| Library Guide - Modern foreign languages |
I am your Liaison Librarian for Modern Foreign Languages, Jane Faux . If you need help with finding or accessing any of the sources mentioned in this guide, I will be happy to help. Contact me in the library or as follows:
Email: education-librarian@newman.ac.uk
Tel: 0121 476 1181 ex.1413
This subject guide is intended to help you find relevant information and resources to support you during your course of Modern Foreign Languages. It provides a comprehensive overview of the best resources for your subject area.
Remember, a comprehensive literature search of the available resources will allow you to read widely around the subject, absorb a range of viewpoints and reach your own conclusions on a topic based on what you've read. Exactly the kind of behaviour your lecturers are looking for!
The library catalogue is accessible from designated computers in the library or online via the library homepage.
You can search the catalogue by keyword, title, author or year. The keyword option is especially useful for searching a particular subject as it performs a flexible search.
An online help guide to using the catalogue is available (click on the Help tab in the library catalogue). There is also a tutorial on the Library Zone page of Moodle How to find items in the library but if you need any further help please ask a member of library staff.
The School Experience Collection is a special collection of resources to support you during school placements. The collection includes books, big books, lesson planning materials, CDs, videos and DVDs, posters and artefacts covering all subjects and key stages. You can search for these resources on the library catalogue by selecting ‘School Experience Resources’ from the drop-down collections box on the search screen.
If you have any suggestions for useful resources to add to the School Experience Collection, please contact your Liaison Librarian.
Quick reference sources, which are available in the Education Reference Collection in the library and online, provide a useful starting point for your research. Sources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, directories and yearbooks and you can use them to find:
• Explanations and definitions of particular terms or topics.
•
Contact addresses or information on people or organisations.
•
Factual and statistical information.
The library subscribes to the following services which can be accessed from the ‘Electronic Resources - E-Reference’ page of the library website:
• Britannica Online – Academic Electronic version of this authoritative encyclopedia. Also links through to full-text journal articles on topics covered in the encyclopedia.
• Oxford Reference Online - Quick reference information together with authoritative, in-depth articles. Contains the full text of over 130 dictionaries, plus an encyclopaedia, thesauri, and guides to English grammar and usage. Includes a wide range of additional material such as maps, illustrations and timelines.
You will find the following and many others in the Reference Collection:
• Collins German dictionary
• Collins Robert French dictionary
• Collins Spanish dictionary
• The Oxford German dictionary and grammar
• Languages 2007 digest of policy, research and statistics
The Library uses the Dewey decimal system to classify and arrange its books by subject. The catalogue will give you the shelf number of the book you need, and tell you if it is in the library or out on loan. The following are some examples of shelf numbers relevant to Modern Foreign Languages:
| Bilingualism | 371.971 |
| Primary school languages | 372.65 |
| Secondary school languages | 375.4 |
| Language | 400 |
| Language education | 407 |
| Linguistics | 410 |
| Language teaching | 418.007 |
| German | 430 |
| German dictionaries | 433 |
| French | 440 |
| French dictionaries | 443.21 |
| French language | 448 |
| Spanish | 460 |
| Spanish dictionaries | 463.21 |
Some of the library’s most popular texts are now available to you electronically through our e-book service provided by Dawsonera.
Dawsonera can be accessed from the Electronic Resources E-books section of the page of the library website. You will need to be logged into Athens to access the full-text books which the library has purchased (details can be found in the ‘Athens information’ section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website). Individual titles can also be accessed via the library catalogue.
For some modules you may be required to purchase some or all of the texts from the ‘essential reading’ on your reading lists. You may find the following retailers useful:
Abebooks Online bookshop especially useful for second hand and out of print books.
Amazon Online books, often much cheaper than RRP!
Waterstones Search and buy online or try their branch located on the University of Birmingham Edgbaston campus – they often have textbooks in stock that are difficult to obtain from elsewhere. Telephone them on 0121 472 3034.
Journals are an excellent source of information. They show evidence of wider reading, are important for research and help you to keep informed of any changes and developments in the study of your subject area. They are published more frequently than textbooks, so the information they hold is often more up-to-date.
You can search for journal titles on the library catalogue by selecting ‘journals’ from the drop-down collections box on the search screen. The journal collection is for reference only, so titles should always be accessible. They are shelved alphabetically by title in the Journal room.
Examples of titles that you may find useful for Modern Foreign Languages are:
Language issues
Community language learning bulletin
Early language learning bulletin
Language learning journal
Voila le Français
Other more general Education journals are listed in the Education subject guide.
The library subscribes to two different types of electronic journal service, both of which are accessible from the Electronic Resources page of the library website:
• Online services containing full-text journal articles
Education Research Complete Full-text database for education and training.
Swetswise Full-text articles from a range of journals, including titles currently held in hard copy in the library.
• Databases containing abstracts and indexes
ERIC World’s largest database of references and abstracts to journal articles in the field of education.
You can also use Journals A-Z List to find out if we have access to a journal in print or electronically. If we have access to the journal in print you will be linked through to the library catalogue and if we have electronic access to the journal, it will link you through to the relevant database or online journal service. This list is particularly useful if you have obtained the bibliographic details of an article and you need to find out if we have access to the journal title.
You will need to be logged into Athens in order to be able to access most of these resources, details can be found in the ‘Athens information’ section of the Electronic Resources page on the library website.
Statistics underpin many academic debates about quality, standards, equal opportunities and the overall effectiveness of Government policy. You can use them in assignments or research to add weight to your arguments.
• Annual Abstract of Statistics Produced by the Office for National Statistics. An annual publication containing a comprehensive collection of statistics about the UK’s economy and society including population, national accounts and government finance, the labour market, health and social protection, education, crime, environment, transport and many other subjects.
• Social Trends Produced by the Office for National Statistics, annually. Provides a comprehensive guide to UK society, illustrating how our lives have changed over the years and also reflecting the realities of contemporary lifestyles.
Eurydice Eurydice provides research and statistics on European education systems and policy.
UK Statistics Authority Oversees the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Provides links to government sites to find the statistics of your choice. Sections include Neighbourhood, Economy, Census and Population.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics Global and internationally comparable statistics on education, science, technology, culture and communication.
You may find the following quality sites useful:
Asset Languages - Case studies and information about Asset Languages qualifications
Babelfish - Search engine Altavista's translation tool
BBC Languages - Online language courses and teaching resources
BBC Primary Languages - Interactive resources for teaching French and Spanish at KS2
BBC Secondary Languages - GCSE Bitesize revision resources for French, German and Spanish
Blinde Kuh - Collection of German websites for children
Enchanted Learning - Multilingual picture dictionary and activity sheets
Foreign Languages Teaching Ideas - Activities and worksheets for teaching primary MFL
From Language to Language - Multilingual dictionary covering major European languages, including French, German and Spanish
I Love Languages - Directory of language-related websites
Languages Online -Interactive teaching resources
Languages Work - Resources for teachers and pupils about career options involving languages
MFL Resources - Games, worksheets and other materials in French, German, Spanish and Italian
Primary Resources: Languages - Free lesson plans, activity ideas and resources for primary school MFL
WESSWeb - Directory of internet resources for Western European Studies, including pages of links for French, German and Iberian studies
Word to Word - Links to online bilingual dictionaries in a wide variety of world languages and dialects
Jane Faux – March 2012.