Modern and Medieval Languages

The Course

The Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages is one of the largest Arts Faculties in the University with an annual intake of around 200 students. The languages available for study at Cambridge are: Dutch, French, German, Modern Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish; it is also possible to combine a modern language with Classical Greek and Classical Latin. Apart from French, all the other languages offered in the Faculty may be studied from scratch (ab initio).

Combinations of a middle-Eastern language and a modern European Language must be taken in the Oriental Studies Faculty. Information about the Linguistics Tripos is available here.

The MML course at Cambridge is four years, with the third year spent abroad.  For Part IA of the Tripos, two languages must be taken, of which at least one must be at A2 level.  The chief emphasis in Part IA is on developing your language skills, although there are also literature, history and philological papers which introduce you to the wide range of optional papers available later in the course.  For Part IB, if you have taken two A2 level languages in Part IA, you continue with language study in both these languages.  If you have done an ab initio language in Part IA, you work towards bringing this up to the same standard as your first language.  In addition to language studies, three papers are taken from a range of options, covering literature, linguistics, history and culture, and including papers in Neo-Latin and Occitan.

Language study is continued in Part II of the course, but the emphasis at this stage is on the study of various papers which cover literature, linguistics, philosophy, history, art, film and history of ideas. Papers may also be taken from other Triposes (Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic; Classics; English; History; Philosophy; Social and Political Sciences; Theology and Religious Studies). There are some compulsory papers (a dissertation or a translation project, and an oral examination), but there are almost as many individual combinations of papers as there are students. Although the literature papers cover the full range of literary options in all of the languages, our students are free to choose linguistic and historical options if they wish. Part II lasts two years, of which the first is spent abroad, either as a language assistant in a school, or attending a University course, or engaged in remunerated work. There is a wide range of lectures and language classes organised by the Faculty, although teaching is in general more individually tailored to students’ needs through supervisions.

There is a progressive approach to language acquisition in the course, and especially in the first two years, a considerable portion of working time is spent on learning and extending the two languages studied. The various Departments of the Faculty provide lectures and language classes and practice groups for oral work and listening comprehension, in many cases visiting the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) facility in the Faculty.

Detailed information can be found on the MML Faculty website at www.mml.cam.ac.uk/ 

Studying MML at Clare
At Clare, we have consistently had a good number of applicants for MML, which is reflected in the overall number of linguists in the College (40+ spread over 4 years). We have always been happy to accept ‘non-standard’ combinations of languages (e.g. a modern language plus a classical language, or one of the less frequently studied modern languages). We also often have a high proportion of students studying a language from scratch. In the case of languages started ab initio, we encourage you to make as much progress as possible before coming up to Cambridge; although the Part IA exams for ab initio languages are less advanced than those for A2-level languages, a very high standard has to be reached over the first year.

The College arranges small-group teaching (supervisions) for some aspects of language work, and also for optional papers. Clare has a large team of Directors of Studies and teaching Fellows in MML; for details see below. The College has its own audio-visual supervision room, and our library facilities include access to CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning ) software.

Each year, Clare has a postgraduate student from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris as a Lecteur/lectrice who helps with French oral work; there is also the possibility for one student to spend their abroad studying at the ENS.

MML graduates are very much in demand by employers in a range of professions, not only for their linguistic and intellectual skills, but also for the independence and maturity which they develop as a result of living and working abroad and gaining an in-depth knowledge of other cultures. Clare MML graduates have recently gone on to further training in music and drama, the Civil Service, finance, law, teaching, translating, management, market research and arts administration.

What we look for in MML candidates

If you are thinking of applying to Clare College to read MML, here are a few points you might like to bear in mind. Most importantly check that the Cambridge course really does suit your own interests and aptitudes. For example, conversational fluency in a language is obviously something that we aim at, but it is not the only important aspect. The course is designed to help students gain a deep understanding not only of language but also of cultural context. So one of the things we look for is intellectual curiosity. Whether you are going to continue a language post-A level or start a new one ab initio, we would expect you to have begun to engage with some elements of the culture of the country in question, whether literature, art, architecture, film, music or history, and to think critically about these aspects. This may mean that you are looking outside the sort of work you are doing at A level, though we do not require any specific additional preparation, and foreign travel is not essential. The Cambridge course encourages a comprehensive approach, an enquiring way of thought that can be very stimulating and inspiring – but it's not necessarily for everyone!

Admissions Requirements
All applicants must be studying at least one language at A2 level or equivalent. Offers for MML at Clare are based on A2 level or equivalent examination results, a typical offer being AAA with A grades in the relevant language(s). All candidates will study two languages, at least at first; one language may be ab initio.

Interviews
All applicants, except in exceptional circumstances, will be interviewed in the second or third week of December. Each candidate will normally have two interviews, one for each of the languages to be studied at Cambridge. If you are intending to study a language from scratch you will not be expected to have the same level as at A2, but you will still have an interview for that language. A part of each interview will usually be in the foreign language and candidates will usually prepare a passage in the foreign language for discussion. One of the interviews will be slightly longer to include questions of a more general nature. Candidates are also required to take a written test of approx 60 minutes.  You will be given a brief non-literary passage in English and have to answer questions using one of the languages you are hoping to study at Cambridge (no dictionaries).

Guide to Subjects

Directors of Studies and Fellows in MML:

French
Professor Philip Ford, Professor of French and Neo-Latin literature. His research focuses on the relationship between humanism and writing, especially poetry.

German

Dr Stephen Fennell, (Director of Studies Part IB and Research Associate at Clare College.) His specialist expertise is in the areas of philosophy, poetry and poetics, Germanic philology, and the German life and letters of the eighteenth century.

Russian
Professor Simon Franklin, Professor of Slavonic Studies. He has written on Russian history and culture of all periods, but his principal research interests are in the medieval era.

Italian

Dr Helena Sanson, Lecturer in Italian.  Helena's main areas of interest are Italian Renaissance linguistics and the history of the Italian language in all periods. 

Spanish
Dr Stuart Davis, Lecturer. He works in the field of modern Spanish and South American literature and culture.
Dr Tess Knighton, (Director of Studies Part II). Her research focuses on Spanish and Portuguese music and culture of the early modern period.
Professor Alison Sinclair, Professor of Modern Spanish Literature and Intellectual History. She works on modern Spanish and comparative literature, with special emphasis on a psychoanalytic approach.

Dr Rodrigo Cacho, Director of Studies Part IA and University Lecturer in Spanish Golden Age Culture. His main interests are comparative literature, focusing on the relations between Spain and Italy during the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Linguistics

Professor Terence Moore, Lecturer in Linguistics.  Professor Moore is currently working on 17th century English Philosopher John Locke, specifically his views on language, truth, and meaning, in particular how they diverge and converge with those of Noam Chomsky.

Dr Kirsty McDougall, Research Associate in Phonetics (Director of Studies in Linguistics). Her main areas of interest are speech production, forensic applications of phonetics (e.g. speaker identification and voice parades), language variation and sociolinguistics.