| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2023-04-24 | 2023-02-10 |
| 2023-09-19 | 2023-01-27 |
| 2024-01-03 | 2023-11-25 |
| 2024-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
This English Language program delves into the structures and principles of English and language in general, equipping students with analytical skills through diverse assessments. The program offers a wide range of optional modules, including creativity in English, language acquisition, and forensic linguistics. Graduates are well-prepared for careers in teaching, publishing, media, and other fields, with the option to pursue postgraduate studies.
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
During this course, you will study the structures and theoretical principles of English and language in general, and use them to understand and analyse spoken and written English discourse in context. This may include investigating sounds, word meanings, sentence structures, discourse analytical principles, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. You will be offered a variety of assessment types, including standard essays, presentations, data collection projects, exercises, transcriptions, dissertation and even blogs. This will equip you with the academic experiences you need to make the most of employment opportunities following your undergraduate degree and/or postgraduate study. The course has been repeatedly praised by external examiners, who have noted the unusually broad range of expertise provided by the teaching team, which covers some of the most cutting-edge subjects in English language and linguistics, such as Corpus Linguistics (computer-assisted discourse analysis) and Cognitive Stylistics (how readers' minds process literary and non-literary discourse). Staff also have considerable expertise in the areas of sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, child language acquisition, models of grammar, critical discourse analysis, dialectology and comparative linguistics.
Outline:
Foundation Year
- University Study Skills: This compulsory module will introduce you to the key skills needed to succeed in your degree area, such as academic writing, referencing, and public speaking.
- Independent Project: This compulsory module will provide you with the opportunity to focus on a topic within your undergraduate degree subject.
- Global Perspectives: This compulsory module will explore issues of global significance.
- Critical Thinking: This compulsory module will introduce approaches to analytical and critical thinking.
- Visual Culture: History and Society: This compulsory module will develop your understanding of western civilization through an understanding of that civilization's visual texts.
- Narrative and Storytelling: This compulsory module will introduce you to the ways that narrative and stories are important in different cultures and contexts.
Year 1
- Language and Text: This compulsory module applies and builds on some of the descriptive tools studied in EN4305 Foundations of English, with a focus on analysing written and spoken English discourse.
- The Nature of Language: This compulsory module is an overview of some of the core theories and disciplines that comprise the study of English language and linguistics and act as an introduction to some of the options at Level 5 and 6.
- Foundations of English: This compulsory module considers both the structural and historical foundations of English with the aim of providing students with the key tools for analysing English as well as the knowledge of how English has developed over time to become a language with worldwide significance.
- Language in Use: This compulsory module introduces students to the concept of language as a social phenomenon through the study of regional and social variation.
Year 2
- Creativity in English: This optional module investigates the concept of creativity in English and considers the textual styles and techniques which constitute so-called ‘literary’ language.
- The Power of Language: This optional module introduces students to some of the ways that language can be used to influence, manipulate, inspire and oppress individuals and groups on the micro and macro-levels.
- Roots and Development of English: This optional module introduces students to the development of the English language from its roots in Proto-Indo-European through to the global nature of English in the present day.
- Language, Identity and Popular Culture: This optional module introduces students to the links between language and identity, with a focus on how producers of popular culture texts exploit these links in order to communicate with their audience.
- Advances in English: This compulsory module acts as a bridge between the Level 4 modules - EN4305 Foundations of English and EN4302 Language and Text – and the more advanced specialist optional modules at Level 6.
- English at Work: This optional module offers English students the opportunity to reflect on the transferable employability skills they have developed during their studies and to apply them in a relevant workplace context.
- Language Acquisition and Development: This compulsory module explores the process of child language acquisition before moving on to consider the development of children’s language skills in an educational setting.
- Experiential Overseas Learning: This optional module will equip you with the appropriate knowledge and skills to study or work in a different cultural, linguistic and/or social environment.
- Year abroad study exchange: This optional module provides the opportunity to experience academic life in a country outside of the EU, enhancing cultural and intercultural awareness and increasing transversal skills.
- Introduction to TESOL/TEFL: This optional module is designed for Level 5 Modern Language or English Language students intending to spend a year abroad and/or considering teaching English as Foreign Language.
- Experiential Project: This optional module allows students to spend several weeks working on one major project working in a professional, 'simulated real world' working environment.
- Enhancing your Employability through Work Based Learning: This optional module aims to enhance students’ prospects of gaining graduate level employment through engagement with a University approved work placement.
Year 3
- Language Debates: This compulsory module explores issues which have been and are still being debated within the disciplines of English language and linguistics.
- Beyond English: In this module, students will move beyond the structures of the English language to investigate the structures of language and communication in a wide selection of languages.
- Discourse and Ideology in the News: This optional module explores genres, functions, values and ideology in news discourses.
- Forensic Linguistics: This optional module will use practical workshops to introduce a range of tools from two sub-fields of linguistics – sociophonetics and corpus linguistics – so that students gain confidence and competence in the analysis of language using these tools.
- Dissertation: This compulsory module gives the student the opportunity to research in depth and write at length about a topic of their own choice.
- Developing Professional Practice: This module creates the opportunity for students to reflect on their existing skillset and hone their professional competencies and skills in readiness for careers in the creative industries.
Assessment:
You will be offered a variety of assessment types, including standard essays, presentations, data collection projects, exercises, transcriptions, dissertation and even blogs. There are no formal end-of-year examinations.
Teaching:
Our focus is on small-group teaching. For some modules, you will attend a lecture and discuss ideas in seminars and workshops; other modules are taught purely via seminars and practical workshops. Our classrooms are equipped with technology for multimedia experiences, and we have invested in a range of computer software to support your studies. You may work in pairs and small groups and occasionally give short presentations.
Careers:
Graduates in English Language typically secure employment in professions such as teaching, publishing, the media and communications, speech therapy, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), advertising, public relations, journalism, librarianship, management and administration, and personnel work. Many students have gone on to postgraduate study in the discipline.
Other:
This course offers the exciting opportunity to study abroad for a full academic year at one of our bilateral exchange partners or through ISEP (International Student Exchange Programs), a network of over 300 additional higher education institutions worldwide.
Tuition Fees and Payment Information:
Home Students
Our full-time undergraduate tuition fees for Home students entering University in 2024/25 are £9,250 a year, or £1,540 per 20-credit module for part-time study. The University may increase these fees at the start of each subsequent year of your course in line with inflation at that time, as measured by the Retail Price Index. These fee levels and increases are subject to any necessary government, and other regulatory, approvals. Students from the UK, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey and the Republic of Ireland are treated as Home students for tuition fee purposes.
International/EU Students
The tuition fees for international students studying Undergraduate programmes in 2024/25 are £13,950. This fee is set for each year of study. All undergraduate students are eligible for international and merit-based scholarships which are applicable to each year of study. For more information, go to our International Fees, Scholarship and Finance section. Irish Nationals living in the UK or ROI are treated as Home students for Tuition Fee Purposes.
