English and Modern Languages

English and a modern language is a combination that brings together two disciplines rooted in close attention to language and culture, developing the ability to read and interpret texts across different traditions and to communicate with precision and nuance. English develops your skills in literary analysis, critical argument, and writing through engagement with literature in English across periods and genres. A modern language adds a second dimension, developing near-native linguistic fluency and the cultural understanding that comes from sustained immersion in another language's literature, history, and society.

Together, they produce a graduate who is genuinely bicultural and bilingual in a scholarly sense.

At the University of Southampton this four-year full-time programme allows you to study your chosen language alongside English with expert language tutors, working towards near-native proficiency and cultural fluency in both spoken and written language. The four-year structure provides the time needed to develop both subjects to a high level, and the programme is designed so that your language learning deepens and informs your English literary studies, and vice versa. You will work across literary, historical, and contemporary registers in both subjects, developing the analytical and communicative skills that define graduates in both fields.

Graduates from English and modern languages programmes are found across a wide range of careers. Teaching, at secondary and higher education level, is a well-established route, particularly for those whose language skills make them valuable in modern languages education. Translation, publishing, journalism, international organisations, the diplomatic service, and the cultural sector are other common destinations.

The combination of literary sensitivity, linguistic competence, and strong writing skills is valued across many professional contexts, and many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in English, languages, or comparative literature.