Bachelor of Linguistics and Language Sciences

Linguistics – the scientific study of language – impacts a diverse range of disciplines. Sociolinguists, for example, study the social and cultural factors that influence communication, psycholinguists are interested in the relationship between language and the mind, computational linguists build computer models to enhance human-machine interaction, and forensic linguists help to solve crimes.

The Bachelor of Linguistics and Language Sciences – the only degree of its kind in Australia – will develop your understanding of human language and its applications in human society. You’ll learn about the structure of language, human speech production, how language is processed, how people acquire language, and how language is used in different cultures. It will prepare you for a variety of careers in areas such as education, interpreting and translation, editing and publishing, international relations and research.

Areas of study

Child and adult language acquisition, development of language in the brain, forensic speech science, hearing disorders, Indigenous languages, relationships between language and society, speech and language disorders.

Career opportunities

Accessible communication adviser, advertising consultant, editor or publisher, journalist, language consultant, language documenter (eg Indigenous communities), language specialist in business and organisations, lexicographer, linguist, policy adviser, public administrator, public relations manager, researcher, speech recognition developer, subtitler. After further study: clinical audiologist, computational linguist, forensic linguist, TESOL practitioner, translator and interpreter.

Fees and charges

Visit the Macquarie University website for current fee information.