Study Days are intended to complement and support students’ work at A Level, whilst also encouraging students to think more broadly and creatively, beyond their school curricula, about the study of languages and their associated cultures. A combination of plenary, cross-language lectures and smaller, language-specific sessions focusing on particular aspects of A Level syllabi aim to give students both a broad and a more focused insight into their linguistic studies.
Two LCLC Study Days have been held so far, each with around 40 students and teachers from several West London schools in attendance. Language-specific sessions in different languages are led by students and academics from Pembroke College and The Open University. Lectures have been delivered on topics as wide-ranging as the stereotypes and realities of Japanese culture, to women writers in fascist Italy.
Parallel sessions for teachers are held throughout the day, with teaching specialists from The Open University leading workshops on topics including Listening Skills and Translation. In addition, Study Days give pupils the opportunity to meet current language undergraduates, enabling them to gain an insight into life as a languages student at university, and to acquaint themselves with the surroundings of an Oxford college.
Applied Languages – Language and Business
Further to the flagship Pembroke College study days, other smaller study afternoons are also held periodically throughout the year, such as an Applied Languages event led by academics from Oxford Brookes University, which focused on Language and Business and the practical applications of foreign languages in the worlds of business and employment.
Programmes from the 2014 and 2015 Study Days can be found below: