School of Humanities and Communication Arts

Languages and Linguistics

Discipline Lead | Caroline Jones

In Languages and Linguistics, Western Sydney University reflects and engages with our region and the world. Western’s language degrees (in Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, and Japanese) consistently win international awards, and complement basic and applied research strengths.

Western has a proud tradition of excellence in Interpreting and Translation across legal, professional, community, and literary contexts, with postgraduate courses accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. Western also offers qualifications in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Western features excellence in Linguistics above world standard (Excellence in Research for Australia). We produce lab and community-based research into how languages are structured, changed, learned, perceived, and produced across the lifespan, especially in languages of Australia and our region, and innovative interdisciplinary research linking Linguistics with Health, Education, and Digital Media. Western’s broader grouping of Language, Communication and Culture is high in engagement, impact, and approach to impact (Engagement and Impact Assessment).


Academics for this Discipline


Top 10 in Australia for Linguistics

Top 150 worldwide for Linguistics

Ranked in the top 10 in Australia and top 150 worldwide for Linguistics