How can I decide whether studying a language is right for me?

• Do you enjoy travelling, and communicating with people from other backgrounds? • Are you enthusiastic about learning new ideas? • Are you interested in the society and culture of other countries?

If you can answer yes to these questions, then you are likely to enjoy and to do well at studying a language at Advanced level.

If I choose a modern foreign language at AS and A level, what will I study?

AS

(a) Leisure and Lifestyles, including travel and tourism, sport, hobbies, entertainment, customs, traditions, healthy living – health and nutrition, diet and exercise; unhealthy living - drugs, aids, smoking, alcohol, etc (b) The Individual and Society, including relationships and responsibilities, gender issues, youth culture (values, peer groups, fashions and trends etc.), education, vocational training and future careers.

Advanced (A2)

(c) Environmental Issues, including technology, pollution, global warming, transport, energy, nuclear energy, renewable energies, conservation, recycling, sustainability.

(d) Social and Political Issues, including the role of the media, racism, immigration social exclusion and integration, terrorism, world of work (employment, commerce, globalization, etc.),

 • You will work from textbooks, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio broadcasts, DVDs and literary texts and extracts, studying both language and culture.

 What skills will I learn?

• The skills that you already have from GCSE work - listening, reading, speaking and writing - will be developed further. • Your fluency and accuracy will be extended by the study of more advanced grammar. • You will have a weekly conversation lesson, usually with a native speaker, either on your own or in a small group, in order to perfect your oral skills. • At both AS and A level there are speaking, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, grammar and writing exercises in the examination papers. • At A2 Level there will also be an opportunity for the detailed study of a literary text or a film or a region of the country concerned.

Will I cope with the jump from GCSE to AS and A level work?

• You should expect the first few weeks to be very hard work as you study languages in greater depth, learn lots of  vocabulary and begin to express more complex ideas in your foreign language. • You should expect most lessons to be conducted in the target language. • You will have to contribute to class discussion and to read on your own in the foreign language. • Students often find the reading and listening passages quite hard at first; but by half-term, they are generally coping well.

Will there be any opportunities outside school to do things related to the course?

• Study visits abroad are encouraged, and these are often arranged in conjunction with HMSG. • There are trips to the cinema, to the theatre, to lectures and study days whenever possible.

Will my lessons be at Monmouth School or HMSG?

• If you study German your lessons will be at HMSG and the classes will be mixed. • If you study Spanish your classes will be mixed and split between both schools. • If you study French you will have lessons at Monmouth School, unless you have a subject clash. • If you study Russian your classes will be at Monmouth School.

What kind of degrees and careers do people with language A levels do?

• Anything and everything! • Some students continue to study their language in greater depth at university, while others combine their language with another subject like Business, Law or Engineering. • A language will be an asset in every career.  Learning a less widely-spoken language will enable you to offer something special to a prospective employer. • If you have learned one or two languages successfully at school you could go on to study further languages later.

Russian

Head of Department: J A T McEwan                  Board: EDEXCEL

Russian is started from scratch in the Sixth Form.   The GCSE exam is taken at the end of the first year, and the A level course (AS and A2) covered in one year in the second year.   This has proved quite manageable in the past, good pupils gaining the top grade at GCSE and high grades in the A level, usually on a par with the grades they obtain in other languages.  The general aim and scope of the subject are to introduce pupils to a knowledge of the Russian language, literature, history and society and developments in present-day Russia. The course appeals mainly to those with an interest in languages and other cultures, and a good grade at French, Spanish, German or Latin GCSE is a useful indicator as to how a pupil may fare at Russian.   It is usually combined with another language at A level, but not necessarily - in the past pupils have also taken with it English, History, Geography, Economics, Mathematics, IT and Psychology – and it could now go well as a fourth subject with the AS exams. The GCSE and A level examination board are EDEXCEL.   In the A level exam, as in the GCSE, the four skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing are tested, and there is also a paper on Literature and Civilisation.   The A level examination is modular and answers required in the target language. We are fortunate to have living locally a lady who worked in Russia for several years and who comes in to the School to take conversation classes. Students from here have also gone on language courses in St. Petersburg. Although Russian is more difficult than other European languages, it is not too hard, and those that take it up seem to enjoy the challenge and often become quite hooked on it.   It is relatively easy to get into a University to study Russian and those who have gone on from Monmouth to do so have proved very successful.  We have found also that to be studying Russian is very much an asset when making a UCAS application generally.  As Eastern Europe continues to open up, career opportunities