Modern Languages and Linguistics

Modern languages and linguistics is a combination that develops both practical language ability and the scientific understanding of how language works as a system. Modern languages gives you deep engagement with another culture and develops your communicative competence in a specific language, training you to navigate the nuances, cultural debates, and social interactions that shape communication between peoples. Linguistics brings a more analytical perspective, drawing on phonology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics to understand language as a human phenomenon, and applying that understanding to solve real-world problems in education, communication, and language policy.

The four-year full-time Modern Languages and Linguistics programme at the University of Warwick combines specialist language learning (fifty per cent of the degree) with applied linguistics (fifty per cent), giving you equal grounding in both. Your modern languages modules engage you with the heart of how we communicate with other people and societies, focusing on the different nuances and cultural debates that shape interaction. Your linguistics modules build an interdisciplinary foundation from leading research in language and communication, which you then apply to explore, challenge, understand, and address real problems.

A sandwich year and work placement options provide professional experience before you graduate, and the language elements develop real communicative competence in your chosen language.

With a typical entry tariff of 168 points, the programme attracts students who want both linguistic proficiency and the analytical understanding of how language works. Graduates pursue careers in translation, language teaching, applied linguistics research, speech and language therapy (following further training), publishing, communications, and international organisations. Postgraduate study in linguistics, applied linguistics, or language education is a common continuation.