Overview
Language shapes our experience of the world – from our social and emotional lives, to our experience of society, work, politics and culture. Immerse yourself in the nature of spoken and written language, and how it's used in everything from digital communication to forensic investigation.
You'll study how language works, including the relationships between language, the mind, and society, and how language varies through time, place, culture and identity. You'll explore the different ways people use language and what they use it for. Discover methods for analysing spoken and written language, how we learn language and how we teach it.
You'll develop sought-after skills including communication, creativity and critical thinking. You'll be taught by expert researchers and study alongside students within the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics – bringing opportunities to learn from the latest research and build intercultural relationships.
What you’ll experience
- Discover how the use of language affects perceptions of important contemporary issues, such as gender, sexuality, education and globalisation
- Learn the linguistic skills to spot how language persuades and prejudices people – from what drives social movements on social media, to relationships in the workplace
- Develop the skills employers want, including analysis, criticism, negotiation, argument and problem solving
- Tailor your degree to suit your career ambitions, including options that equip you to work internationally, such as intercultural communication and teaching English as a second language
- Learn from dedicated, expert researchers from the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics who specialise in areas including corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, professional communication, sociolinguistics and translation
- Have the opportunity to build skills in ‘corpus linguistics’ analysis – essential skills in a world where working with 'big data' is the future
Work experience and career planning
Get experience while you study with support to find part-time jobs, volunteering opportunities and work experience. Towards the end of your degree and after graduation, you'll get 1-to-1 support from our Graduate Recruitment Consultancy to find your perfect role.
Placement year (optional)
After your second year of study, you can choose to do a paid work or research placement year. This lets you put your new skills to work while developing valuable links with employers.
It’s fantastic for your CV and will really help you stand out when applying for jobs after graduation.
We’ll help you secure a work placement that fits your aspirations. With mentoring and support throughout your placement, you’ll have our support to get the most from the experience.
Previous placement destinations have included:
- 7 Stars – a media company in London
- Babylangues – a company helping infants and toddlers learn English in France
Module details
Each module on this course is worth a certain number of credits.
In each year, you need to study modules worth a total of 120 credits. For example, 4 modules worth 20 credits and 1 module worth 40 credits.
We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.
Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.
Programme assessment
Teaching methods on this course include:
- lectures
- seminars
- online activities
You can access all teaching resources on Moodle, our virtual learning environment, from anywhere with a Web connection.
For more about the teaching activities for specific modules, see the module list above.
You’ll be assessed through:
- examinations
- essays
- reports
- case studies
- book reviews
- written work
- projects
You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark.
You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so you can improve in the future.
The way you're assessed will depend on the modules you select throughout your course. Here's an example from a previous academic year of how students on this course were typically assessed:
- Year 1 students: 15% by written exams, 8% by practical exams and 77% by coursework
- Year 2 students: 28% by written exams, 3% by practical exams and 69% by coursework
- Year 3 students: 10% by practical exams and 90% by coursework
Student destinations
You’ll graduate with specialist expertise in language and linguistics, plus sought-after employability skills including:
- analytical techniques and reasoning
- communicating clearly to diverse audiences
- data collection and interpretation
- developing persuasive, evidence-based arguments
- problem solving
Previous graduates are now applying these skills in a diverse range of sectors and industries. If you decide to pursue a career that’s closely related to your studies, you could apply for jobs in writing, editing or publishing. Or employ your research and analysis skills to go on to postgraduate study, in areas such as speech therapy, communication studies, law and marketing.
This degree course gives you the freedom to explore topics and find areas you're most passionate about, and the foundation to pursue these areas after graduation. Further study in forensic linguistics could open up possible careers in law enforcement, criminal justice or legal firms. You could also develop your linguistic talents to work as a speech therapist or train actors to master different dialects.
You could work in any of the following areas:
- advertising
- education
- communication
- media
- marketing
- publishing
- technical writing
- teaching English
Previous graduates have gone onto further training and work in various fields, including:
- accountancy
- the armed forces and police
- banking
- research
- journalism
- law
- local government
- health services
- public relations and marketing
- publishing
- speech and language therapy
- teaching
