr Michael A Nicholson

Lecturers:
Dr Michael Abecassis (French)
Richard Ashdowne (Linguistics)
Dr Marco Dorigatti (Italian)
Dr Nigel Griffin (Spanish)
Dr David Groiser (German)
Mrs Natalia Keys (Russian)
Ms Vanda Pickett (Czech)

Student Profile:
Andrew Wychrij (2nd year)

University College admits about five undergraduates each year to read Modern Languages or one of the Joint Schools with Modern Languages. It specialises in Russian. There is no restriction on the choice of language that may be read with Modern History. However, for all other courses involving Modern Languages, the College is unique in requiring that Russian or Czech be one of the subjects offered at entry and studied, either within other Joint Schools or in the Modern Languages School itself. This gives the Modern Languages cohort a pronouncedly Slavonic profile. The College keenly supports students who wish to extend their interests to include other East-European languages, in particular Czech, a language which can be taken up without prior knowledge.

Dr Nicholson’s own research interests lie in late twentieth-century Russian literature, but he teaches across the full range of modern Russian Literature. The bulk of his publications and translations relate to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Varlam Shalamov (author of Tales of Kolyma), but he has broader interests in Russian and European Gothic fiction and in the Chinese dimension of Russian emigré culture. He is an Honorary Professor of Henan University in Kaifeng, China.

Mrs Natalia Keys, the University’s Instructor in Russian, is also one of our College Lecturers. She is overall director of the University’s course in Russian for complete beginners, which provides a route to the full Russian degree programme for candidates whose schools did not offer A-level Russian or equivalent. At admissions time, such candidates go through a centralized University selection process in addition to the colleges’ individual interview procedures. We are keen to admit suitable Russianists by this route, in addition to those with A-level or equivalent, who remain our principal pool of applicants.

Most of an undergraduate’s work in Modern Languages is in the area of language and literature, and even candidates who have covered little or no literature in their A-level syllabuses should expect to be asked questions about their literary interests at interview. Teaching for literature and for options such as linguistics later in the course is normally by paired or single tutorials. For language work, classes, either College-based or intercollegiate, are the norm. Apart from oral, reading and comprehension skills, the Oxford degree places a particular emphasis upon the formal written language, and candidates for all colleges take the same written language test or language-aptitude test when they come up for interview.

The College is happy to consider applications from those wishing to take a Gap Year, provided that their language skills are secure or will be enhanced by the proposed year out. Candidates for the complete beginners’ course in Russian are strongly advised against taking a Gap Year. However, the four-year course includes a year abroad. Applicants taking the post-A-level route spend their third year either on a language course or in approved employment in the countries of either or both of the target languages. Because of the intensive language component in the Russian beginners’ course, the Year Abroad is taken in the second year and in the form of a course at a Russian university, designed to continue the work already done at Oxford.

Our recent graduates have found employment in various fields, including journalism, commerce, banking, and law, or have gone on to further study.

For more information, please consult the website of the Faculty of Modern Languages.

For information about the joint degrees with Modern Languages, see also the websites of the Faculty of Classics, the Faculty of English, the Faculty of History, and the Faculty of Philosophy.

See also: Classics, English, History, Philosophy