Linguistics (Placement Year) BA (Hons)

Live, love and deceive – language is how we do it all and linguistics is the study of language. Whether conducting experiments in child language acquisition, using big data to analyse how anti-vaccine discourses take hold in social media, or comparing how languages structure knowledge, you will study with researchers at the forefront of computational, corpus, and forensic linguistics and more.<br/><br/><strong>Why Lancaster?</strong><br/>• Study with the best. Linguistics at Lancaster University is ranked 3rd in the world by QS 2024<br/><br/><br/><br/>• Explore language functions across a range of contexts including business, law, politics, health and literature<br/><br/><br/><br/>• Learn from linguistic experts, famous for their work in corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis and speech science<br/><br/><br/><br/>• Benefit from world-leading facilities including our phonetics lab, eye-tracking lab, perception and learning lab, and EEG lab<br/><br/><br/><br/>• Gain valuable work experience through volunteering opportunities or work on live projects through our paid research internships<br/><br/><br/><br/>• Choose to study with academics who are leading innovations at the forefront of specialist fields<br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Real world applications</strong><br/>Our linguists take pride in the practical applications of their work and its academic significance. Research on phonetics, grammar and pragmatics informs work of medicine, marketing and speech sciences as well as work in forensics and policy-making.<br/><br/>You might explore how language works in non-human systems such as speech technologies and AI and discover what is required to develop them. You could be using big data to analyse how ideas go viral on social media, whether or not they are grounded in fact, or study the theorised connections between language, mind and culture as explored using brain imaging technologies.<br/><br/>Through explorations such as these, you will discover your own interests, while being supported to think about what comes after your degree and how to develop the skills needed by future employers.<br/><br/><strong>Answering fundamental questions</strong><br/>Studying linguistics at Lancaster is exciting opportunity to work with our enthusiastic, accessible academics and learn from their impressive knowledge. They will encourage you to think critically about vital questions relating to how language is used in the world around us, such as:<br/>• Where does language come from and what is it made of?<br/><br/><br/><br/>• How do the world’s languages vary and how does the language you speak shape your experiences?<br/><br/><br/><br/>• How is language learned and how can it be impaired?<br/><br/><br/><br/>• How can technology be harnessed to study patterns in the way language is used?<br/><br/><br/><br/>Through exploring these questions, you will look at how language functions across a broad range of contexts, giving you a well-rounded understanding of language and linguistics from a global perspective.<br/><br/><strong>Develop a specialist skill set</strong><br/>You will develop transferable skills that include a capacity for critical thinking, an ability to gather, organise and analyse large quantities of data, and an aptitude for generating new and innovative ideas.<br/><br/>You’ll have the chance to develop specialist skills in the lexical and grammatical analysis of real and constructed languages, the acoustic analysis of speech, and computer programming for language technologies, skills valued by current and emerging industries which capitalise on generative AI.<br/><br/>There are plenty of opportunities to build on your skills outside of the classroom. Each year we invite current students to apply for a research internship. These are paid roles in which our students work closely with academic members of staff on active research projects. <br/><br/><strong>Your Placement Year</strong><br/>Sometimes known as a year in industry, your placement year will take place between your second and final year of study and this will extend your degree to four years.<br/><br/><strong>Important Information</strong><br/>For the most up-to-date course information and more details, we recommend that you revisit our website before submitting your application.