Modern Languages and English Language
Modern languages and English language is a combination that brings together the study of one or more foreign languages with the academic discipline of linguistics and English language study. While learning a language develops practical communication skills and cultural understanding, studying English language as an academic subject asks a different set of questions: how does language work as a system, how does it vary across communities and contexts, how does it change over time, and what can linguistic analysis reveal about identity, power, and meaning? Together these strands develop both practical linguistic capability and a rigorous analytical understanding of language itself.
The University of Reading's four-year full-time Modern Languages and English Language programme offers this distinctive combination within a department with research strength in both areas. You will develop proficiency in your chosen modern language, working through grammar, speaking, reading, writing, and translation, while engaging with the literature and culture of the relevant language community. Alongside this, your English language studies will introduce you to the core subdisciplines of linguistics: phonology and phonetics, morphology and syntax, semantics and pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition.
You will learn to analyse language data systematically and to apply theoretical frameworks to questions about how language is used in real social contexts. Reading's location and its research culture provide a rich environment for both strands of the degree.
The four-year duration gives sufficient space to develop genuine depth in both areas, which is important given the range of topics each covers.
Graduates pursue careers in translation and interpreting, teaching (English as a foreign language and modern languages), speech and language therapy pathways with further qualification, journalism, publishing, communications, language technology, and academic research in linguistics or language studies. Postgraduate routes include linguistics, applied linguistics, translation studies, and modern languages research.