Modern Languages have been taught in Oxford since 1724. The faculty is one of the largest in the country, with a total intake of more than 250 students a year (including joint courses). Undergraduate students can use the Taylor Institution Library, the biggest research library in Britain devoted to modern languages.
Language is at the centre of the Oxford course, making up around 50% of both first-year and final examinations. The course aims to teach spoken fluency in colloquial and more formal situations, the ability to write essays in the foreign language, and the ability to translate into and out of the foreign language with accuracy and sensitivity to a range of vocabulary, styles and registers. You will also develop your reading skills to a high level. The University’s excellently equipped Language Centre has resources specifically tailored to the needs of Modern Language students.
The study of literature gives you an understanding of other cultures that cannot be acquired solely through learning the language. It leads you into areas such as gender issues, popular culture, theatre studies, aesthetics, anthropology, art history, ethics, history, philosophy, politics, psychology and theology developing your skills as a critical reader, writer and thinker.
Course structure
Your first year is closely structured. You will attend oral classes and courses on the grammatical structure of your language(s), translation into and out of the language(s) and, in some of the languages, comprehension. You will also attend introductory lecture courses and participate in seminars and/or tutorials on literature. From 2018, if you study French, German, Spanish or Russian as a single language you will take a range of additional options in that language in the first year (see below). All other languages must be studied in combination with another language or another subject.
Your other years of study give you more freedom to choose the areas on which you wish to focus, from a very wide range of options. Students studying courses with Polish take this as a subsidiary language, beginning in the second year. Catalan, Galician, Provençal, Yiddish and most of the Slavonic languages may also be taken as additional options.
International opportunities
Modern Languages students spend a compulsory year abroad, usually in the third year. They may work as paid language assistants in a foreign school or do internships abroad, both of which provide valuable opportunities to develop career experience while improving language competence. The year may also be spent studying at a foreign university. (Students taking Beginners’ Russian spend the second year – as opposed to the third year – of their studies on a specially designed eight-month language course in Tallinn, Estonia.) Students are encouraged to spend as much as possible of their vacations in the countries whose languages they are studying. In addition to the possibility of Turing Funding, extra financial support, including travel scholarships, may be available from your college and/or the faculty.
College choice
Please see our guidance on choosing a college, and which language combinations are available at each college.
Deferred entry
Students are welcome to apply for deferred entry for any language courses except those including Beginners’ Russian.
Related courses
Students interested in this course might also like to consider Classics and Modern Languages, English and Modern Languages, European and Middle Eastern Languages, History and Modern Languages, Modern Languages and Linguistics, Philosophy and Modern Languages or Oriental Studies.
Language Careers
Employers value Modern Languages graduates because they are competent in one or two languages, have acquired a range of transferable skills and have first-hand experience of other cultures. Modern Languages graduates from Oxford regularly enter careers focused on languages such as translation and teaching, or go into areas such as law, management consultancy, accountancy, international press agencies, the media, advertising, the Foreign Office and the performing arts.
Catherine is Director of the Refugee Support Network. She says: ‘Since graduating from Oxford, I have worked in the field of refugee education and education in emergencies for various charities, including Save the Children and various United Nations agencies.
The skills I gained at Oxford have helped me to analyse situations thoughtfully and critically, and gave me the confidence to establish the Refugee Support Network in 2009. I never thought I would use my language skills in situations as diverse as Sudanese refugee camps, with Haitian earthquake survivors and with young victims of trafficking in London.’
A typical weekly timetable
Your week’s work will include a tutorial in, or organised by, your college, language classes in each of the language(s) you study, and typically three to four hours of lectures for each subject.
1st year |
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Courses Two-language course
One-language course: as above, plus
Other languages must be studied in combination with another language or joint school. |
Assessment First University examinations: Seven or eight written papers, including translation and literature (language only for Beginners’ Russian). |
2nd year |
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Courses Two-language course
One-language course
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3rd and 4th years |
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Year 3 Typically spent abroad Beginners’ Russian: Students spend the second year in Tallinn, Estonia, and the third year in Oxford Year 4 Continues the course from year 2, plus special subjects across a wide range of options including film studies The options listed above are illustrative and may change. More information about current options for each language is available here. |
Assessment Final University examinations: |
The content and format of this course may change in some circumstances. Read further information about potential course changes.