The master’s degree program in Language and Communication is a unique program that addresses contemporary developments in society and media from an interlingual and intercultural perspective. The foundation of the curriculum in the latest research on the structure and use of language in a wide variety of contexts allows students to create their own individual focus for their studies. At the core of the program is the use of modern methods of digital linguistics that can also be used in other academic fields that are focused on text and communication. The students receive not only a broad education in linguistics and communication studies but also a concentration on specific historical, social, and cognitive aspects of the language system and language use. Training in one's own language and communication skills supplement the interdisciplinary curriculum.

The teaching and research in the program address a wide range of core themes:

• The cognitive foundations of language acquisition, as well as of language processing, productivity, and generalization
• The formation of linguistic structures in the interactional and multimodal organization of communication processes
• Written and oral communication in everyday life and at work, as well as in informal and institutional contexts (linguistic pragmatics in computer-based communication, the language of the mass media, politeness, relationship management and the exercise of power through language, as well as linguistic interactions in professional and institutional contexts)
• The history of languages and their relationships to each other, as well as variety systems, multilingual individuals, and societies characterized by language diversity

Academic education in the program is closely linked to language training, with a special emphasis on language-based communication skills and rhetorical training in both the editing of academic texts and the oral presentation of complex contents at the university level.

The starting point of the master’s program is the knowledge of linguistic topics, theories, and methods acquired in a bachelor’s program. Students in the program have the opportunity to extend and specialize their academic perspectives, with access to all the theories and methods of research and teaching on language and communication at the University of Basel. They can develop their own curriculum with a focus either on the philology of one particular language or on a preferred theme (such as language/communication and the individual; language/communication and society; or the history and evolution of languages).

The broad range of offerings in the master’s program in Language and Communication include sociolinguistics, language acquisition, media linguistics, text linguistics, linguistic pragmatics, conversation analysis, and interactional linguistics, as well as historical and comparative linguistics. Modules that are offered regularly range from "Language as System" and "Language and Society" to "Language as Process" and "The Practice of In-Depth Research". The courses in the program are mostly based in the participating disciplines (English, French, German, Italian, Hispanic Studies, and Slavic Studies), along with courses in historical and comparative linguistics (Department of Ancient Civilizations) and at the Digital Humanities Lab. Students are also welcome to attend master’s courses in linguistics at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, as well as other universities participating in the European Campus.