About this course
With this BA Spanish and Linguistics degree, you’ll develop strong Spanish language skills and a comprehensive understanding of Hispanic culture, while exploring how language works through the study of linguistics. You’ll improve your fluency, cultural understanding and employability skills by spending a year living and working abroad.
You’ll have the freedom to tailor your degree to areas that interest you. You could, for instance, take another language, choose modules from other subject areas, focus on linguistics, or study Hispanic culture more closely.
Following our unique system of language development you’ll start at a level that matches your ability. This means we can personalise your learning so you make the best progress.
In your year abroad you can choose to:
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work as an English assistant in a school
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study at a university
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take a work placement
You could choose to go to Spain or Latin America. Through our innovative scheme in Mexico, developed in partnership with the Mexican Education Ministry, you could work as a Language Resources Assistant in a University.
This course has a strong focus on employability. You’ll have the option to take practical modules looking at teaching, you could take advantage of our vacation work placement schemes and you’ll develop a wide range of transferable skills.
Course location
This course is based at Avenue.
Awarding body
This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.
Entry requirements
For Academic year 202223
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:
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our Access to Southampton scheme for students living permanently in the UK (including residential summer school, application support and scholarship)
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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.
For Academic year 202324
A-levels
ABB including Spanish
A-levels additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking.
A-levels with Extended Project Qualification
If you are taking an EPQ in addition to 3 A levels, you will receive the following offer in addition to the standard A level offer: BBB including Spanish and grade A in the EPQ
A-levels contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all applicants with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise an applicant's potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme, as follows: BBB including Spanish
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level, including 5 at Higher Level in Spanish.
BTEC
Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Diploma plus B in A level Spanish Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Diploma plus B in A level Spanish Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Certificate plus AB in A level Spanish and one further A level
Additional information
The University aims to recruit students from a wide range of backgrounds who we believe have the potential and motivation to succeed on our challenging programmes. We are committed to fair admissions and strive to ensure we give equal consideration to all applicants who possess the necessary knowledge and skills.
Access to HE Diploma
60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit, plus B in A level Spanish.
Access to HE additional information
Irish Leaving Certificate
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2017)
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H3 including Spanish.
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2016)
A2 A2 B1 B1 B2 B2 including Spanish at B1
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.
Cambridge Pre-U
D3 M2 M2 in three principal subjects including Spanish.
Cambridge Pre-U additional information
Welsh Baccalaureate
ABB from 3 A levels including Spanish or AB from two A levels including Spanish and B from the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate
Welsh Baccalaureate additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking.
European Baccalaureate
77% overall including grade 8 in Spanish
Other requirements
GCSE requirements
Applicants must hold GCSE English language (or GCSE English) (minimum grade 4/C) and mathematics (minimum grade 4/C)
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 Spanish and your understanding of Linguistics. You will have a wide range of options to choose from, allowing you to tailor your learning to suit your interests and ambitions.
You can also take modules from different subject areas, or learn another language. If you find a subject you love, you even have the option to make it an official part of your degree as a minor subject.
To give you the best possible start, we use our system of 7 language levels to work out your proficiency in Spanish. We can then make sure our teaching develops your skills as effectively as possible.
Year 1 overview
We’ll introduce you to the study skills you’ll need as a Modern Languages and Linguistics student and you’ll take a compulsory Spanish language module to develop your speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. Other compulsory modules include the Applications of Linguistics and Sound, Structure and Meaning.
You’ll then be able to choose from a wide range of optional modules. Topics could include:
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the history and politics of the Hispanic world
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narrative and cultural identity in the Hispanic world
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cities as micro-sites of historical, social, political and linguistic developments
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modules of your choice from other subject areas, including other languages
Year 2 overview
You’ll continue to develop your Spanish language skills and you’ll take a module that prepares you for your year abroad, including the research project that you’ll do while you’re away. You’ll also study Spanish Linguistics.
You’ll be able to choose from a wide range of optional modules to tailor your degree to areas that interest you. These might include:
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gender, race and nation in modern Latin America
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myths and realities of contemporary Spain
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language structure
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the EU and European identity
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teaching English as a foreign language
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ethnography
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experience as a classroom ambassador
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modules from other subject areas, including other languages
Year 3 overview
You can spend a year abroad:
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as an English language assistant
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studying on a university course
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on an approved work placement
You’ll also do an independent study project on an issue of current importance to the country you’re living in.
You’ll also continue to study your second language.
Find out more about the year abroad.
Year 4 overview
We will support you in your return to university from your year abroad and we’ll help you to talk about your experiences in a way that enhances your employability. You’ll continue to develop your written and spoken Spanish and you’ll explore linguistic variations between the Iberian peninsula and Latin America.
You’ll be able to choose from a wide range of optional modules to tailor your degree to areas that interest you. These might include:
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public service interpreting
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language teaching
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representations of women in the Hispanic World
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advanced syntax
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English as a global language
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documenting displacement in contemporary Spain
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modules from other subject areas, including other languages
Want more detail? See all the modules in the course.
Modules
Changes due to COVID-19
Although the COVID-19 situation is improving, any future restrictions could mean we might have to change the way parts of our teaching and learning take place in 2021 to 2022. We're working hard to plan for a number of possible scenarios. This means that some of the information on this course page may be subject to change.
Find out more on our COVID advice page.
For entry in Academic Year 2022-23
Year 1 modules
You must study the following modules in year 1:
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...
This unit will introduce you to the main areas relevant to applied language studies.
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.
This module is designed to provide you with a broad introduction to the culture, history and language of Spain, Latin America and the Spanish speaking World. By studying various types of primary and secondary sources, you will become familiar with a wide...
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...
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 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 ...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 1:
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...
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:
The module will clarify the links between the Year Abroad Portfolio and modules in years two and four.
You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:
This course is designed to expand and deepen your knowledge of the cultures of the Portuguese-speaking world, bringing together written texts, visual and conceptual art, political materials, and cinema from twentieth-century Portugal, Brazil, and Portugu...
The course examines major turning points in Spanish and Portuguese America from the middle nineteenth century to the present, with a focus on how these upheavals affected and reflected the politics of class, gender and race.
This module highlights and analyses the link between language structure and its situation of occurrence.
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.
This module uses ethnographic approaches to understand the diversity of Latin America’s peoples and cultures. Emphasizing the emergence within Latin American anthropology of focuses on everyday life through topics such as kinship and family, ritual and re...
The module introduces you to relevant issues and topics of contemporary Spanish linguistics and establishes the basis for future application of linguistic principles.
This module examines high, popular and mass cultural forms in twentieth century Spain and Latin America. Attention is particularly paid to the political uses made of those different forms. The module explores the function of popular culture in predominant...
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...
This module examines three areas of psycholinguistics which help to understand what the relationship between language and the human mind might be.
This module will provide introduce you to the study of syntax within current linguistic theory.
This module will introduce you to key issues, concepts and methods in teaching English as a second/foreign language.
Year 3 modules
You must study the following module in year 3:
The Period abroad Portfolio is a piece of independent academic work which you complete during your period abroad. The Portfolio comprises of an extended essay in English on a topic relating to either cultural and literary studies, linguistics, social and...
Year 4 modules
You must study the following module in year 4:
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:
This module explores the rise of English as a global language focusing on the factors that have led to, and the issues that have arisen from, its dominant status. You will learn about the interrelation between globalisation, standardisation and variabilit...
Migration has been a recurrent theme that has characterized Spain’s social, political and cultural history since its emergence as a modern nation in 1492. By drawing on narrative inquiry, this module will focus on the most recent migration movements of th...
This module will introduce the main theoretical ideas of language and identity alongside tracing the historical, social and linguistic background to the presence of the so-called Latinos in the USA. By considering a range of texts, as well as cultural ou...
This module provides an insight into the cognitive processes involved in the acquisition of language. Different theories of first and second language acquisition will be examined and critically assessed in the light of empirical evidence. Various factors ...
Based on written texts, films and visual materials from and about Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, this course is intended to show you the cutting edge of cultural production and research from the Portuguese-speaking wo...
This module examines the theory and practice of language teaching and explores 'reflective practice' as a set of skills that can be applied to your future working life.
This module develops awareness of how language testing and assessment have developed in educational and wider social contexts. It focusses on both purposes and processes of language testing and assessment, and critically examines applications in policy ar...
This unit will allow students to undertake independent research to produce an in-depth study of a specific topic located in one of the fields within Modern Languages.
This course will introduce you to a range of examples of Spanish American (e.g. may include Puerto Rican, Argentinean, and Mexican [American]) and Iberian cultural production from the period of the 1980s to the 21st century, in order to provide a sense o...
This final year module builds on the theoretical grounding students gain in LING 2011 Variation and Change in English and the instrumental analysis techniques from LING 2008 Sound and Voice. Through a series of computer, lab-based sessions, students test ...
The module will take you through the process, the product and the place of writing. Process will deal primarily with modelling cognitive operations, analysis of composing strategies, and individual differences and changes in processes over time. Product w...
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 Modern Languages and Linguistics graduate, you can choose from a wide variety of employment options.
These will make the most of your skills in:
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gathering and interpreting information
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working with and leading teams
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understanding and adapting to different cultures
Many of our graduates have gone on to become translators and interpreters, while others have moved into:
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teaching
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marketing
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publishing
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international development
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advertising, film and television
There is a compulsory employability module for all first-year students in the faculty.
Many of our graduates go on to further study. Subjects taken include interpreting and translating, law, accountancy, management and international relations.
Careers services at Southampton
We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2019). Our Careers and Employability Service will support you throughout your time as a student and for up to 5 years after graduation. 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 £19,300.
What your fees pay for
Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and all examinations.
Find out how to:
Accommodation and living costs, such as travel and food, are not included in your tuition fees. 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 that's linked to your chosen subject area.
We award scholarships and grants for travel, academic excellence, or to students from underrepresented 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: R410
- 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 normally invite all candidates to an interview.
We'll aim to process your application within two to six 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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