Course summary

Our BA Film Studies and Linguistics course will enable you to study film from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives while delving into the unique human faculty of language. You will learn through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world. You will study both mainstream and non-mainstream films to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future. You will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context, as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium. The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production, encouraging you to develop as an independent critical thinker able to work in a diverse range of assessment scenarios, taking in solo written assignments, presentations and, on certain units, group work and creative projects that enable you to put theory into practice. Through your Linguistics units, you will delve into the science of language - an everyday phenomenon which impacts our lives on an individual and a global scale. Through our course, you will explore the sounds and structure of languages across the globe, studying topics such as how languages change over time; how children acquire their first language; how language varies between different groups of people and across regions; how we communicate as individuals and within groups; what languages across the world have in common and how they differ; and what happens when speakers of different languages come into contact. With its diverse local communities, Manchester is an ideal site for carrying out research on linguistic variation and multilingualism. We have two laboratories, where you'll have the chance to use ultrasound imaging, laryngography and eye tracking technology. You'll also be able to learn quantitative methods and use large language corpora, skills which you'll then be able to apply to other fields throughout your life.