French and English Language

French is a major world language, spoken in many parts of Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

This flexible joint honours programme gives you the opportunity to study French in its global cultural context while exploring how the English language has changed over time.

Combining the linguistic and cultural study of languages demonstrates that you are a good communicator, a resilient problem solver, and someone open to other cultures and new ideas.

Together with your core courses, the options you will take on this programme can help you gain skills in many areas of the arts, humanities and social sciences.

French

Over the course of our four-year programme, you will have the opportunity to acquire near-native fluency in French while gaining the broad cultural education valued by graduate employers.

We will introduce you to the extraordinary richness and variety of the Francophone world through the study of:

• literature and cinema

• political history and social movements

• philosophical ideas

Our courses cover material from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and include specialist options in key disciplines such as decolonial, gender, and film studies, all taught by leading experts.

English Language

Using techniques from modern linguistics, you will analyse the structure of written and spoken English and explore how the language has changed in the course of its history.

As well as the study of change in English, we have a strong tradition of investigating variations of the language, including:

• Scots

• distinct dialects of English

• international variations

You will study modern-day English and Scots and identify the similarities and differences between English and other languages.

Why Edinburgh

As a world-leading festival and capital city, Edinburgh is a fantastic place to study a modern language in its cultural context.

French has been taught here since 1894, making it one of the first modern European languages to be offered at the University of Edinburgh.

Additionally, we are unique in Scotland in offering students a full academic year abroad within the four-year honours programme, regardless of whether you spend the year studying or working.

How long it takes to complete this degree programme

This programme is studied over 4 years, including a year abroad. This enables us to build choice and flexibility into your studies, giving you time to explore options, find what you like and build your skills.

Your first two years will be your pre-honours years. They will give you a good grounding in your subjects. In addition to studying core courses, you will broaden your education and skill set by choosing option courses from a range of subjects and disciplines. This may enable you to change the focus of your programme.

Your final two years will be your honours years. You will spend Year 3 studying abroad, gaining lived experience of Francophone culture. Year 4 will be tailored to your interests in specific topics or approaches to French and English Language.

Programme benefits

• Learn in an historic, capital city where French has been taught for over a century.

• Study over four years, including one abroad.

• Become fluent in one of the UN's six official languages.

• Try out different subjects in your first two years.

• Join societies related to what you are studying.

• Delve into fantastic libraries and collections.