
BA (Hons) English Language and Literature
DURATION
3 up to 4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
GBP 13,450 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international students full time / UK students full time £9250 / EU students full time £13450
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
"Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details."
Why choose this course?
We give you:
- An understanding of applied language, to underpin your future career
- A fresh take on both traditional writing and contemporary works that speak directly to our everyday lives
- A supportive, research-active academic team
- A flexible programme of study, allowing you to concentrate on areas you find especially interesting
- Access to huge online databases, including literary texts, to drive your original and creative research
- CV-building potential through work placements and extra-curricular activities
What's the course about?
Our B.A. English Language and Literature enables you to combine your study of the structure, development, and use of English as a world language with your reading of literature written in English from all parts of the globe.
You’ll be taught by research-active academics who bring fresh thinking to our accessible, engaging courses. We’ll introduce you to writers who will open doors to contemporary worlds and cultures remote from your own, and also help you explore more familiar literature in ways that challenge your preconceptions.
You’ll enrich your study of English literature in its cultural and historical contexts through modules on the history of the English language. You’ll balance your reading of poetry and drama with analyses of how language is used in the media, to inform or persuade. The common link between the two disciplines will be your analysis of language and how it operates in literature and in real life.
A core module in your first year will equip you to read and interpret both traditional and contemporary literary texts critically as a scholar of English literature. You’ll also be introduced to English Linguistics, the scientific study of our language, from how language develops in children, to the ways it reflects society and how it changes over time.
Your second-year core modules will focus on English grammar and the sounds of English, and you’ll also study period-based literature from the Renaissance onwards, gaining an understanding of literary history, from Elizabethan verse and drama to the emergence of modernity in the 20th century. A core module in English Literature will introduce you to a range of theoretical lenses that you can apply to your further study of texts. We offer our students a career development module that will equip them to take up a teaching work placement or become a Stroke Association volunteer. You may also shadow speech and language therapists or help with specialist language teaching in sixth form college.
Alternatively, our students can choose a literature-focused work experience module, Literature at Work, which explores English Literature in the classroom and aspects of the literary heritage industry. The module is centered around a six-week work placement where you’ll gain valuable transferable skills. Our students have worked as school classroom assistants, in publishing houses or attractions such as London’s Charles Dickens Museum and Dr Johnson’s House.
Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too.
You’ll have the chance to specialise in your final year, tailoring your degree to reflect your own interests. English Literature options include children’s literature, young adult fiction, 21 st century American literature, and literary adaptations, amongst others.
Alongside these, a module on Corpus Studies in the English Language will allow you to bring your literature and language interests together. Using Sketch Engine, a text analysis tool that enables you to search vast databases of language, you’ll be able to search literary texts to identify how particular words have been used in novels or literature. With more than 15 billion words available to you, you’ll be able to ask questions no one has asked before and pursue uniquely creative research projects.
Your main campus is de Havilland
You’ll share this campus with students from business, law, sport, education, and humanities subjects. The student housing is close to our Sports Village which includes a gym, swimming pool, and climbing wall. You can get breakfast, lunch, or dinner in our on-campus restaurant or bar (in the newly built Enterprise Hub) on days you don’t feel like cooking. You can also use the common room to play pool, video games or just to hang out with friends. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.
This course includes the options of:
- Work placement
- Study abroad
Gallery
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
What will I study?
Our English Language and Literature students benefit from being part of a supportive, research-active academic community. From tutorials and group work to eye-opening psycholinguistic experiments, we use a range of engaging, student-centered teaching methods to help you work confidently and creatively.
You’ll dive into real-life data, get involved in research, and learn from guest experts. You’ll have the opportunity to get involved in activities that will complement your studies, such as working for the student newspaper or radio station. Not only do these enhance your experience, but they also make for a more impressive CV.
Level 4
- Communication, Interaction, Context II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Texts Up Close: Reading and Interpretation II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Make it New: Literary Tradition and Experimentation II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Border Crossings: Modern Literature from around the World II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Shakespeare Reframed II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Investigating Language II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Introduction to English Linguistics 1 II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Introduction to English Linguistics 2 II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Language and Mind II 15 Credits II Optional
- Journeys and Quests: Adventures in Literature II 15 Credits II Optional
- Identity and Contemporary Writing II 15 Credits II Optional
- Language in the Media II 15 Credits II Optional
- American Voices: Introduction to US Literature and Culture II 15 Credits II Optional
- Romantic Origins & Gothic Afterlives II 15 Credits II Optional
Level 5
- English Grammar II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Sounds of English II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Graduate Skills II 0 Credits II Compulsory
- Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature, 1900-1945 II 15 Credits II Optional
- Learning and Teaching Language 2 II 15 Credits II Optional
- American Literature to 1900 II 15 Credits II Optional
- Twentieth-Century North American Writing II 15 Credits II Optional
- Language and Species II 15 Credits II Optional
- Language in Society II 15 Credits II Optional
- Ways of Reading: Literature and Theory II 15 Credits II Optional
- Forensic Linguistics II 15 Credits II Optional
- Language Competencies in Career Development II 15 Credits II Optional
- History of the English Language II 15 Credits II Optional
- Research Methods in English Language & Communication II 15 Credits II Optional
- Lines on the Map: Explorations in Colonial Writing II 15 Credits II Optional
- Images of Contemporary Society: British Literature and the Politics of Identity II 15 Credits II Optional
- Postcolonial Cultures: Texts and Contexts II 15 Credits II Optional
- Learning and Teaching Language 1 II 15 Credits II Optional
- Age of Transition: the Victorians and Modernity II 15 Credits II Optional
- Literature at Work II 15 Credits II Optional
- A Nation of Readers: British Identity and Enlightenment Culture II 15 Credits II Optional
- Revisiting the Renaissance II 15 Credits II Optional
Level 6
- Child Language & Communication II 15 Credits II Optional
- Clinical Linguistics II 15 Credits II Optional
- Language & Communication Project II 30 Credits II Optional
- Language Processing II 15 Credits II Optional
- Communication and Cultures II 15 Credits II Optional
- Meaning and Context II 15 Credits II Optional
- Chunky Language: Investigating Formulaic Sequences II 15 Credits II Optional
- Gender in Language and Communication II 15 Credits II Optional
- Global Englishes II 15 Credits II Optional
- Corpus-based Studies in English Language II 15 Credits II Optional
Study abroad
An opportunity for an amazing experience, which will help make you stand out from the crowd. With more and more companies working internationally, the experience of living in another country can make a great impression on future employers.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a sandwich year abroad. The University has partnerships with over 150 universities around the world, including the USA, Canada, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and closer to home in Europe.
If you study abroad between your second and third year of study, you’ll pay no tuition fee to the partner university and no tuition fee to us either. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Work placement
Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought-after professional skills.
Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.
If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.