Modern Languages and Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Teaching English as a Foreign Language sits at the crossroads of linguistics, pedagogy, and cultural exchange. It is a discipline concerned not just with the mechanics of grammar and vocabulary, but with how language shapes identity and enables communication across communities. When combined with Modern Languages, the programme widens that lens further, giving you the tools to understand how different linguistic systems work, how they evolved, and how speakers move between them.

This combination is especially relevant in a world where multilingualism is the norm for most of the global population.

Over four years of full-time study, you will explore the structures of language from a theoretical as well as a practical standpoint. You will examine how children and adults acquire new languages, how teachers design effective learning environments, and how cultural context shapes the way meaning is made. The Modern Languages component sharpens your capacity to think analytically about language systems and equips you with real proficiency in at least one additional language.

Together the two strands develop your ability to conduct independent research, handle complex ideas, and communicate findings with clarity, skills that transfer well beyond the classroom.

This course is well suited to students who want to teach English to speakers of other languages, whether in the UK or internationally, but the intellectual formation it offers is genuinely broad. Critical thinking, rigorous argument, and independent enquiry are central to the programme's design. The ability to apply those capacities to real problems makes graduates competitive across education, publishing, media, business communications, and the civil service.

Many graduates go on to teach in language schools, international schools, or further and higher education settings. Others move into curriculum development, educational consultancy, educational publishing, or roles in international organisations where language skills and cross-cultural understanding are directly valued. Postgraduate routes include specialised training in applied linguistics, translation, or educational leadership, giving you plenty of scope to deepen your expertise after completing your undergraduate degree.