In this course, you will study various aspects of language using a wide variety of methods - from computerised study of language corpora, through acoustic analysis of sound patterns, to analysis of texts, interviews and audio-visual recordings of natural dialogues. Many of the issues addressed by Linguistics are of central relevance to our society - for example, the relationship between dialect and social prestige, the problems of education in a multilingual environment, or the development of voice recognition technologies. During your studies, you will address intriguing questions, such as how language relates to thought, how a child first acquires language and how our language is similar to and different from social signalling systems used by animals. You will also be able to take a wide range of other courses, depending on your strengths and interests. You will spend your second year at one of our partner universities and will take compulsory courses in the Structures of Language and Topics in Linguistics Theory as well as optional modules including: Forensic Linguistics, Language Acquisition and Language Origins, and Language Change in English and Beyond. You can also study up to two units in another subject. Recent Linguistics graduates have gone to work or train as speech therapists, teachers of English, computer programmers and consultants, bankers, chartered accountants, personnel managers, journalists and social workers. A sizeable proportion of our graduates take up employment overseas. Our Linguistics degree cultivates skills in data analysis and presentation, critical thinking and the use of statistics and IT. This expertise is valuable for careers in education, language teaching, speech therapy and translation as well as information technology, management, the mass media, creative arts, social work and counselling.