External summary

Among the Celtic languages taught at Edinburgh University in the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, Scottish Gaelic, as an indigenous language of Scotland, receives the greatest emphasis.  Early Irish and Medieval Welsh are also offered at Honours level.  Since the establishment of the first Chair of Celtic in Scotland in 1882, the department has played a leading rôle both in research and in teaching.  Celtic is a versatile academic discipline that includes both linguistic and literary scholarship, and in recent years an important socio-political dimension has emerged with particular focus on the modern Celtic languages, and especially on the situation of Scottish Gaelic in the devolved Scottish context.  The study of Celtic develops the ability to engage in critical dialogue with literature and culture past and present, and to frame conceptually rigorous arguments in engaging with both texts and language.

In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise in 2008, 30% of the research in Celtic Studies at Edinburgh University was rated as 3*, internationally excellent, with a further 20% rated 4*, world-leading.

Linguistics is concerned with learning more about how language is acquired, produced and understood; how language functions in interaction between individuals and in society; what its abstract structure is and how it is represented in the brain; and how language changes over time.  Students of this programme gain the ability to identify and clearly describe the systematicity underlying complex, surface-level systems.

As well as the wealth of resources in the main University Library, the National Library of Scotland, one of the finest bibliographical collections in Europe, is only five minutes’ walk from both departments.  The Archives of the School of Scottish Studies are an outstanding research resource offering material from both the Gaelic and the Scots tradition collected over a period of over sixty years.

The Celtic and English Linguistics programme is designed to

1. Offer students proficiency in Scottish Gaelic language and/or Early Irish and Medieval Welsh language as well as the study of their historical, literary, cultural, and political contexts.
2. Provide students with a thorough grounding in the literature of Scottish Gaelic and/or or Early Irish and Medieval Welsh, enabling them to access a wide range of original material.
3. Enable students to recognise and evaluate the social, historical and intellectual contexts by which literary texts are shaped.
4. Engage students in the theoretical debates about language and literature in order to encourage critical engagement with texts.
5. Understand developments at the forefront of both subjects and to participate in research-led study.
6. Develop the independent critical, analytic and communicative skills which will fit students for a wide range of employment, further training and life-long learning.
7. Propose, test and apply theories of language structure, acquisition and use.
8. Form and test scientific hypotheses about linguistic phenomena.
9. Use specialist equipment and software for phonetic analysis.

Educational aims of programme

The programme aims to provide students with an understanding of Scottish Gaelic and its cultural environment through the study of language, literature, history and culture.  Language acquisition, including oral and aural instruction, plays an important role in allowing students to have a deeper understanding of Scottish Gaelic literature and culture through their direct engagement with primary sources as well as with theoretical concepts.  The programme enables students to have a subject expertise in Celtic Studies with the option courses allowing those interested to expand their knowledge to that of other Celtic languages.

The programme aims to develop the critical, analytic, linguistic and creative skills of students by engaging with a broad range of texts and a variety of theoretical approaches.  By enhancing the linguistic, literary, and critical faculties of individual students, the programme prepares them to contribute to a society in which an understanding of texts of all kinds is crucially important.

In their Honours years students will be able to choose from a wide range of courses reflecting the interests and research expertise of their lecturers.

Programme outcomes: Knowledge and understanding

1. Scottish Gaelic (written and spoken)
2. The linguistic structures of Scottish Gaelic and/or other Celtic languages
3. A wide range of literary genres, past and present, of Scottish Gaelic and/or other Celtic languages, and a critical understanding of their formal structures
4. The history and culture of the Gaelic-speaking world
5. The significance of historical and cultural contexts to our understanding of literary works in Scottish Gaelic and/or other Celtic languages
6. Invariance and variability (synchronic and diachronic) in all levels of language structure
7. Differences between folk and linguistic theories of language
8. the major syntactic structures of language and the extent of cross linguistic variation

Teaching/learning methods and strategies.

For both Celtic and English Linguistics, acquisition of 1, 2, 6, and 7 is through classes, tutorials and regular coursework.  Additional support is provided through access to the facilities for language learning in the Language and Humanities Centre and to recommended materials on the Web.

Acquisition of 3-5 and 8-10 is through a combination of lectures/classes and tutorials in Years 1 and 2, and subsequently developed through small-group teaching in Years 3 and 4.

In both Celtic and Linguistics, courses are taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials and seminars.

Throughout, students are encouraged to undertake independent readings to supplement and consolidate what is being taught/learnt and to broaden their individual knowledge and understanding of the subject.

Assessment

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in research and enquiry

Celtic and Linguistics graduates will be able to:

1. retrieve, sift, select and analyse and interpret information from texts and other media in Scottish Gaelic;
2. reason critically and cogently, assessing and applying critical methods, including those for historical, literary, cultural, and political analysis;
3. identify and solve problems;
4. work independently to plan, undertake and complete a variety of assignments in a scholarly and literate fashion;
5. analyse problems, compare and evaluate different views and formulate independent and well argued hypotheses;
6. formulate questions and structure an argument to express resolutions to these questions critically and analytically;
7. examine self-reflexively the intellectual practices that they are using;

These intellectual skills are developed through the teaching and learning programme.  Each course, whatever the format of the teaching, involves discussion of key issues, practice in applying concepts both orally and in writing, analysis and interpretation of material, and feedback sessions on work produced.

Great emphasis is placed, in the various methods of assessment used, on the student’s ability to demonstrate the above skills (1-7) through the production of cogent and coherent written and oral responses to problems and tasks set.  Students also submit a dissertation in their final year which is an ideal vehicle for demonstrating these skills (and especially 4), although they are constantly demonstrated also throughout their other work.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal and intellectual autonomy

Graduates in Celtic and Linguistics will be:

1. able to work independently and be self-reliant;
2. open to new ideas, methods and ways of thinking;
3. intellectually curious and able to sustain intellectual interest;
4. Analytical thinking skills – the ability to understand difficult pieces of text, to reconstruct arguments and views, to assimilate and explain difficult ideas.
5. Analyse a text and reconstruct its arguments, to find its premises, and the inferences drawn from them.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in communication

Graduates in Celtic and Linguistics will be able to:

1. process, structure and communicate ideas effectively and at an advanced level of proficiency, both orally and in written form in Scottish Gaelic;
2. communicate clearly and accurately, constructing cogent arguments;
3. participate constructively in group discussions, assessing and responding effectively to the ideas of others;  and
4. communicate effectively in English to inform others about aspects of Scottish Gaelic (and/or another Celtic language), culture, history, politics and literature.
5. Be able to take part in a debate, to be able to argue their point forcefully and to disagree with others while showing respect for their opinions and without causing or taking offence.

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal effectiveness

Graduates in Celtic and Linguistics will be able to:

1. work autonomously, setting their own goals, and organising their own learning;
2. manage their time and priorities, working to self-imposed and external deadlines, particularly with reference to the planning and execution of essays, presentations and other writing and project work;
3. collaborate effectively and productively with and in relation to others in the presentation of ideas and information, and the collective negotiation of solutions;
4. adapt and transfer the critical methods of their discipline to a variety of working environments;
5. respond flexibly, adaptably and proactively to changing surroundings;
6. exercise sensitivity to ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings;
7. make decisions with confidence, based on their understanding and personal/intellectual autonomy;
8. work with, manage, and lead others in ways that value equality and diversity, and encourage their contribution to the organisation and the wider community.

Programme outcomes: Technical/practical skills

Information technology skills: use of email, word processing, and internet applications. There is a requirement that all essays are word-processed, with footnotes and bibliography and full scholarly apparatus that acknowledges the students’ use of library and other resources.

Language skills are assessed by class and home exercises, tests and degree examinations (including oral and aural examination). Likewise IT and library skills are fostered throughout the degree programme and are tested in coursework and examinations, especially the dissertation or equivalent courses.

Expertise in one or more of the Celtic languages is one of the important technical skills acquired in the Celtic and English Language programme. Students will be able to:

1. read, write, and speak Scottish Gaelic at a high level of proficiency, and/or be able to read Medieval Welsh and/or Early Irish, and be able to analyse literary material in the respective language(s);
2. translate from and into Scottish Gaelic or translate from Medieval Welsh and/or Early Irish;

Programme structure and features

Full details of the degree programme, structure and courses can be found at:

http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk

Courses are taught through a combination of lectures and tutorials. 

Progression Requirements: Students are normally expected to have gained 120 credits from each year of study. 

Teaching and learning methods and strategies

Teaching and Learning strategies employed at the University of Edinburgh consist of a variety of different methods appropriate to the programme aims.  The graduate attributes listed above are met through a teaching and learning framework (detailed below) which is appropriate to the level and content of the course.

Teaching and Learning Activities

In Year 1

• Lectures
• Tutorials
• Language Workshops

In Year 2

• Lectures
• Tutorials
• Language Workshops

In Year 3

• Lectures
• Seminars
• Workshops

In Year 4

• Seminars
• Lectures
• Workshops

Assessment methods and strategies

Courses can be assessed by a diverse range of methods and often takes the form of formative work which provided the student with on-going feedback as well as summative assessment which is submitted for assessment.

In Year 1

• Written Examinations
• Coursework Essays
• Oral Examinations

In Year 2

• Written Examinations
• Coursework Essays
• Oral Examinations

In Year 3

• Written Examinations
• Coursework Essays
• Dissertation

In Year 4

• Written Examinations
• Coursework Essays
• Dissertatio

Career opportunities

There are a variety of careers open to Celtic and Linguistics graduates. You can choose to work in publishing, teaching, arts administration or a media-related career like PR, media production or advertising. Previous graduates have also gone on to work in the finance and business sectors. There are opportunities for postgraduate study at the University of Edinburgh or you may choose to continue studying at another university. Linguistics graduates can use their degree to work in speech therapy or adult literacy, or teach English as a foreign language. Previous graduates have also found positions employed in speech technology research

Other items

All students are assigned a Personal Tutor on admission to the degree programme, who oversees the course of the student’s degree programme, offers advice on academic matters and should be the student’s first point of contact for course-related worries or concerns.

2.  The School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures has a student support office, where students can go for advice on degree transfers, course changes, authorised interruption of studies, confirmation letters and general support. Information can be found at:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/current-students/undergraduate-support

3.  Student opinion is actively sought through participation in Staff-Student Liaison Committees, through the election of class- and tutorial-representatives, and by the wide circulation and review of detailed student questionnaires each semester.

4.  More detailed information on this programmes, and the department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, can be found at: http://www.celtscot.ed.ac.uk/