Linguistics and Japanese Studies BA (Hons)

The University of Sheffield

This four-year course is run jointly by the School of English and the School of East Asian Studies. The Japanese side of the course combines intensive study of the Japanese language (from beginner level) with modules on Japan and East Asia. Your linguistics modules will teach you the analytical techniques and concepts that are essential for becoming a successful linguist. You'll spend the third year of your degree at one of our partner universities in Japan.

As a dual honours student, you'll divide your studies between the School of English and the School of East Asian Studies. Choice and flexibility are at the heart of our teaching, which means you can pursue and develop your own interests.

At every level, there is a wide variety of modules to choose from. You will be taught by world-leading experts from both departments.

You'll be required to take a minimum number of credits within both departments each year, but how you choose to divide your modules after this is up to you: split your modules evenly between English and Japanese, or choose to weight your degree in favour of one subject or the other.

You'll learn Japanese intensively from scratch: speaking, listening, reading and writing. You'll learn phonetic scripts (kana) from the outset, and learn the roughly 2,000 Sino-Japanese characters (kanji) needed over the four years of the course. Your core linguistics modules will provide you with a solid foundation in the fundamentals of linguistic research, while optional modules will allow you to specialise in areas of the subject that inspire you the most, including language acquisition, historical linguistics, literary linguistics, or the study of language in its social and cultural contexts. Research is central to the student experience here in Sheffield. All our teaching is informed by the latest findings, and all our students have the opportunity to carry out their own research project as part of their degree. Outside your degree there are many opportunities to develop your interests, insights and critical faculties.