Studying our English BA (Hons) course will equip you with a solid foundation in the combined fields of English language, linguistics and literature. In the first year, you will begin with an introduction to a range of literary genres and theoretical approaches in Approaching Literature, while also developing an understanding of phonetics and exploring concepts used to describe how language works in an Introduction to Linguistics and Phonetics. Our unit Describing Language aims to introduce you to the main structures of English language while also familiarising you with the anatomy of the vocal tract and how sounds are produced. You’ll learn How Talk Works and How Text Works by focusing on the rules of conversation, its patterns and norms, and how it varies between people and situations. You will do the same with the written word by examining how texts are produced to help build your language interpretation skills. In your second and third years, you’ll build on the knowledge and skills that you developed in the first year.  

You will be introduced to key concepts of literary Style and Stylistics by examining linguistic practices of poems, plays and prose and deepening your understanding and enjoyment of literature. In English Sentence Structure you will build on key elements of English grammar, descriptive and communication skills. In Investigating the Social World, you will develop an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection, analysis and reporting. You can then choose from a range of units, depending on your interests. In The Meaning of Meaning, you will explore the nature of language interpretation from a cognitive perspective. Language is also heavily influenced by cultural and societal conventions; therefore, our Forensic Linguistics unit will allow you to understand how language can provide useful insights into an individual’s background. You can study the relationship between phonology and grammar, speech and accent variation in our The Sounds of English and develop these interests in Exploring Language Professions, where you will identify aspects of language and its value in specific career fields. Our Radical Change in the Long Nineteenth Century unit will expose you to how literature has contributed to ideas around religion, gender, science and the arts in the long nineteenth century.  

Through examining poetry, prose and plays, you will consider Modern and Postmodern Literary Practices around popular culture from the early twentieth century to the present day. In other areas of the study of literature, you can explore plays from the ancient Greeks to the 21st century in our The Play’s The Thing unit as you develop your understanding of the philosophical, cultural and political conditions under which they were produced. Alternatively, you could study postcolonial texts in World Literature: Crossing Borders or engage in critical language study in our Discourse and Ideology unit. Another key skill as an educational professional is writing, and this is where our Creative Writing unit will introduce you to writing short stories and poetry that you will share in small group workshops. Our Children’s and Young Adult Fiction unit will familiarise you with a range of fictional genres written for children, including film adaptations, fairy tales, and other popular fiction. Moreover, you will get the chance to explore various types of Gothic Literature as well as how contemporary readers respond to the fictional genre.  

You will also be able to experience the excitement of working in an archive with our Research in Action unit where you’ll have the opportunity to learn about publishing, book history, and the development of reading material for young children. You can learn how language is developed and realised by the human mind and brain in our Psycholinguistics - Language and the Brain unit. In areas of teaching, you will be exposed to research in second-language learning in our Language Teaching, Learning and Assessment unit. Similarly, our TESOL Teaching Practice unit will allow you to apply current theoretical issues in language teaching and methodology to practice by providing you with the skills to design and deliver your own lessons and materials using various teaching techniques. Finally, you will complete a Dissertation where you will choose a topic of interest relevant to your course and apply your academic and practical skills under the guidance of a supervisor. 

Investigating The Social World

This unit aims to equip students with an understanding of different quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigating the social world and, professional settings in particular. More specifically, the unit will seek to:

• Develop your understanding of both quantitative and qualitative research methods and the ways in which research data can be collected, analysed and reported.
• Promote your understanding of the ethical issues involved in undertaking research in professional settings and on sensitive issues.
• Develop your skills in designing and implementing all aspects of a research project.
• Equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to undertake your dissertation at Level 6 where you may use both qualitative and quantitative methods

Language Teaching, Learning And Assessment

This unit aims at applying certain second language learning theoretical principles into the practice of TESOL and ELT. It first examines current theories and research findings relating to second language learning research and then provides the opportunity to explore possible applications of such research to the practice of teaching and learning in context. This will help you to get an insight into research in the field of Second
Language learning and gain a level of expertise which will enhance your job prospects.

This unit aims to enable you to:

investigate certain factors that can affect second language learning;

collect and analyse inter-language data;

raise your awareness and critical understanding of issues involved in second language learning and language teaching;

promote a more principled, research-based approach to language teaching and learning.

This unit is a core element of the course for those looking to gain a TEFLi status and it is directly relevant to the content, aims and objectives of this course.

English Sentence Structure

The sentence is a fundamental unit of language whose internal structure is a combination of words whose behaviour and characteristics are measurable and predictable. Grammatical terms and concepts have always been at the fore in ELT but less so in mainstream English classrooms, until now.  Today, primary and secondary teachers need to understand the principles that determine word forms, word classes and how nouns and verbs combine to produce different types of sentence.  

Accordingly, this unit provides a solid grounding in the structure of words and sentences: key elements of English grammar, all of which underpins your entire English degree.  

Topics we discuss will be central to all writers, teachers, students and analysts, and relevant to a broad range of careers where the ability to recognise, describe and analyse the structure of English. 

In this unit we aim to: 

• Build on grammatical knowledge from first year units
• Develop your familiarity with the concepts and terminology used to describe grammar
• Provide experience in analysis and highlight its potential
• Establish the relationship between cognition and grammar
• Develop your descriptive and communication skills which  readily transfer to other units and professions.

The Sounds Of English

How speech is organised, realised and chunked in everyday language is fundamental to any study of language.  The underlying principles, mechanics and rhythms of spoken English and how these vary affords an area of expertise that is uncommon, and yet central to classrooms, clinics and courtrooms, to say nothing of the stage.  This is because accents and pronunciation provide subtle clues to a speaker’s sense of identity, background, and state of mind.  

This is not just directly relevant to speech and language therapists, English teachers and sociologists, it also appeals to actors, artists and poets.  The scrutiny of spoken English involves  abilities to recognise, understand and analyse the patterns of spoken English, as much as the motives that underlie them.

Building on your knowledge of pronunciation from the first year, this unit aims to:

• Develop your understanding of underlying phonological concepts
• Explore how speech varies and is represented in transcription 
• Establish objective facts surrounding accent variation and the relationship between phonology and grammar
• Develop your descriptive objectivity and analytical skills which can be readily transferred to other units as well as professional contexts.
• Provide experience of intonation analysis and highlight its significance

The Meaning Of Meaning

The significance of knowing how meaning is conveyed cannot be overstated: all humans focus on meaning in any wakeful situation, and more.  Semantics is the study of how meaning is stored in sounds and words, and pragmatics considers how we actually use language to communicate in everyday contexts in order to convey and interpret meaning.   

This unit provides an overview of the study of linguistic meaning (semantic and pragmatic) and aims to explore, from a cognitive perspective, the nature of language interpretation in the light of current theories. 

Such matters underpin any act of reading writing, speaking and listening regardless of social, domestic or professional situation.

Dissertation

To plan, carry out and write up an independent research project with guidance from a dissertation supervisor. This will involve you in identifying a topic that is of interest to you, relevant to your course and is important in the context of wider research and policy and practice debates. Undertaking individual research offers the opportunity to develop a variety of skills in planning and managing a project, including ethical issues and working with participants, gathering, analysing and reporting data.

Children's And Young Adult Fiction

• To provide you with considerable practice in reading fictions for children in their historical and cultural contexts.
• To introduce you to theoretical approaches relevant to the study of children’s fiction.
• To familiarise you with a range of fictional genres written/produced for children, including contemporary film adaptations of traditional fairy tales, classic works of fantasy fiction, works of popular fiction, war fiction, and a range of contemporary ‘issues’ novels written for young adults.
• To consolidate your knowledge of some of the major writers/producers of fictions for children, including Disney, C.S. Lewis, Blyton, Dahl, Serraillier, Anne Fine and Benjamin Zephaniah, amongst others.
• To build upon your existing understanding of university-level literary research, including library and Internet searches and the use of English Studies and Children’s Literature databases.
• To provide you with opportunities to research and write an essay and phase test on fictions for children.

Gothic Literature

How has Gothic Literature been shaped and influenced by social and cultural change?

From its earliest incarnation on Christmas Day, 1764 (the date of publication of Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto), through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the twenty-first century and the phenomenon of the Twilight trilogy, Gothic literature has responded to periods of change and periods of crisis.  Incorporating a variety of genres – the novel form, short stories, poetry, architecture and painting – Gothic literature, according to Clive Bloom, provides ‘a coherent philosophy of thinking’. It is often produced at times of great cultural crisis, such as the end of a century, or at times of war or revolution and many early writers of Gothic literature were advocates of radical politics. Through studying a range of Gothic fiction, its historical contexts, as well as certain theoretical approaches such as Freud’s notion of ‘The Uncanny’, you will gain an understanding of this varied genre, the experiences of the contemporary reader and our own responses to this captivating fictional genre.

Tesol Teaching Practice

This unit provides the opportunity to apply current theoretical issues in language teaching methodology to the practice of language teaching. It is designed to meet the needs of students who are planning a career in English language teaching in the UK and abroad. 

This unit aims to enable you to:

• develop your awareness of various current issues in language teaching and learning
• experience different teaching techniques and tasks, design and deliver your own lessons and materials
• increase your knowledge and critical awareness of different language teaching and learning contexts.
• This unit is a core element for those seeking to gain a TEFLi status and it is directly relevant to the content, aims and objectives of this course.

World Literature: Crossing Borders

A literary text becomes part of world literature when it leaves the space of its original culture and enters the space of another culture, a space that is often defined by that culture’s national tradition and the needs and the values of its own readers and writers. In this unit, we will look at the ways in which we read literary texts from other cultures, as well as the ways in which those cultures read their own texts.

We will attempt to read these texts with what David Damrosch calls ‘detached engagement’, putting them in the contexts of their original cultures both to decrease and to increase the distance between us and them, to make the texts simultaneously less strange and more strange, suggesting both less difference and more difference between cultures. In other words, we will supply just enough context so that we can hear the text speak to us, but hear it speak to its original audience, too. 

We will read texts written with both of these audiences very much in mind by writers who are interested in the process and the pace of globalisation and who often see themselves as members of a global community.

Psycholinguistics - Language And The Brain

If eyes are said to be windows of the soul, then language must be a window to the mind.  Language is an intricate network of mental representations, of concepts, sounds and words, represented electrochemically in the brain. Our knowledge of language is as much a psycho-biological phenomenon as it is a sociocultural one. 

This unit explores current theories of how language develops and how it is realised in the human mind and by the human brain.

Contemporary Society In A Global World (Education)

This is the second subject studies unit that builds on the knowledge and understanding that you gained in semester one in relation to sociology and social structures and broadens the perspective to the subjects of diversity, inequality, health and well-being. As with your semester 1 unit, you will gain knowledge and understanding of the core subject and related theory and then apply that to a range of topics, issues and examples from your chosen subject area.
In semester 1 the focus was mainly on local and national contexts, this unit broadens the perspective to look at the broader, global context.