Canterbury Campus Answers Day
We think Open Days are really about finding answers to all your university questions. Come and visit our Answers Day and ask us anything you want to know.
9am - 3pm
Canterbury Campus
Exploring aspects of human society and culture such as literature, art, morality and values.
Your students can discover a range of subjects through interactive, interdisciplinary workshops which draw on internationally-recognised research and expertise. Our events can take place at the University and some at your school or college.
To allow enough time for us to put everything in place for these events we ask for a minimum of 5 weeks notice from receiving the booking request to your 1st preference date of activity.
Taster sessions, talks and activities
Humanities:
A full taster day showcasing the many different pathways available in Humanities and Linguistics study at university, offering students the options of two pathways depending on their interests. Students can either explore the power of language in English Literature, Creative & Professional Writing, and English Language & Linguistics; or dig into where the past meets modernity with History, Archaeology and Theology.
This experience is intended for year 12 students, students in their first year of college, or year 13 students who have yet to make their choices, who are already studying subjects in the humanities or are interested in taking such a course at university. School groups can be split into two so that students can choose ahead of time which pathway they would like to join.
| Date: | 7th July 2023 |
|---|---|
| Year group: | 12 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 50 |
| Duration: | 09:30 until 15:30 |
| Location: | University Campus |
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Creative and Professional Writing:
Learn about Kent’s literary history and try out your own creative ideas with our digital humanities project.
| Date: | Monday Mornings |
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| Year group: | Year 12, Year 13 and FE Level 3 |
| Group size: | Up to 15 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Generalised bespoke session introducing you to the mechanics of creative writing at a university level, which can be targeted around your class’s particular needs.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons or bespoke arrangements |
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| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 |
| Location | University campus or Virtually |
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Genre specific bespoke session introducing you to the mechanics of creative writing at university level, which can be targeted around your class’s particular needs. Would also suit English Literature students studying these genres. We will look at the genres from a writer’s perspective and identify the key features of these genres.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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The power of storytelling: a short story. Supporting AQA English Language A Level, ‘Language in Action’ Original Writing.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Using Kent maps Online as inspiration for place-based creative writing.
| Date: | Monday mornings, Friday afternoons, or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Supporting GCSE and A Level English curricula through an exploration of authors influenced by Kent. Could include: Austen, Dickens, George Eliot, Mary Shelley. Resources based on Kent Maps Online.
| Date: | Monday mornings, Friday afternoons, or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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An introduction to psychogeographical methods and how they can be used for creative thinking and writing. Outdoor session.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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An introduction to new nature writing with sensory and observational writing exercises. Outdoor session.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons or bespoke arrangements |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 / Year 13 / FE Level 3 yr 1 / FE Level 3 yr 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 25 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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English Literature:
She’s more divisive than a twitter poll, but what’s her real crime?
This session takes a fresh look at the options for a Victorian woman.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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William Blake famously said: “Without Contraries is no progression.”
This session will offer insight into what Blake meant by this cryptic statement, and how it can be the key to understanding his poetry.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session will provide a brief introduction to Kate Chopin and some interactive discussion of one of her short stories.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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The Romantic period (1775-1831) saw revolutionary changes in literature and society.
In this 90-minute masterclass you will learn what inspired the Romantics and how their poetry differs from what came before.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Using manuscript evidence, this session will explore how Shakespeare’s first readers responded to his sonnets and will locate his writings within a wider every-day
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Elizabethan and Jacobean plays were written as scripts for performance.
This session offers an introduction to the Elizabethan or Jacobean theatre as a vibrant entertainment industry, as a specific performance space, and as a forum in which various social and political talking points of the period could be explored. The second half of the session will include interactive discussion of any play the school wishes to nominate. One hour; can be extended to 90 minutes.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 20 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session offers a historical and cultural introduction to the performance of race on the Elizabethan and/or Jacobean stage.
The second half of the session consists of interactive discussion of Shakespeare’s Othello or The Merchant of Venice. One hour; can be extended to 90 minutes.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session offers a historical and cultural introduction to the performance of gender on the Elizabethan and/or Jacobean stage.
The second half of the session will include interactive discussion of any play the school wishes to nominate. Can the play’s characters truly challenge or even overcome society’s expectations about femininity and/or masculinity? Or are they ultimately trapped in their gender? One hour; can be extended to 90 minutes.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12/13 & FE Level 3 Year 1 / Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Duration: | 1 hour as a standalone activity or as part of a 4 hour Taster day with wrap around activities such as Campus tours and Student life Talks |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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History:
In partnership with the Canterbury Historical Association, we would love to welcome you and your pupils to our History at University Taster Day. This free event is a full day of specialist talks from expert Historians in their fields of research, including “1956: Khrushchev’s Secret Speech” from Dr John Bulaitis, “From Nuclear Frontier to New Frontier: The USA and the Cold War, 1945-1963” with Dr Mitch Goodrum, and The Women of the Crusades with Dr Katy Mortimer. This range of topics is designed with students studying at A Level or equivalent in mind, and will give your students a complete experience of what it is like to study History at a university level, while providing them additional context and a depth of knowledge for periods of history they might be already studying.
| Date: | Thursday 11 January 2024 |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Flexible |
| Duration | 10am-2.30pm |
| Location | University Campus |
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An overview of a particular aspect of the Land war, Home Rule and Unionist opposition, the Troubles (conflict in Northern Ireland)
| Date: | Anytime during term time |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Flexible |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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A masterclass session supporting A Level curriculum students in their studies. These engaging sessions on Cold War topics can include:
- The origins, consequences and lessons of the Cold War;
- Role of the atomic bomb;
- Asian Cold War History and themes,
- Cold War cinema;
- Source workshops (Long Telegram, NSC68, Brezhnev doctrine, etc)
| Date: | Anytime |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Upto 50 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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For exam boards at A Level such as AQA, ‘The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865-1975’ and Edexcel, ‘USA, 1917-1996' and at GCSE, AQA ‘America 1920-1973' and Edexcel, ‘The American West, c. 1835-c.1895’
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Anytime during term time |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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British History in the Twentieth Century: both World Wars; British society post 1945; the British Empire and decolonisation; UK-US relationship
| Date: | Anytime during term time |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Group size: | Up to 30 on University Campus or to whole year group when delivered virtually |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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British history in the 16th or 17th centuries; topics can include but are not limited to: poverty and wealth, the Reformation, Elizabethan or Stuart politics, popular culture, and witchcraft.
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Flexible |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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A masterclass session supporting A Level curriculum students in their studies. These engaging sessions on Medieval History and the medieval period include topics ranging from:
- Living in late-medieval towns or the countryside
- The Norman Conquest
- Castles
- Medieval Women
| Date: | Wednesday afternoons with some flexibility for other days |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Upto 50 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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A masterclass session supporting A Level curriculum students in their studies. These engaging sessions on Cold War topics can include:
- Looking at experience of different sections of German people, for example women, young people, workers, Jews, social outsiders.
- Concentration camps and the Holocaust.
- European Fascism in various country during the interwar period including Britain, France, Italy and Spain.
| Date: | Anytime during term time |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12, Year 13 and FE Level 3 |
| Group size: | Flexible |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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A number of options available, including Origins of Russian Revolution, 1917, Stalin, Khrushchev.
| Date: | Anytime during term time |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12, Year 13 and FE Level 3 |
| Duration: | 1 Hour |
| Group size: | Upto 50 |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Both world wars and their legacies; using cultural sources (I.e. film, literature, music), British and/or American society and culture in the twentieth century
| Date: | Anytime during term time |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Flexible |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Choose a session based on either:
- People Power: The fight for civil rights in late 1960s America
- Student Power: Direct action and the civil rights movement
People Power: This session will use the founding of the Black Panther Party (BBP) in 1966 to explore civil rights priorities, strategies, and politics.
Student Power: This session will use the founding of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 to explore civil rights priorities, strategies, and politics.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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Theology:
An introduction for A Level students to Jeremy Bentham's contribution to moral thought and some of its pitfalls.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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An introduction for A Level students to liberation theology, in particular Gustavo Gutierrez and the scholarship of Latin American thinkers.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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A introduction for A Level students of feminist theological criticism of Christian thought, and those who believe it can be redeemed.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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An interdisciplinary introduction to the idea of worldviews, and the scholarship of how we read the world.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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John Stuart Mill: Victorian Radical Extremist?
An introduction for A Level students to John Stuart Mill's radical thinking on the threat of the mob and dictators on diversity of expression and thought, and women, relationships and family life.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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An ethical discussion around the attraction of objective moral norms, and the tricky issues with trying to show how we can know if they are truly objective for A Level.
| Date: | Term times |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 12 & Year 13 or FE Level 3 Year 1 & Year 2 |
| Group size: | Up to 30 |
| Duration: | 1 hour or as part of a 4 hour taster day with wraparound activities such as Campus tours and other talks. |
| Location: | University Campus or Virtually |
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English Language & Linguistics:
American social psychologist, Stanley Milgram, asked the question 'What is there in human nature that allows an individual to act without any restraints whatsoever so that he can act inhumanely, harshly, severely, and in no way limited by feelings of compassion or conscience?' His experiments in the 1960s set out to find an answer.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session will introduce you to the fascinating area of non-verbal communication and demonstrate how important it is to be able to read others' body language as well as being aware of our own in order to maintain happy and healthy relationships at work and with friends and family.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session looks at the basic concepts behind this exciting and relatively new area of applied linguistics, concentrating on real-life cases and how investigators managed to successfully identify perpetrators of crimes by analysing their written or vocal messages. We will also see at least one case where the use of forensic linguistics was misleading in investigations.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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This session looks at the key component in any communication; the audience, whether that's one person or two hundred delegates at a conference. The session will cover models for analysing messages and international audiences, as well as looking at characteristics of audiences including beliefs, demographics, and personality.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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An analysis of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and how and why he speaks to now. Here we will do a brief dive into language and life in 14th century England, the importance of universal themes of spring, renewal and hope, the creative spelling of Middle English and the real reasons why those pilgrims just needed to get out and go to Canterbury.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Ever wondered why some digital content is so popular? Or perhaps you create digital content yourself and want to make your messages more effective and your content more attractive? This session will give you a short introduction to some of the linguistic, visual and sonic elements that allow digital communicators to convey their messages clearly and persuasively in order to engage their audiences.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Considering the mess we make pronouncing our own languages in real life, it’s amazing we understand even half of what we hear. The session will explore the violence done to the sounds of language in normal fast speech and show how we still manage to understand (most of) what we hear.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Everyone learning another language wants ‘a good accent’, but for some, producing ‘foreign’ sounds can seem impossible. The session will look at different ways you can approach producing speech sounds that are not part of (regular) English.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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The importance of understanding Intercultural Communication (ICC) is increasingly recognised, but the basic ideas of what may count as ‘culture’ and how we understand our own culture(s) must be understood first of all.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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In this session we will be examining the choices we make in incorporating child directed speech (CDS) and the way in which, through conscious or unconscious bias, we learn to miscommunicate with people who speak English as a second language.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Prospective London taxi drivers famously go through a gruelling preparation involving memorising thousands of roads, sites and routes through London. Perhaps surprisingly, we see some interesting parallels between undertaking the Knowledge and language learning. By examining the learning routines of ‘Knowledge Boys and Girls’ the session will highlight some useful memorisation and study strategies that can be adopted in the study of language and linguistics.
| Date: | Flexible |
|---|---|
| Duration: | 1 hour |
| Year group: | Year 10, 11, 12, 13 and equivalent |
| Group size: | Up to 30 participants |
| Location | University Campus or Virtually |
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Canterbury Christ Church
Undergraduate and postgraduate open events
Subject talks and videos
School and College Engagement
Email us
sce@canterbury.ac.uk