French and Linguistics
French and linguistics is a pairing that combines the development of fluency in a major world language with the scientific study of language itself. French gives you access to one of Europe's most influential intellectual and cultural traditions, from medieval literature and Enlightenment philosophy to twentieth-century theory and contemporary francophone culture. Linguistics provides the conceptual tools to analyse how language works, how it varies across communities and contexts, how it is acquired, and how it changes over time.
Together the two disciplines give you a deeper understanding of both, as knowledge of linguistic structure illuminates how French works, and French provides rich concrete material for linguistic analysis.
At Westminster you will study this programme part time, giving you the flexibility to balance your studies with work or other commitments while developing your language and analytical skills across the breadth of both disciplines. You will develop your French through all four skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, working towards high levels of proficiency across a range of registers and contexts. Your linguistics study will introduce you to phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and the study of language acquisition and change.
The combination encourages you to think about language both from the inside, as a participant in French-speaking culture, and from the outside, as a student of how language systems function.
Graduates of French and linguistics find their combined skills valued in translation and interpreting, language teaching, educational technology and language learning app development, speech and language therapy, publishing, journalism, communications, and cross-cultural roles in business and international organisations. The analytical rigour of linguistics training is also valued in data analysis, user experience research, and fields that depend on understanding how people use language to make meaning. Postgraduate study in linguistics, applied linguistics, translation, or French studies is a natural continuation.