Linguistics and a Modern Language (BA)

Why study this course

Our aim is for you to become a ‘global citizen’ who thinks critically, understands cultural diversity and has a wealth of transferable skills.

With our Linguistics and a Modern Language (BA) programme, you’ll develop high-level communication and critical-thinking skills, and foster resilience and independence through time spent in immersive foreign language contexts.

Our linguistics curriculum has a distinctive character and you’ll receive a rigorous grounding in the analysis of language (including key aspects of phonetics, morphology and syntax). You’ll also have the opportunity to select modules on topics as varied as forensic linguistics, first and second language acquisition, sociolinguistics or media discourse. This enables you to shape your linguistics studies to your interests, using the latest approaches to study with a critical eye and make connections to debates in the public sphere.

This robust exploration of English language, and its constructs, will be complemented by your modern language studies, choosing from Chinese, French and Spanish. We’ll make sure you join the most appropriate pathway to ensure your success. Those with an A level or equivalent competence in a modern language will take an Upper Elementary pathway while those with limited or no knowledge of a modern language will take our Elementary pathway.

In addition to developing your fluency, you’ll explore your modern language’s social, political, historical and cultural contexts from a global perspective. Through a variety of language learning resources and materials, and a range of student-centred learning activities, you’ll also develop your reading, writing, oral, listening and mediation skills.

An integral part of this joint honours programme is the opportunity to spend time working or living abroad to experience life in the culture of the modern language you’re studying. The skills and experiences gained from this time abroad are invaluable for personal and professional development, helping to foster flexible communication skills, confidence and resilience.

It’s important to remember that studying languages is not just about language itself, it involves the integrated study of language, culture and society and our programme offers challenging and stimulating modules emphasising diversity and celebrating cultural and linguistic mobility. You’ll also find that there are complementary issues and perspectives that link your linguistics and modern language studies.

Graduating with a range of academic, linguistic and practical skills – including teamworking, leadership and communication – the confidence to use them and the ability to see the big picture, you’ll be valued by employers and ideally placed to progress into a range of careers.

Careers

Career prospects

We’re committed to helping you achieve your professional ambitions, providing you with the skills, curiosity, and confidence to make your mark in a competitive job market. Whether you have a clear idea of what you would like to do after university, or no idea at all, we have the tools and support to guide you.

Our Linguistics and a Modern Language (BA) programme equips you with a lively and critical understanding and how it connects to the important skills which employers’ value from collaborative working and communicating with a wide range of audiences, to critical thinking and finding new ways to address problems. We provide you with opportunities to attain and develop enterprise skills as you progress from pitching your ideas on first year modules and working collaboratively on a project in year 2 to credit-bearing placements in year 2, Year Abroad and your final year.

A range of option modules extend these opportunities and support you to develop these skills further.

Work experience and placements are great opportunities to enhance your employability and career prospects and can help you make decisions about your future career plans, and this programme includes placement learning as an integral element of your degree programme.

Training and careers events are delivered in and out of the curriculum with a focus on developing skills while in university and articulating those skills successfully in future applications. We work closely with Student Futures who not only deliver training and workshops on our core modules, but also offer a wealth of opportunities and help sourcing placements. Beyond your formal studies we run programmes that provide you with opportunities to engage with local schools and communities or work with local heritage organisations to develop your own skills and profile whilst allowing you to make a difference.

The Cardiff Award provides you with a framework through which to develop your employability, while you can take advantage of a wide range of university programmes from Languages for All (to try out a further language) to support from the Enterprise and Start Up team to bring your ideas to life.

Each term we advertise On-Campus Internships which are summer vacation opportunities for students to work under supervision on education innovation, professional services, and staff-defined research projects.

Our graduates flourish in the job market. Their language degrees lead them into a diverse and exciting range of careers which have included finance, international sport liaison roles, business consultancy, education, publishing, journalism, PR, content creation, HR, health, the media, politics, diplomacy, interpreting, translation, law and teaching.