Information for new students

Orientation sessions, August 2012

The following sessions will be held to provide you with information about the university generally and more specifically about English studies:

Thursday, August 30th, 14.00-15.45, Pinni B 1100: General orientation for language students (Kati Toikkanen). There will also be meetings with student tutors, either before or after this session (you will be informed by the tutors).

Friday, August 31st, 10.15-12.00, Pinni B3116 Advice about English studies (Aatu Lehtovaara, Ian Gurney)

Planning studies in the first year

English courses

In the past, students of English Philology and English Translation have been selected separately and followed differing degree programmes from the beginning. This year, for the first time, our new entrants enter our department as one population, and all will take a Bachelor’s degree in English Language, Literature and Translation.

Within the BA curriculum, however, students will specialize, and this specialization will actually begin at an early stage: while all students follow the same programme in the autumn term of the first year (= half of Basic Studies), some will complete Basic Studies in the spring term with the Language and Literature module and others with the Translation and Interpreting module. (This specialization will continue at the Intermediate Studies level, though there are still some common elements in the study programme, such as the BA Seminar).

In the autumn term, then, there are three 5-credit units, P1, P2 and P3, to be taken by all students at the Basic Studies level. Two of these units, P1 and P3, are made up of two separate courses, so in all there are 5 courses to enrol for:

• (P1) Grammar 1 (one-hour lecture plus one-hour class session every week)
• (P1) English Phonology and Pronunciation 1 (two-hour lab session every week)
• (P2) Writing the Nation (one-hour lecture plus one-hour class session every week)
• (P3) Academic Writing (two-hour lectures, ten weeks)
• (P3) Introduction to Translation (taught in Finnish; two-hour class sessions, Period 2 only)

This means a total of 8-10 hours in class every week. This may not sound a lot, but you should bear in mind that there will be a considerable amount of reading and private study in preparation for these classes. In addition to this, there will be one or more of the School’s joint courses to attend (see below), and other courses depending on what second subject and other studies you are taking.

In the spring term, there will again be three 5-credit units, P4, P5 and P6 for those taking the English Language and Literature module and P7, P8 and P9 for those studying in the Translation and Interpreting module.

You can see the structure of the BA curriculum and the required courses in the curriculum guide at Englannin kielen, kirjallisuuden ja kääntämisen kandidaattiohjelma.

To view the complete list of courses, click Avaa kaikki. Click on individual courses for descriptions. (The above structure can be viewed in English, too, but at the time of writing, the course descriptions are not yet available.)

Joint courses for language students (yhteiset opinnot)

In the BA programme, our students are required to take at least one of the following general introductory courses offered to all language students jointly:

• LTLY01 Fonetiikan ja yleisen kielitieteen perusteet, consisting of two courses: Fonetiikka can be taken either in Period 1 or Period 4, Kielitiede either in Period 2 or Period 3.
• KIRP1 Johdatus kirjallisuuden poetiikkaan, Period 1.
• KIRP2 Kirjallisuus, kulttuuri ja yhteiskunta, Period 2.
• LTLY03 Kääntämisen perusteet, Periods 1 and 2.

While there is freedom to choose here, please note that the LTLY03 course is required of those wishing to pursue English studies in the Translation and Interpreting module in the spring term.

These joint courses are lecture courses, either one-period courses involving four hours per week or two-period courses with two hours per week, so that attending all of them in the same term might be quite demanding! Book test alternatives are available in some cases.

A second subject and other studies?

When you have sorted out the English and joint language courses, you can think of accommodating second subject studies and other studies. (In the new terminology, sivuaine (second subject, or minor) has actually been replaced by valinnaiset opinnot (optional studies); you are still likely to hear the term second subject, however.) There is likely to be more time for these in the spring term, but you may have to apply, and possibly take a test, at the beginning of the academic year, possibly in the last week of August; and you could consider starting some courses in the autumn.

Enrolling for courses

Students are required to sign up for most courses electronically via the NettiOpsu system. It is not possible to enrol electronically except during the enrolment period. The enrolment period for English courses will be August 28th to August 30th.

In order to enrol, you have to be registered as a student, and have a student number and user account (käyttäjätunnus) for the university’s computer services. So you must be sure to register early. (Don’t leave it till the last day for registration, which is actually August 31st -- after enrolment ends!) You should already have received an application form for a university user account. It would be a good idea to fill this in and return it as soon as you can. Your account can then be activated promptly once you have registered.

As noted above, detailed information about the courses that make up the study programme can be found in the curriculum guide (opinto-opas). To see information on the times of classes, rooms and names of teachers, you can follow the links from the course descriptions in the curriculum guide to the teaching schedule. Alternatively, you can simply browse the teaching schedule (opetusohjelma).

You should be able to start the enrolment procedure by logging in to NettiOpsu and selecting the courses from the appropriate list, or by looking at individual courses in the teaching schedule and clicking the Enrol tab.

If a course involves both a lecture and work in small groups, you simply enrol for a group (it is not necessary or even possible to enrol for the lecture in this case).

When enrolling for courses where there are several groups, please note that after you select a group you should be able to see the group size and the number of places already taken. If the group appears to be full, select another group. It is important to avoid overfilling groups (though the system does not stop you doing this!).

It is also possible during the enrolment period to change your enrolments. To change from one group to another, you first have to cancel your enrolment in one group before enrolling in another (the system does stop you enrolling in more than one group for the same course).

Be sure to go along to the first session of each class in which you have enrolled in order to secure your place; but also be prepared to choose another group if the group happens to be too full.

Planning your schedule

As you will see when you look at the teaching schedule, there are several groups for many English courses. Groups for each course are generally held at different times, so there is considerable scope for planning a convenient timetable.

When putting together your personal timetable, you should try to spread your courses evenly over the week. The English programme may have fewer courses or class hours than in some other subjects, but there is plenty of reading and preparation to do for most classes, and you should take this into consideration when you plan your timetable by distributing the work load over several days.

You should also take into account the joint language courses (LTLY01, KIRP1 and KIRP2, and LTLY03). These do not clash with English lecture times, but KIRP1 and KIRP2 clash with one or two group times, so you will have to bear that in mind when choosing your group if you intend to take these particular joint courses.

HOPS

As a first-year student, you are expected to make a personal study plan (henkilökohtainen opintosuunnitelma, HOPS), in which you outline your overall plans for completing a HuK degree. You will be expected to discuss this plan with your HOPS adviser, a member of the teaching staff.

This is not something you need to worry about in the first couple of weeks. The initial planning will be done later in Period 1 or in Period 2; in fact, you are not likely to complete your study plan until the spring term, by which time it will be clear which module of English studies you are following, and your HOPS adviser may change accordingly.

Some anticipated questions and answers

Do I need to decide on my optional studies (second subject) in my first year?

You may well want to get started with a second subject during the first year. (Why? See also the next question!). Some of you may want to start a second subject immediately; others may want to start in the spring term. In either case, an important consideration is what the entrance requirement is for the subject(s) you’re interested in doing. Especially if it’s another language, there may be an entrance test, and this will normally be held before the beginning of term—in the last week of August. So be prepared, and consult the web-sites of the subjects concerned early enough in August to see if and when there’s a test.

How many study credits do I need to complete in my first year?

For the HuK degree you need 180 points, and for the FM you need 300 points; this means an average of 60 points a year if your aim is to gain the lower degree in three years and the higher degree in five. Also, you need 45 points in the year to secure your study grant. Basic Studies amount to 30 points, and you should have at least 10 credits from the orientation course, the joint language courses, and the computer skills course (TIEY4 Tietotekniikkataidot). There are also some credits to be gained from Yhteiset kieliopinnot, but it is not necessary to do these in your first year. To get towards a 60-credit target, you may need to collect a reasonable number of credit points in a second subject (and / or from other courses taken for interest.

Can I take second-year (Intermediate Studies) English courses in my first year?

Not without a solid reason. (For instance, if you have already done some or all of Basic Studies elsewhere, we can look at your record to see what can be accepted, and advise you how to continue.)

How will students be chosen for the two modules in the spring term?

We are expecting around 15 to choose Translation and Interpreting and around 45 to choose Language and Literature. There are certain requirements for the Translation and Interpreting line: in addition to having completed LTLY03 (as pointed out above) students taking this module must have the required level of Finnish. In the event that there is competition for places, performance on the courses P1-P3 will be taken into account. This will be more fully dealt with in our orientation sessions.

Can I take courses from both the English Language and Literature and the Translation and Interpreting modules?

This is a complex issue. The expectation is that, having chosen an orientation in the first year, students will get on with their BA degree in that orientation.

However, it is not impossible for students at a later stage to switch orientation, for instance to complete a BA in the Language and Literature line then take a Master’s degree in Translation (or vice versa). In this case, the student is required to take (or to have taken) several courses that belong to the Bachelor’s programme in the alternative orientation – and thus in the end will have largely done both.

Also, some students taking a Master’s in Translation, for instance, may wish to take courses from the Language and Literature side that are required of those wishing to be teachers, thus widening their career opportunities.

From the department’s perspective, there is a question of resources: it is clearly not possible for all our students to take all our courses. But where resources permit, applications from individuals to join courses outside their main orientation, even at an early stage, will at least be considered.