This curricular unit aims to acquaint students with the scientific study of human language. Students are expected to develop their critical awareness about the elements that make up language and to relate them to the fields within linguistics that study those aspects. They should moreover become aware of language usage in communicative interaction and take a critical stance towards their effects (on cognitive construal and social relations). Finally, students become acquainted with the main scientific theories in the field of linguistics and learn how to associate concepts and approaches to the main authors in this field.