Dr Birgit Smith

Current Teaching

• GERM 100: German Language/grammar
• GERM 101:German Language/grammar
• GERM 200: German Language: oral and aural skills
• GERM 201: German Language: written skills
• GERM 233: Becoming German: identity-formation in modern German society and culture
• GERM 300: German Language: oral and aural skills
• DELC 214: Economic and Social Change in France, Germany and Spain since 1945
• DELC 310: Year Abroad
• DELC 320: Dissertations

Profile

Acting Head of Department (Jan-July 2011)

Director of Language Studies

Chair of DELC Language Committee

Co-ordinator for German Language;

Residence Abroad Tutor (German);

Events

Languages NoW! 19th December 2011

The Universities of Bolton, Central Lancashire, Chester, Edge Hill, Lancaster, Liverpool, Liverpool John Mores, Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan and Salford have recently formed the North West University Language Alliance (NWULA), with the support of the Regional Languages Network North West. The purpose of the group is to cooperate with regard to outreach work to schools in areas which are not directly linked to our own recruitment, but which are focussed on general promotion of language learning to young people in the region. We realise that we are often duplicating each others' efforts and that working together we have more possibility of creating an impact regionally.

We are staging events, entitled Language NoW! for Year 8/9 pupils. The first NWULA Languages NoW event took place at Chester University, the second one at Lancaster University in December 2007 with the last one taking place in July 2010 hosted by the University of Salford. The next event is planned for 19th December 2011 at Chester University.

The eventsareworkshops including taster classes in new languages,andcommunicative classesin the languages that the pupils are learningand workshops on employability including meeting university alumni to hear of their experiences with languages. There will also be a market place where pupils can enjoy different cultural activities ranging from Samba dancing to Calligraphy.

Language and Culture Day! 31. March 2011

The purpose of this event is to encourage year 8 and 9 pupils to use Modern Languages in a fun way, with the hope that it will inspire them to carry on learning languages to a higher level. The event should give pupils the opportunity to use the language skills they have learnt whilst at school, whilst also introducing them to new languages. Pupils will also get the opportunity to meet Lancaster University languages students whilst visiting . As well as focusing on language elements of the culture will also be explored.

Additional Information

Recent publications/papers:

Tackling German Gramar - Fehlerschwerpunkte bei englischsprachigen Studenten, DAAD Jahrestagung, 9-11 December 2009, Cumberland Lodge.

Intercultural learning across the net, CILT, Languages in Higher Education conference: transitions and connections, 8-9 July 2008, York.

Lancaster-Graz Intercultural web project: a preliminary report, Smith, B. & Mercer, S. (2005) ELT News Number 52 , pp.21-25.

Review of Altendorfer, O. (2004) Das Mediensystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, vol. 2 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, in Debatte, 2005 , vol 12 , No. 2.

Research Issues in the Year Abroad, P.Payne and B. Smith (eds), (1998) Crile Working Papers.

'Presse in der ehemaligen DDR', 'Werbung', 'Medien im Wandel' in J.P. Payne, (1997, 2001) Zeitungen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland , German Studies 'Vorsprung' Series.

'Cy-Tor German: Computer corpora in language teaching' in Lancaster Companion to German Language Learning , (1999) German Studies.

• BSL: QED British Sign Language: Quality Embedding of the Discipline

  01/09/2006 →
  The projects aims to develop the curriculum, associated pedagogical skills and learning resources for the teaching of all aspects of BSL with a particular focus on professional level BSL in the HE con ... Read more»