Linguistics and Modern Languages (LML)
Course Overview
The Linguistics and Modern Languages course at Cambridge offers the chance to master a major modern language together with the scientific study of linguistics. Alongside the study of a modern language, you will also explore how the scientific study of languages can help us understand the human mind and creativity. The range of topics available to study across linguistics and modern languages means you can develop your own curiosity about how these areas intersect.
In each year of your degree, you will follow courses (‘papers’) of three kinds:
- language papers that focus on employing and extending your active language skills.
- your choice of ‘scheduled papers’ that focus on the culture, history, literature, philosophy, art and film culture of the languages you are learning. These papers are generally organised by period, theme, or medium.
- linguistics papers ranging from language in general to individual languages and language families. You’ll apply mathematical and digital techniques to explore language acquisition, pathology and evolution.
Course structure
The course lasts four years and is split into three Parts: Part IA in the first year, Part IB in the second year, and Part II in years three and four.
The First Year
During the first year you will enhance your written and spoken language skills and study a related course (normally an introduction to the literature, thought and history of the relevant country). These courses are designed to introduce you to the study of literature, culture, history of your chosen languages and to expose you to a range of subjects and materials, including an introduction to linguistics. You will also study the general introduction to all areas of linguistics.
The Second Year
In your second year you continue your advanced language study and take three further courses. The latter comprise a further course related to your language, a course from a wide range of papers including those dealing with different linguistic levels and perspectives, plus either an additional course related to language or linguistics.
In the second year you also have the opportunity to add a second language, if you wish. You can, subject to availability, choose to take an introductory course in a language and culture you haven’t studied before, such as Catalan, Modern Greek, Polish, Portuguese and Ukrainian. Note that we cannot guarantee that places on these courses will be available to all students.
The Year Abroad
Students spend their third year abroad studying and/or working in countries where the languages they studied during their first 2 years are spoken. In the past, students have worked at a lifestyle TV channel in Paris; studied history at the Humboldt University in Berlin; taught English as a British Council assistant in Buenos Aries; and completed an internship with Radio Vaticana.
You have great freedom and flexibility (and support from the Faculty) in making your plans: you can tailor your third year abroad to suit your own interests and later career goals, while being constantly immersed in the foreign languages you’re studying.
Find out more about the Year Abroad.
The Fourth Year
At the start of your final year you take an Advanced Oral examination. You will study advanced language courses in your chosen language and three other advanced courses from a wide range in Modern Languages and Linguistics. You will also write a dissertation on a topic of your choice. You will need to do individual research for this dissertation. By the fourth year, every student’s course of study is unique. You will have the opportunity to follow and develop your own interests.