French Language Studies Co-Ordinator

French Language Studies Co-Ordinator
University of Bristol, Department of French

The French Department of the University of Bristol is proposing to appoint a full-time co-ordinator for the teaching and learning of French language at undergraduate level.

Native or near-native ability in French and English, and a good honours degree or equivalent, are pre-requisites, as is a commitment to imaginative and dynamic teaching of language. Some experience of French language teaching preferably in Higher Education, a language teaching qualification such as FLE, EFL or PGCE, and familiarity with the application of IT to language teaching may all be advantages.
Diplomacy and good organisational skills are essential: the successful candidate will demonstrate an ability both to work as part of an integrated team, and to take initiatives.

Language Teaching
Up to 15 hours contact teaching per week, and the associated marking, will be required, across the full range of the Department's language programme, so that the co-ordinator has an informed view of overall language provision.
The co-ordinator will work in collaboration with established members of staff to adapt existing teaching materials and to provide new ones.
The co-ordinator will be asked to develop IT resources for independent learning and assessment through CALL.

Course Planning and Development
Under the supervision of the Head of Department and year co-ordinators, the co-ordinator will take responsibility for creating materials and course handbooks for all language units including oral and aural, and for organising and co-ordinating the delivery and assessment of these units at all levels, including liaison with external examiners on matters relating to language assessment.

Staff Support
The co-ordinator will take responsibility for the recruitment and co-ordination of the team of lecteurs and foreign-language teaching assistants, and will contribute to their training.
The co-ordinator will give guidance and assistance with language teaching to all colleagues involved in it, in consultation with the Head of Department and year co-ordinators, and will be responsible for liaison between the department and the University Language Centre.

Resources
The co-ordinator will monitor the provision, use and development of all teaching aids, including language laboratory facilities, satellite TV, and reference works and documentation available within the Department, and advise on potential for development of these. Familiarity with recent developments, including CD-Rom language learning materials, would be an advantage.

This is a 3-year appointment for teaching and related administration.
The co-ordinator will not be asked to contribute to other administrative duties (such as personal tutoring) nor to undertake research. The appointment will be at a starting salary of between £16775-£18731.

Informal enquiries are welcome and should be addressed to any of the following:

Dr Gino Raymond (Head of Department)
Telephone 0117 928 7921
E-mail Gino.Raymond@Bristol.ac.uk

Professor Tim Unwin (Professor of French Language and Literature)
Telephone 0117 928 7913
E-mail T.A.Unwin@Bristol.ac.uk

Dr John Parkin (Reader in French with special responsibility for CALL and IT resources)
Telephone 0117 928 7911
E-mail J.Parkin@Bristol.ac.uk

It is hoped that the successful candidate will be able to take up the post from 3 September 2001.

The closing date for applications is 9 March 2001 and short-listed candidates will be invited for interview on 26 March 2001.

The University of Bristol is an equal opportunities employer (an international centre for education and scholarship).


UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
DEPARTMENT OF FRENCH
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

General
The French Department at Bristol is nationally one of the most popular with school leavers, and consistently recruits highly qualified and well-motivated undergraduates. It combines excellence in teaching - confirmed by its score of 20 from HEFCE's inspectors - with a lively research culture, which led to the award of a 5 in the last RAE exercise, a score which the department and university are determined to consolidate or improve in the next round. The department makes a particular point of encouraging colleagues and postgraduate students to give papers at conferences and in other universities; and we regularly welcome visiting scholars for lectures, seminars one-day conferences and colloquia.
The Department also has an excellent record of collaboration with other parts of the University on undergraduate and, increasingly, postgraduate programmes. As the largest Department within the School of Modern Languages, it plays a central part in the School's courses in European Literature, European History, European Cinema and General Linguistics.
Over recent years the Department includes or has included three editors of scholarly series, two presidents of international societies, the only British member of the Centre d'études sur le plurilinguisme européen, and a member of the CNRS-funded Groupe d'études en Histoire de la langue française. The current Editor of French Studies is a member of the Department, while others serve on the advisory boards of the Journal of European Studies, Monash Romance Studies, and as auditors for the HEQC and assessors of Teaching Quality.
The City of Bristol is twinned with Bordeaux, and the University has a formal agreement with Bordeaux III, given practical expression by the exchange of lecteurs. Student exchanges under the Erasmus scheme take place between the French Department and the Universities of Paris VIII, Paris XIII, La Réunion and Aix. The Department also has a postgraduate exchange with the Ecole Normale Supérieure.

Facilities for Research and Teaching
The Department of French is housed in two attractive nineteenth-century houses within the arts precinct in the centre of the university campus.
The Library, SCR and Staff Refectory, and sports facilities are within easy walking distance as is the centre of the City. The Library's collections in French are of a high standard commensurate with the Department's research ambitions. The Arts Faculty has recently embarked on a programme of IT investment and the Department is similarly committed to exploiting all the research and information management advantages of computer technology. The Department has its own television satellite link and facilities for video-projection. In addition, the Language Centre, which serves the School of Modern Languages as a whole, offers excellent facilities for both video and audio work as well as housing an excellent collection of off-air and prerecorded tapes. CALL facilities also exist within the School and their development is envisaged over the next few years.

Undergraduate Courses
At Bristol, the study of French requires a well-developed linguistic aptitude, together with the ability to handle critical thought at an advanced level. We attract very able applicants, and the training in linguistic precision and the acquisition of interpretative and dialectical skills make our students highly competitive in the graduate labour market.
These objectives are implemented by small-group teaching, which forms the backbone of our work with students. Lectures generally provide an overview, or contextual information where there are set texts on the programme. Wherever possible, classes are kept to a maximum of 18.
The oral language groups are smaller, approximately 9-10 on average.
On the non-language side, numbers vary from a maximum of 18 in the main courses of the first and second years, to smaller groups in the fourth-year Special Subjects, giving the opportunity for in-depth consideration at an advanced level.
Each year of the course numbers about 150 students, most of whom read French as part of a two-subject degree course. Single Honours French recruits some 20 students per year. The Department is a constituent Department of the School of Modern Languages (French, German, Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, Italian and Russian); in the School about ninety students a year read French as one of their two languages. There are also joint degrees with Latin, Drama, History of Art, Music, Philosophy, Politics, and with Law.
Over the past few years the Department has revised its undergraduate course structure, permitting more student choice (particularly in the second year) and bringing the study of language, society and literature into a more appropriate balance. Modularisation has brought greater flexibility to both students and staff, leading to a more efficient use of staff teaching time, with consequent benefits for research.

Postgraduate Studies
The Department has successfully increased the number of its postgraduate registrations and is committed to the development of a stimulating research environment for graduate students. In 1994, as part of its efforts to attract well qualified graduate students, the Arts Faculty opened a magnificently equipped Graduate Centre offering study and seminar rooms, a small library and extensive computer facilities.
Ten students are currently registered for the degrees of M.Litt. or Ph.D., assisted by endowments and the University's generous funding of postgraduate studentships. The Ashley Watkins endowment provides dedicated research scholarships in French Studies. The Department also benefits from the 200 research scholarships offered by the University.
Other forms of financial assistance available to Postgraduates come from the Department's own resources, the Alumni Foundation and the Dyment & Thomas bequest.
The Department also views taught postgraduate courses as a vital means of retaining excellent Bristol graduates and attracting first class applicants from other universities: In 2000/1 the Department recruited three students into the MPhil programme offered in conjunction with the Arts Faculty. Projected MA courses include an MA in Visual Culture in France jointly with History of Art.
Within the Faculty of Arts there is a flourishing Medieval Centre, currently attracting some twenty graduates a year to its interdisciplinary MA programme, to which members of the French Department contribute. Colleagues from the French Department also participate fully in other interdisciplinary postgraduate courses in European Literature and Women's Studies and in Critical Theory.

Organisation and Management
The Head of Department normally holds office for three years, and is vested with academic, financial and administrative responsibility.
A formal departmental meeting takes place approximately three times a term. Extra meetings are arranged when necessary. All matters of common policy, including finances, are debated. Once a term student progress is monitored, every individual being considered separately.
There is an active Staff-Student Liaison Committee which meets regularly.
The Department has the services of one full-time and two part-time secretaries.