Has anyone studied (or will be starting) the Language Studies degree?

I'm also debating signing up but can't decide between one foreign language and English or two foreign languages...or which language to take!

Would also be good to speak to previous students to see what the course was like and if they became fluent at the end of the course! It's a lot of time, money and commitment to not end up fluent at the end of the degree. I'm still not convinced you can become fluent without living in the country where the language is spoken.

Hi, starting September I'll be studying joint honors Spanish and Italian, can't wait! Defo recommend studying languages, bonus of the year abroad and language degrees open you upto loads of job opportunities anyway, in my opinion


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I'm still just starting my course, but regarding fluency (considering "fluency" to be of a C1-C2 level on the CEFR), it seems pretty much as you'd expect. The Intermediate French (a level 1 module) is designed to reach B1 level on the CEFR (which can be considered a "workable" level). It seems Upper Intermediate and Advanced modules would get a student to B2 and C1-C2 levels, respectively. So yeah, if you put in the work (and you'd have to, to pass the TMAs and EMAs), then by the end of the degree you should be "fluent" by pretty much any consideration.

I've received my materials for Beginner's French already, and you might be interested to know that the books seem heavily based on practical activities - there's information on culture and grammar explanations, too, but virtually every page has some kind of activity on it. There's an accompanying CD, as well, which later seems to go into detail regarding accents and dialects, which I'm really looking forward to. Again, I haven't started the course yet, but the materials look amazing so far.

Hey, thanks for your reply. Good to know someone who already has the materials! And even better to know you think they look amazing, that's definitely reassuring.

I'm surprised it's books and CDs still, thought it would all be online!

So you're also studying French and German? Are you doing French through to level 3 before moving on to German? That was my plan, but with German first, rather than flitting between the two languages.

As for reaching fluency, I think I am worried about the lack of listening and speaking involved in a distance language degree. There's a lack of that even in a brick uni saying that, I think it's the year abroad that really cements those skills. I plan on listening to audio books and films and radio as much as possible to hone my listening skills and will probably befriend a native speaker on iTalki, once I've got enough vocab to start having little conversations!

I'm quite glad there's physical materials, I think it really makes a difference.

I'm going to be studying both French and German pretty much throughout the degree - though I'll finish with the French modules first, as I'm going to do the equivalent of Intermediate German next year before moving onto Upper Intermediate, but I'll finish Int French this year.

Regarding fluency, I'm actually looking at getting a tutor to practice my conversational French with (there's a few French people in my area who teach French at high school or Uni). Everything you're planning on doing sounds great, too - I've also found that singing along to songs in the target language improves my pronunciation tenfold. But yeah, practice is definitely essential. At least there's a residential school with the level 2 modules (although that might change by the time we get to them), so that should make a difference. I'd like to do a volunteering holiday at some point as well, to get more practice actually in France or Germany, but that's a couple years away.

Well, I signed up last night, eek! Starting with the mandatory module (Exploring languages and cultures (L161)) and Rundblick: beginners' German (L193).

How much experience do you have with French and German?

Awesome!

None with German, so I'm starting with L193 as well, to get me up to speed! The case system's going to take some practice to master, but it'll feel awesome when I finally get it... I took French in school, though only to Standard Grade. I've revised and improved over the past year, and I kind of fall in between Beginner's and Intermediate levels. Beginner's will be too easy, and Intermediate will be a bit of a challenge, but I figure it's more interesting and L192 will cover anything I missed while self-studying. How about you?

I took both in school, dropped French and took German as a GCSE but only got a C (ended up being my lowest GCSE mark) but that was 17 years ago and I can't remember any of it! So both French and German I'm starting from scratch.

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I'm afraid you almost definitely won't become fluent in your chosen languages by just studying with the OU. There just isn't the opportunity to practice your spoken language on a daily basis like there is at brick universities. I suggest you try to supplement your OU studies by doing university summer schools in Europe. Germany has a lot of these, they look like great fun.

Hi all! I'm thinking about starting a degree in language studies this October. I'm just wondering if anyone here has finished the degree, and could tell me what they thought about it?
Would also be interested in speaking with anyone who is going to be starting this year. I'll be doing the Spanish and English pathway.