About this course
This course is not open to applicants for 2024 entry.
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On this integrated master’s degree, you will become fluent in 2 languages that play a key role on the world stage. You’ll develop a deep understanding of the linguistics structures of both countries, as you work towards master’s level in your final year. You’ll also spend a year studying abroad.
Following our unique system of language development, you will start at a level that matches your ability in spoken and written French and German, which will help you progress quickly. If you are not proficient in one of these languages, you can choose to start your learning as part of this course.
As well as gaining fluency in your chosen languages, you will specialise in linguistics and explore the structure, use and psychology of French and German. If you wish, you can also study the cultures, histories, politics, and societies of French and German-speaking countries.
We'll give you access to excellent resources to support your learning, through the Centre for Language Study.
In year 2, we'll prepare you for the following year studying abroad in a French or German-speaking country. This is an exciting opportunity that will increase your fluency and cultural communication skills, and boost your employability.
Explore your country options – choose Humanities and scroll to the list for Modern Languages.
By the final year, you will have gained the skills and knowledge to produce a dissertation on your chosen area of expertise, with support from a supervisor.
This master’s-level degree will equip you with the vital language, linguistics and analytical skills for travel, work, or doctoral research all over the world.
Course lead
Your course lead is Dr Michael Kranert.
His research interests range from comparative discourse analysis to language ideologies, with a particular focus on English and German speaking countries.
Find out more on his staff profile.
We regularly review our courses to ensure and improve quality. This course may be revised as a result of this. Any revision will be balanced against the requirement that the student should receive the educational service expected. Find out why, when, and how we might make changes.
Our courses are regulated in England by the Office for Students (OfS).
Learn more about this subject area
Course location
This course is based at Avenue.
Awarding body
This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.
Entry requirements
For Academic year
Scottish Qualification
Offers will be based on exams being taken at the end of S6. Subjects taken and qualifications achieved in S5 will be reviewed. Careful consideration will be given to an individual’s academic achievement, taking in to account the context and circumstances of their pre-university education.
Please see the University of Southampton’s Curriculum for Excellence Scotland Statement (PDF) for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
Other requirements
You might meet our criteria in other ways if you do not have the qualifications we need. Find out more about:
- our Access to Southampton scheme for students living permanently in the UK (including residential summer school, application support and scholarship)
- skills you might have gained through work or other life experiences (otherwise known as recognition of prior learning)
Find out more about our Admissions Policy.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
Course structure
Each year combines compulsory modules to build your mastery of French and German with a wide range of options. This allows you to tailor your learning to suit your interests and ambitions.
You'll take Linguistics modules specific to French and German, but also more general topics in areas such as psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, and phonetics. You can also take modules from different subject areas, or learn a third language.
To give you the best possible start, we use our system of 7 language levels to work out your proficiency in French and German. We can then make sure our teaching develops your skills as effectively as possible.
Year 1 overview
This year provides an introduction to cultural forms, political and historical issues, and linguistics. You’ll take compulsory accelerated French and German language modules to rapidly improve your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
You’ll then be able to choose from a wide range of optional modules, including those from other subject areas.
Year 2 overview
You’ll continue to develop your French and German language skills and you’ll take a module that prepares you for your year abroad, including the research project you’ll do while you’re away.
As in Year 1, you will again choose from a wide range of optional modules to tailor your degree to areas that interest you.
Year 3 overview
You’ll spend a year abroad on a study placement at a partner university in a French or German-speaking country.
You’ll also work on your research skills, developing your the ability to:
- demonstrate originality of thought and approach
- undertake independent information collection work
- engage with theoretical approaches applicable to your chosen areas of study
- make relevant connections between different critical methodologies and use
Find out more about the year abroad.
Year 4 overview
After returning to the UK, you’ll take master's-level modules and can focus on areas of interest you've developed during your studies.
We will support you in your return to university from your year abroad and help you to talk about your experiences in a way that enhances your employability.
You’ll continue to develop your writing and speaking skills, and be able to choose further optional modules.
You'll also complete your dissertation, focusing on a research interest that you have developed during the programme.
Want more detail? See all the modules in the course.
Modules
The modules outlined provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. As a research-led University, we undertake a continuous review of our course to ensure quality enhancement and to manage our resources. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand. Find out why, when and how we might make changes.
Year 1 modules
You must study the following modules in year 1:
Academic Skills for Modern languages and Linguistics students
This module is designed to ease the transition from A-level to the first year of a single or combined honours degree programme by setting out clearly what we expect of you at undergraduate level and equipping you with the resources to be able to operate a...
Elements of Linguistics - Sound, Structure and Meaning
This module provides an introduction to linguistic approaches to sound, structure and meaning in the branches of linguistics known as phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
French Language Stage 4
The aim of every language course at the University is to enable you to communicate in your target language (TL) at that particular level and in your particular area of interest. We use the word ‘communicate’ in its widest sense, meaning that you will not ...
German Language Stage 4
The aim of every language course at the University is to enable you to communicate in your target language (TL) at that particular level and in your particular area of interest. We use the word ‘communicate’ in its widest sense, meaning that you will not ...
Language, Ideologies and Attitudes
This module explores language in its social context. The main aim of this module is to introduce you to key research approaches to the study of language attitudes and ideologies and to encourage you to reflect on how attitudes and beliefs about language e...
The Making of Modern English
The module looks at the development of the English language, and examines its relationship with other, potentially rival, languages that have been spoken in the British Isles. It examines the effect of successive waves of conquest on the sociolinguistic s...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 1:
Applications of Linguistics
This unit will introduce you to the main areas relevant to applied language studies.
Language Acquisition
You may have asked yourself how children learn their first language or whether some animals can speak just like humans do. People often wonder whether there are any lifelong benefits of bilingualism as well. This module introduces you to the field of lang...
Understanding Culture
This introductory course will give you an overview of some approaches to, and topics within, cultural and literary studies. You will spend time on close textual reading, as well as on broader cultural analysis. It aims to encourage you to experiment in c...
Understanding History and Society
This module will introduce you to studying questions of history, society and culture through the prism of Southampton in order that you can apply those approaches to the study of cities in the French, Spanish and German-speaking world.
Year 2 modules
You must study the following module in year 2:
You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:
Corpus Linguistics: Working with large-scale text data
In this module, we introduce corpus linguistics as an approach to and method for analysing large-scale text data. We will develop an understanding of building and curating datasets, annotating data, and using quantitative and statistical measures for lang...
Discourse Analysis
This module highlights and analyses the link between language structure and its situation of occurrence.
Exploring French Linguistics
This module explores various aspects of the French language from the perspective of modern linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and lexis
Ghosts on Screen
How do filmakers grapple with the difficulties of remembering events that many would rather forget? How are we haunted by the past? How do they seek to represent events that seem to defy representation? In tackling these questions, this module provides yo...
Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in France
What developments led to the headscarf and the so-called ‘burka ban’ in France? Why has ‘multiculturalism’ been a taboo subject? To what extent have anti-racism associations been a success in combating racism? This module offers you the opportunity to gai...
Language and Society in German-Speaking World
The main aim of this course is to explore and assess the contemporary importance of the German language, both within the so-called German-speaking countries and in the wider world. We shall identify key sociolinguistic issues as they relate to German-spea...
Language, Power and Institutions: how linguistic practices can shape our lives
This module will introduce you to the making of institutions through language. We will investigate the links between language, institutions, and power to understand, how institutions are not only shaping the language used by members and users of instituti...
Multilingualism
This module will introduce you to the notion of ‘Multilingualism’, how this is understood and represented in different ways, and why it matters to you. You will explore how people become multilingual, and whether it makes a difference if multilinguals are...
Post-War French Thought and Culture
This module is designed to explore in detail the key areas of feminism, postcolonial theory, and cultural semiotics i.e. the analysis of cultural signs, whether in visual culture, such as advertising, political culture, or based in cultural practices. Th...
Psycholinguistics
This module examines different sub-topics in psycholinguistics which help to understand what the relationship between language and the human mind might be.
Sound and Voice
This module builds on the basic concepts of articulatory phonetics introduced in the first year, and introduces theory and methodology of acoustic science for the study of the production and perception of speech sounds.
Syntax: Studying Language Structure
This module will provide introduce you to the study of syntax within current linguistic theory.
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
This module will introduce you to key issues, concepts and methods in teaching English as a second/foreign language.
Variation and Change in English
This module takes an empirical approach to questions such as: - Are there patterns of speech and language associated with males and females in varieties of English? - What is the role of teenagers in the propagation of change in English? - After a...
Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present
This module will introduce you to the social, political and cultural history of Vienna and Berlin in the 20th century, German using a wide range of sources which will include literature, film and architecture. Topics covered may include the following:...
Year 3 modules
You must study the following modules in year 3:
Modern Languages and Linguistics Independent Study Module
This module involves an in-depth study of a particular area in the History, Culture or Linguistics of the German, French, Spanish or Portuguese speaking world drawing from the resources available from the list of final year GERM, SPAN, FREN and POR modul...
Research Skills 1 (online)
The research skills module will help you to prepare your ISM project (Sem 2) through informed thinking and reading and the preparation of an annotated bibliography and feasibility report at the end of Semester 1.
Year 4 modules
You must study the following modules in year 4:
Dissertation MLANG
The dissertation is an extended piece of work of 10,000 words which results from independent research. The dissertation gives you the opportunity to explore a topic of particular interest to you in greater depth than is possible within the scope of a taug...
Research Skills (Dissertation Preparation)
The purpose of this module is to help you prepare your Masters dissertation in Languages & Cultures or Translation & Professional Communication Skills, including the oral presentation that forms part of its assessment. The emphasis is on skills required f...
Seeing and Being Seen. Period Abroad re-entry
This module is designed to accompany you as you resume your programme of studies in Southampton and grapple with the challenges of re-entry. We will support you as you reflect upon your experience of study abroad, enable you to articulate those experience...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 4:
Analysing Language for ELT/TESOL
This module encourages you to reflect on the analysis of the structure of language and its relationships to language teaching. It will demonstrate the kinds of analytic processes employed in linguistic analysis and identify the relationships between gramm...
Approaches to Languages and Cultures
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the analytical frameworks at the heart of the MA Languages and Cultures programme. Through guided weekly readings, discussion-based seminars and reflective short assessments, you will develop the skills...
Audiovisual Translation
This module will introduce you to the different types of audiovisual translation and the various kinds of subtitles produced nowadays. You will learn about the interaction between text and image and the technical issues and constraints involved in creatin...
Developing Approaches to Language Teaching
This module builds on your knowledge of language teaching methodologies developed in LING6022. It will focus on current issues in language teaching methodologies and address more specialised areas taking both a synchronic and diachronic which will comple...
English as a World Language
This module explores the rise of English to its current dominant status.
Language and Intercultural Communication
This module will combine a theoretical understanding of intercultural communication with reflections and evaluations of your own intercultural experiences and applications of this to pedagogic settings and other practical settings.
Language in Society
This module will introduce you to ways of exploring the reciprocal relationship between language and society from contemporary sociolinguistic perspectives.
Memory in National and Transnational Contexts
Whether in the form of monuments, stories or rituals a desire to remember seems to be everywhere in most if not all contemporary nation states. In some respect this has been fuelled by the continually evolving international situation, which has posed a se...
Narrative, Place, Identity
This module investigates how cultural narratives have been produced, disseminated and consumed across national boundaries since the mid-twentieth century. Through examination of a range of narrative forms, including fiction, essay, memoir, film and photog...
Nation, Culture, Power
This module offers an in-depth exploration of three concepts that have shaped the modern world: nation, culture, and power. Drawing on staff expertise in cultural and critical theory, the module will investigate the key questions that worldwide thinkers a...
Second Language Learning
This module introduces the different theoretical approaches which have been adopted for studying the acquisition of language, and examines and assesses current theories of first and second language acquisition in the light of empirical evidence.
Teaching Foreign Languages to Younger Learners
This module will address the implementation and adaptation of language teaching methodologies to address the unique challenges inherent in instructed, early foreign language (FL) learning. The novel aspect of the module will lie in its systematic explorat...
Translation: Theory and Practice
Translation plays a major role in the exchange and circulation of practical information and culture production. This means that even if they do not enter the translation profession, in a society that is increasingly global, Modern Linguists are frequently...
Transnational Movement in the Age of Globalisation
The module investigates transnational approaches to migration, global mobility and diversity. It combines theoretical approaches with empirical case studies and methodological issues.
Writing and Written Language
The module examines the techniques of process, product, context, and instruction of writing in a second language. The first deals with composing and the writer in relation to the text; the second deals with the text produced, its structure and organisatio...
Learning and assessment
The learning activities for this course include the following:
- lectures
- classes and tutorials
- coursework
- individual and group projects
- independent learning (studying on your own)
Academic support
You’ll be supported by a personal academic tutor and have access to a senior tutor.
Course leader
Michael Kranert is the course leader.
Careers
As a graduate of this master's in French and German Linguistic Studies, you can choose from a wide variety of employment options. These will make the most of your skills in:
- gathering and interpreting information
- working with and leading teams
- understanding and adapting to different cultures
Previous graduates have gone on to careers including:
- translation
- interpreting
- teaching
- marketing
- publishing
- international development
- advertising, film and television
Many of our graduates go on to further study. Subjects taken include interpreting and translating, law, accountancy, management and international relations.
We put a great focus on developing employability skills throughout your time with us. This includes a compulsory employability module for all first-year students in the faculty.
Careers services at Southampton
We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022). Our Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise team will support you. This support includes:
- work experience schemes
- CV and interview skills and workshops
- networking events
- careers fairs attended by top employers
- a wealth of volunteering opportunities
- study abroad and summer school opportunities
We have a vibrant entrepreneurship culture and our dedicated start-up supporter, Futureworlds, is open to every student.
Fees, costs and funding
Tuition fees
Fees for a year's study:
- UK students pay £9,250.
- EU and international students pay £22,300.
Your fees will remain the same each year from when you start studying this course. This includes if you suspend and return.
What your fees pay for
Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and standard exams.
Find out how to:
Accommodation and living costs, such as travel and food, are not included in your tuition fees. There may also be extra costs for retake and professional exams.
Explore:
Bursaries, scholarships and other funding
If you're a UK or EU student and your household income is under £25,000 a year, you may be able to get a University of Southampton bursary to help with your living costs. Find out about bursaries and other funding we offer at Southampton.
If you're a care leaver or estranged from your parents, you may be able to get a specific bursary.
Get in touch for advice about student money matters.
Scholarships and grants
You may be able to get a scholarship or grant to help fund your studies.
We award scholarships and grants for travel, academic excellence, or to students from under-represented backgrounds.
Support during your course
The Student Services Centre offers support and advice on money to students. You may be able to access our Student Support fund and other sources of financial support during your course.
Funding for EU and international students
Find out about funding you could get as an international student.
How to apply
When you apply use:
- UCAS course code: R129
- UCAS institution code: S27
What happens after you apply?
We will assess your application on the strength of your:
- predicted grades
- academic achievements
- personal statement
- academic reference
We'll aim to process your application within 2 to 6 weeks, but this will depend on when it is submitted. Applications submitted in January, particularly near to the UCAS equal consideration deadline, might take substantially longer to be processed due to the high volume received at that time.
Equality and diversity
We treat and select everyone in line with our Equality and Diversity Statement.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
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