Undergraduate Programmes

The Major is a four-year full-time course. However, well-prepared students can complete the degree in a shorter period by taking more courses during the semester and/or attending special inter-semester sessions. Graduating students will be awarded the BA Degree (Hons) in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies.

While the courses offered in the Linguistics and Multilingual Studies major reflect the extraordinary diversity of the field, students can combine their Linguistics interests with courses from any school within NTU through the GER PEs and GER UEs. They are also encouraged to take Modern Language electives, as these would help enhance their understanding of language and multilingualism.

The core courses equip students with a firm foundation in Linguistics. Students can then choose from a wide range of prescribed electives in four/five concentrations. These are:

1. Language and Technology
2. Multilingual Societies And Multiculturalism
3. Language, Mind and Multilingualism
4. Applied English Linguistics
5. General Linguistics

All of the courses in the five concentrations will be taught with a focus on their applications and practice in bilingual/multilingual communities. The concentrations are designed as themes to help student focus on a specialisation within the LMS curriculum but it is not a requirement that students have to stick to.

The Curriculum

To graduate, students must complete 2 categories of requirement, totalling at least 146 Academic Units (AUs):

• General Education Requirement (GER) (60 AUs)
• LMS Major Requirements (86 AUs)

General Education Requirement (GER) (60 AUs):

The GER consists of 3 sub-areas:

1. GER – Core (6 AUs)
• HW102 The Art of Academic Writing (3 AUs)
• HW111 Mastering Communication (3 AUs)
2. GER – Prescribed Electives (PEs) (15 AUs)                                                                                    Students are required to complete a distribution of GER-PEs consisting of:
• 1 course in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) (3 AUs)
• 1 course in Business & Management (BM) (3 AUS)
• 3 courses in  Science, Technology and Society (STS) (9 AUs)
3. GER – Unrestricted Electives (UEs) (39AUs)

There are no restrictions on the selection of courses to make up unrestricted electives. Students can choose any of the following:

• Complete a Minor in another discipline.
• Earn AUs under an International Exchange programme.
• Earn AUs under the optional Professional Attachment programme offered under HSS
• Any course offered by any School as long as the pre-requisites are satisfied.

Major Requirements (86 AUs)

The Major Requirements for a Linguistics and Multilingual Studies major consists of 3 components:

• Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Core courses (30 AUs)
• Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Prescribed Electives (48 AUs)
• Graduation Project (FYP) (8 AUs) – compulsory

Requirements of the Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Major

(a) Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Core (Compulsory) Courses

The 9 core courses (38 AUs) equip students with a firm foundation in Linguistics. Each course (unless otherwise stated) is equivalent to 4 AUs.

• HG101 Fundamentals of Linguistics (A): Mind and Meaning (3AUs)
• HG102 Fundamentals of Linguistics (B): Structure and System (3AUs)
• HG201 Morphology and Syntax
• HG202 Semantics and Pragmatics
• HG203 Phonetics and Phonology
• HG205 Research Methodology
• HG210 Bilingualism and Multilingualism
• HG220 Language in Society
• HG499  Graduation Project/Essay
• HG102 and HG102 must be completed in the first year. Students are strongly advised to complete all the LMS core courses by the end of their second year.

(b) Linguistics and Multilingual Studies Electives

Students must choose 12 electives (48 AUs) from the wide range of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies prescribed electives. At least 5 of the 12 electives must be from level-300 or level-400 courses. These courses are offered in five concentrations. These are:

Language, Mind and Multilingualism Concentration

• HG211 Psycholinguistics
• HG212 Cognitive Linguistics
• HG213 Child Language
• HG214 Second Language Acquisition
• HG310 Language Disorders
• HG311 Language and the Brain
• HG312 Deaf Culture and Sign Language

Multilingual Societies and Multiculturalism Concentration

• HG221 Intercultural Communication
• HG222 Sociolinguistics of a Region
• HG223 Language and Gender
• HG320 Language Planning and Policy
• HG321 Language Change
• HG322 Forensic Linguistics
• HG420 Languages in Contact

Applied English Linguistics Concentration

• HG231 The History of English
• HG232 Globalisation and World Englishes
• HG233 Language Structure and Verbal Art
• HG234 Structure of Modern English
• HG330 Discourse and Conversation

General Linguistics Concentration

• HG240 Language Evolution
• HG340 Phonological Theory
• HG341 Syntactic Theory
• HG342 Contrastive Linguistics
• HG345 Field Methods: Structure of a Language
• HG346 Language Universals and Language Types

Language and Technology Concentration

• HG250 Language and Technology
• HG251 Language and the Computer
• HG252 Language and the Internet
• HG350 Machine Translation
• HG351 Corpus Linguistics

HG 460X* Special Topics

Undergraduates in their 3rd or 4th year are encouraged to take a seminar course. This will be offered in the first semester of every year and may include topics such as Grammaticalisation, Language and Media, Experimental Phonetics, Language and Identity, etc. Topics will also depend on the academic staff's areas of expertise. Students who choose this course are expected to have completed all the core courses for the major.

*The suffix X means that students can take the course more than once, provided that the suffix for the same course code is different.

Note:

1. The Division recommends students to take an average of 3 LMS courses every semester.
2. We strongly encourage students to complete their Core Courses (200-level courses) first before attempting the prescribed electives (300- and 400-level courses);

Students are strongly encouraged to read the Core Courses as soon as they are offered. Please do not delay the reading of Core Courses because these Core Courses may be the pre-requisite for some courses offered in future semesters. A failure to clear the Core Courses as early as possible will impose restrictions in the choice of courses in future semesters.