2024 Open Days

Saturday 5 and Saturday 19 October

Book your place
A student ambassador wearing red t shirt and blue jeans stood in front of a red brick building with students blurred out in the background and blurred greenery in the foreground
Book your place

Top 25 for Modern Languages and Linguistics

Guardian University League Table 2024

More on Top 25 for Modern Languages and Linguistics
Students walking across University of Leeds campus
More on Top 25 for Modern Languages and Linguistics

Top 25 for Linguistics

Complete University Guide 2024

More on Top 25 for Linguistics
Linguistics homepage
More on Top 25 for Linguistics

Join our online course

Sign up for our free, online course 'Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture', delivered by Leeds academics with FutureLearn

Free, online course
Student stood outside wearing a green coat looking away from the camera and into the distance.
Free, online course
Scroll down

Linguistics and Phonetics undergraduate degrees

Undergraduate degrees

Language plays a pivotal role in all human affairs, and as linguists and phoneticians, we want to systematically understand how language works.

Studying linguistics and phonetics means learning how to analyse the structure of language, the physics of speech and exploring how language is acquired, processed and employed by different people in different contexts.

You'll undertake detailed analytical work on data drawn from languages across the world, including looking for similarities and differences across languages, with the aim of discovering the core characteristics of human language.

We offer research and teaching expertise in major areas within the language sciences, with particular strengths in bi/multilingualism, speech processing, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, language contact and change, pragmatics and discourse analysis.

You can choose to focus on linguistics or combine it with philosophy, English language, or a language:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C9820kBloJo?si=V8TFIdaQEG1H_Wl9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Our facilities

During your degree, you'll have opportunities to be trained to use our specialist facilities including:

  • a highly-resourced recording studio
  • a fully-equipped phonetics lab for acoustic and articulatory speech analysis
  • a linguistics lab including eye-tracking equipment
  • leading resources to support experimental research.

You'll also have access to the materials in the M&S Company Archive, which is based on campus. We work with the Archive to explore language use over a century of Marks and Spencer’s heritage.

If you're interested in independent language learning, you'll have access to resources, workshops, language exchanges and language groups provided by the University's Language Zone.

You can apply to our Research Experience Scheme, it gives you the opportuniy to assist with our current research projects, providing insight into the research process.

Language at Leeds

Together with colleagues across the University, we form the interdisciplinary network Language at Leeds, which offers a dynamic environment for research teaching and learning opportunities, providing you with a wide range of options for specialisation and allowing you to pursue those areas that interest you most.

Careers and employability

More on Careers and employability

6th

most targeted by graduate recruiters

(The Graduate Market in 2023)

Work placements

More on Work placements

Study abroad

More on Study abroad

Language at Leeds

An interdisciplinary centre for language research and scholarship.

More on Language at Leeds

Discover our research

You'll benefit from learning in a research-intensive environment.

More on Discover our research
Elliot Holmes
Student | BA English Language and Linguistics
"The University has given me a deep understanding of the subject and has helped me develop myself into a capable student and helped me enter the world of research."