Modern Languages and Linguistics

A BA Modern Language and Linguistics degree from the University of Birmingham introduces you to a fusion of language and culture. Employability is at the heart of this joint honours course, preparing you to live and work as an engaged citizen of the world.

Studying a modern language from beginner or advanced level (French, Italian, Russian, or Spanish), alongside English is highly complementary and an exciting way to contextualise your knowledge in each discipline. At Birmingham, undergraduate language is taught through the lens of the target culture's literature, history, politics and society, and through total immersion on the Year Abroad. You can choose from a range of optional modules.

By studying Modern Languages as a Joint Honours degree with Linguistics, you will gain a thorough appreciation of the technical aspects of the English language and its social and political context and how it interacts with other languages. Finding out how a language works and how societies communicate, combines a unique intellectual challenge with significant practical potential. You will also have the chance to use new resources, such as computer-held databases of linguistic data and you will be encouraged to embrace theoretical and technological advances in the study of language.

There's an extensive range of language combinations available to you within our Modern Languages department. Some combinations we are unable to offer due to timetabling restrictions.

Why study this course?

Innovative teaching methods - Experience a new approach to language learning with our CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) teaching method. You'll study topics of cultural significance in your target language, designed and delivered by expert researchers. Broaden your horizons – spend a year abroad working, living and studying and immerse yourself fully in another culture. It’s an amazing opportunity to develop your language skills and increase your employability. Live in a multicultural city – Learn and Live in a vibrant city that is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse. Join a number of language and culture-based societies at the University of Birmingham to further enhance your skills. Do more than read books – Take advantage of the wide ranging expertise within our academic community and delve into the study of social media, marketing, textual production, video games, comics, film and TV, music and art. Explore a broad range of specialisms – Birmingham is internationally famous for its work in corpus linguistics, stylistics, the language of social media, figurative language and language learning and teaching. You can focus on traditional aspects of the subject such as grammar, pragmatics or historical linguistics, but you can also explore newer areas such as English used worldwide or English used in internet communication.

35th for Modern Languages and Linguistics in the Guardian University Guide 2024

26th for English in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2024