European and Middle Eastern Languages

The European and Middle Eastern Languages (EMEL) course enables students to combine papers in one of the languages taught in the Faculty of Modern Languages with papers in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Turkish. This provides opportunities to take advantage of the cultural links which exist between a number of European and Middle Eastern languages.

For example, appropriate combinations might well be French and Arabic, German and Turkish, or Hebrew and Russian. However, even some of the less obvious pairings would provide similar cultural and historical linkage. For example, Spanish and Turkish would be an interesting combination for the history of Sephardi Judaism. While Persian and Portuguese are important for the study of early colonial expansion.

A typical week

Your work will be divided between language classes, lectures and tutorials (one or two a week). In the first year, the emphasis will be on intensive learning of the Middle Eastern language. Throughout your course, you will prepare essays for your weekly tutorials and classes, some of which will take place in the Faculties of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Medieval and Modern Languages, while others will be held in your college.

Tutorials are usually up to four students and a tutor. Seminar and language class sizes may vary depending on the options you choose or the language you are studying, but there would usually be no more than around 20 students and these would often be much smaller.

Most tutorials, classes, and lectures are delivered by staff who are tutors in their subject. Many are world-leading experts with years of experience in teaching and research. Some teaching may also be delivered by postgraduate students who are usually studying at doctoral level.

Visit our Academic Year page to find out more about how our teaching year is structured.

Courses

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Assessment

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• European languages:
  • Two language papers
  • One literature paper
• Middle Eastern language:
  • Intensive language learning

First University examinations: five written papers; plus oral/aural examination (Arabic only)

Oxford graduates in these subjects regularly go into highly competitive areas such as: