Bachelor's Degree in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English

 Daytime Programme   180 credits   3 years

 European Qualifications Framework (EQF): Level 6 
 Internship: no   Final assignment: yes   Exchange Programmes: yes

In the global village that has become our world, to demonstrate language skills and to have European and more specifically, Anglo-Saxon cultural knowledge is a real asset.

At Saint-Louis University studying ‘Germanic’ languages and letters means learning the language, literature and culture of two Germanic languages entrenched in our modernity. Two languages will be selected from a choice of three, namely, Dutch, English or German.

But it also means learning to translate and to interpret!

Indeed, since September 2010, and taking its roots in a long tradition of partnership agreements with other institutions (collaborations in the past with the KUB (Katholieke Universiteit Brussel), with the KU Leuven-Campus Brussel), students from Saint-Louis University follow courses in the Marie Haps Faculty of Translation and Interpreting. During the three years of the programme, our future Germanists will follow in this Faculty courses including: understanding of oral texts, written texts, oral expression, lexicology, stylistics and translation… options relating specifically to translation and interpretation.

The bachelor in Modern Languages and Letters; German, Dutch and English is a first cycle programme (a so-called "transition" bachelor), which comprises 180 credits. It provides a preparation for several second cycle programmes (master’s degree) that our students can follow at another university. They can choose either a master’s in Germanic languages focusing on higher level language study, language teaching, or on certain specialised fields (such as business language), or alternatively, a master’s in multilingual communication, which would offer career destinations outside of the teaching field.

The programme strikes a double balance between linguistic and literary aspects on the one had, and theoretical reflection and practical language acquisition activities on the other hand: the overall goal being to consolidate and enhance oral and written fluency in the two chosen languages.

• A base of general courses taught primarily as lectures that introduce to disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, historical criticism, history, general linguistics, literary theory, comparative literatures, and art history.

• To which are added the specialisation courses covering the areas of linguistics (for example: linguistics, lexicography), literature (text analysis and history), and practical learning of the two selected languages (practical exercises, oral expression, translation). Several specialisation courses are based on interactive teaching (bibliographic textbooks and tools, videos, audio recordings, web...), which calls for autonomy and reflection (practical work, seminars, personal readings, actively learning the language, final dissertation).

• Finally, following an interdisciplinary approach, students in Germanics can choose in third year, optional courses in human sciences such as, for example: Economics, Law, Sociology, Communication, Romance Languages (for example, Spanish)…