Skip to main content

Studying a languages degree at Oxford is a challenging and enjoyable experience. 

As well as acquiring fluency in spoken and written forms, and studying a range of literature from various periods, authors, and genres in the target language, students are introduced to cultural topics such as cinema, philosophy, film, visual culture, and history.  

A wide range of courses

The faculty is one of the largest in the country, with over 100 academic staff and a thriving teaching and research community. It offers an unusually wide range of languages— including French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Modern Greek, Czech, and Polish. Some can be studied on their own, they can all be studied in combination with another language, and almost all of them also jointly with another subject. These subjects are English, Classics, History, Linguistics, Middle Eastern languages and Philosophy.

Besides French or Spanish, all of our languages can be studied from scratch. This presents students with a rare opportunity to dedicate four years to becoming proficient in a new language, which can lead to unexpected and exciting opportunities and stand out to employers.

Have a look at our course finder to explore the different combinations we offer. 

Immersion in language and literature

The main components of the Modern Languages degree are language and literature.

Language comprises 50% of both first-year and final examinations. On graduating, students can expect to speak fluently in colloquial and more formal situations, write essays, and translate with accuracy and sensitivity to vocabulary, styles and registers.

The literature element is a key part of the degree, providing an enriching and challenging experience. It provides a context for language study that broadens your understanding of culture and covers topics such as gender issues, popular culture, theatre studies, aesthetics, anthropology, art history, ethics, history, philosophy, politics, psychology and theology. You can choose to focus on a particular period — the medieval, the early modern or the modern era – as well as studying individual authors in depth. In the final year, a range of special subjects are available that allow you to specialise even further.

Non-literary subjects are also available in the form of linguistics, advanced translation, philosophy, and film studies.

An essential part of your study is a year abroad in a country where your chosen language or languages are spoken. This is normally taken in the third year (those studying Russian from scratch or a Middle Eastern language go abroad in their second year).

World-class teaching

Teaching for modern languages is very varied and includes:

  • small group conversations with an expert on the subject (called tutorials*);
  • medium-sized language classes;
  • and, large lectures by international experts in their field.​

Native-speaker language tuition is available for all languages to ensure that students reach an exceptionally high standard of proficiency.

* Tutorials are central to study at Oxford. They give you the chance to discuss a topic in great depth and detail and to defend your ideas and opinions with your tutor and a small number of fellow students. Tutors provide individual support and encourage students to develop to their full potential. You can find out more about tutorials here. 

Extensive resources

The Taylor Institution is the University’s centre for the study of modern European languages and literatures. Its research library, one of the three central libraries of the University, contains the largest specialist collection in this field in Britain.

The Taylor building also houses the more recent Modern Languages Faculty Library, the main Oxford lending library for Modern Languages undergraduates. The Taylor Institution Library, with a book stock of around 500,000 volumes, concentrates on the literary and philological aspects of the main European languages (other than English), but also contains a considerable amount of general background material of use to researchers in the fields of history, philosophy and art. Its rare collection includes original texts from the 17th century onwards.

The University's Language Centre Library has one of the largest collection of materials for language learning in the UK. It holds material in over 180 languages.

A flexible year abroad

The wonderful thing about the year abroad for modern languages is how flexible it is. Students decide where to go, what to do, and how much time to devote to each language or placement.

Popular options include one or more of the following opportunities:

  • working as a paid language assistant in a school;
  • undertaking an internship;
  • and/or studying at a University.

Students receive support from their tutors during the planning process and throughout their time away from Oxford. We also have a dedicated Year Abroad Officer in the Faculty who supports students with the necessary paperwork they must submit before and after their time abroad.

Despite the challenges created by Brexit and the Russia-Ukraine war, our students are still very much able to experience a wide range of opportunities and travel across the world to undertake internships, teaching placements, volunteer roles, or places at foreign institutions. Many students return from their year abroad at near-native standard of fluency and with impressive levels of personal confidence.

You can read about some of our current/recent students' year abroad experiences via the links below:

Diverse career options

Languages degrees provide graduates with an abundance of valuable skills and knowledge that can help in the wider world in countless ways. Not only do students gain the transferable skills of a typical Humanities graduate - critical analysis, effective written and verbal communication, creative thinking, presenting well-reasoned and cogent arguments - but they also gain the practical skill of proficiency in at least one foreign language.

In addition, a dedicated year abroad means that students often come back to Oxford not only with near-native level language skills but with a high level of maturity, acute cultural understanding and sensitivity, and an impressive ability to problem solve and think independently.

For these reasons, a languages degree can open doors to exciting careers, as Bridget Kendall, Diplomatic Correspondent for the BBC, has found:

I feel very strongly that language learning at school and university level should get as much support as possible. Whenever I speak to sixth-formers they always ask: 'How can I get in to journalism?' I always reply with complete truthfulness that I would not be where I am now if I had not studied Modern Languages, and especially an unusual language like Russian. My years at Oxford learning Russian led to an unprecedented worldwide Webcast the BBC took part in with President Putin in the Kremlin. In part because of my Russian, I was asked to be the BBC's representative. Never all that time ago in Oxford, would I ever have thought my language studies would lead to the chance to sit next to the Russian President in the Kremlin, questioning him in Russian, live, in front of a worldwide audience. A very good reason to master those irregular verbs!

For more information, take a look at our Careers page.