Practice

Objective

The main objective of this module is to enable students to apply the knowledge they have acquired in a practical way and to encourage them to work independently towards deepening their knowledge of linguistic issues. In doing so, the linking of theoretical knowledge with practice-oriented skills is encouraged. The module usually concludes the regular course of study and is taken immediately before the Master's module.

Course content

The practice module is completed through a professional internship or tutorial and subject-specific supervised self-study. The acquired competencies are put into practice by the independent organization of the student congress, linkon, with the corresponding press and public relations work as well as a lecture on the results of the self-study at the congress (research-based learning).

The internship can take many forms including work in a publishing house, school, or advertising or event agency. Internships may also be oriented towards structured language training in which the language skills necessary for the chosen focus are deepened and practiced. The internship, professional or language training, may also be completed through a study abroad experience. Language training must be demonstrably at a higher level than language courses taken in other modules. Alternatively, a tutorial may be chosen as part of a linguistics course (e.g. an introductory lecture). In independent study, students delve into a topic of their own choosing or one already taken up in the course of their studies, for which they compile a bibliography, read selected publications, and discuss them in a final oral module examination.

The combination of the otherwise isolated parts of the module “internship/tutorial” and “independent study” takes place in the module-accompanying colloquium, which is organized by the students themselves in the form of the linguistic student congress linkon. Within the framework of this event, the students are to combine practical knowledge from their internships (including PR, press, event management) or tutorials with the content of their respective self-study by organizing the student congress linkon on their own (under supervision, didactic approach) and giving a lecture or presentation on their work from the self-study. To improve networking between experts and junior staff, an external linguist will be invited to give a public lecture as a keynote speaker in this context.

Learning Outcomes

The organizational achievements of the students will consist of writing and designing all relevant communication materials for the organization of the congress (e.g. invitation texts, advertising poster, program booklet, journalistic event reports for WN online, design of a website, moderation). With conference-relevant short presentations, which present the results of the self-study anchored in this module, the students will have brought their study contents into the student congress.

The students will have mastered basic presentation techniques and be able to explore a topic area independently. In doing so, they will be able to work independently. This will have also sharpened their organizational skills and their ability to work in a structured manner. Through active participation in the colloquium, students will have strengthened their scientific discourse skills and demonstrated a high degree of transfer competence in the selected areas of knowledge. In the internship, students will have gained the ability to apply and reflect on the competencies they have acquired during their studies. Through this reflection, the extracurricular content in the internship will be successfully linked back to the joint practical colloquium. The active participation in the scientific community or in professionally-oriented fields of work will simultaneously open up interdisciplinary perspectives for the students.