Delivered jointly by the School of Social Sciences and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, this course offers flexibility through a combination of core and optional sociology course units and units in your chosen language and culture.
Sociology
Sociology and languages are inherently tied. No study of society can ignore language, and no study of language can be removed from its specific social context. You will be challenged to think about the nature of the social worlds in which we live and about how language and culture build and inform such worlds. You will study social life and social change, from the reproduction of inequalities in relation to social categories (such as race, class or gender), to the way that wider cultural contexts shape intimate relationships.
Language learning
You will join a pathway for your chosen language:
The beginner pathway is for students, who do not have any foundation in the language. Some students are complete beginners. Some students may have undertaken some language learning. For example, a UK student who studied a language in Years 7 and 8 at secondary school.
The intermediate pathway is for students, who have a good foundation in the language, and have the equivalent of an A-level in their chosen language.
The advanced pathway is for students, who are already fluent and proficient in their chosen language.
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish have beginner and intermediate pathways. Arabic has a beginner pathway only. Chinese and Russian have beginner, intermediate, and advanced pathways.
The language you choose will be reflected in your degree title. For example BA (Hons) Sociology and Modern Languages (Japanese).
The language learning course units are designed to develop your skills of reception (reading and listening), production (speaking and writing), and translation. For some languages, you will be learning different alphabets and scripts – Modern Standard Arabic, Cyrillic (Russian), Mandarin (Chinese), and Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji (Japanese).
Class sizes are small and led by academics, who are a mix of native speakers, and English speakers who are fluent in the language. Using your language throughout the week really accelerates your learning and we encourage you to use it socially. For example, by joining student societies that enable you to meet students from different countries and following social media influencers and media channels for your chosen language.
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