Your first year at Essex studying BA Language Studies and Linguistics (including Foundation Year) will be with Essex Pathways. In your second year of study, you will join the Department of Language and Linguistics for the remaining three years of study.

Explore both the theoretical aspects of the language we use and acquire the practical ability to speak another language. Any understanding of language enhances our self-awareness, inspiring us to address fundamental questions about our communication as human beings.

Linguistics is an increasingly important subject, impacting on areas in psychology, philosophy, education and artificial intelligence. It has real-world applications in such diverse fields as human rights, computer-assisted language learning, and the study of institutional language in settings such as doctor-patient interactions and interviewer-interviewee dialogues.

You will explore a wide range of core topics in linguistics, mastering key concepts in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and investigate specialist areas including:

• Multilingualism and language impairment
• Language, identity and gender
• Metaphor, irony and style
• Language and the mind
• American languages

Your future

Companies and organisations in the UK and abroad are struggling to find university graduates who are fluent in at least one other language, apart from English.

Being an Essex modern languages graduate places you in a very advantageous position. You will be able to speak and write fluently, or to a very competent standard, in up to two languages.

Our graduates go on to become teachers, translators, administrators and journalists amongst other jobs. The language skills they acquire enable them to work in diverse fields including banking, entertainment, media, education and tourism, as well as for a host of UK and international companies.

For example, one of our recent graduates is now a newspaper editor in Spain, while another teaches modern languages in Southampton.