4-Term Pathway - International Foundation Year in Social Sciences and Humanities - Continue to Bachelor of Arts - Linguistics

This program will prepare students for entry to Year 1 of an undergraduate degree in a wide range of subjects, including many based at the £10m LICA building. Popular subjects include law, film studies, sociology, linguistics and politics.

Language is at the heart of human behaviour, human societies and human creativity. Understanding how language works is therefore key to unlocking what it means to be human.

In this fascinating subject students will explore fundamental questions such as:

• Where does language come from and what is it made of?
• How is language represented in the mind/brain and how is it related to culture and society?
• How do the world’s languages vary and how does the language one speaks shapes their experiences?
• How is language learned and how can it be impaired?
• How can technology be harnessed to study patterns in the way language is used?

The extensive range of optional modules also gives students the chance to look at how language functions across a broad range of contexts, including business, law, politics, health and literature. They can also explore how language works in non-human systems such as speech technologies and what is required to develop these.

Linguistics is not just a fascinating area of study, students will gain a skillset that opens doors to a range of exciting and rewarding careers. Transferable skills include a capacity for critical thinking, an ability to gather, organise and analyse large quantities of data, and an aptitude for developing new and innovative ideas. Students will have the chance to develop specialist skills including in the lexical and grammatical analysis of real and constructed languages, the acoustic analysis of speech, and computer programming for language technologies.