English Language and Linguistics BA(Hons)

Course in brief

Based at Brighton’s Falmer campus, this degree will equip you with all you need to know about language as both a social and a psychological phenomenon.

The degree is structured around two strands. English language will provide you with an understanding of the fundamentals of English, its historical development and provide you with an essential understanding of how language shapes society and how society shapes language.

Linguistics will encourage you to explore language from a scientific perspective and will introduce you to the three main sub-disciplines of linguistics: structure (morphology and syntax – the study of how words and sentences are formed); meaning (semantics and pragmatics – the study of linguistic meaning and meaning in use); sound (phonetics and phonology – the study of the speech sounds and how the sound systems of different languages work).

Through the wide range of option modules available in the second and third years, you will explore a number of further topics in English language and linguistics, topics that give you the opportunity to go beyond the confines of your own discipline and see how it relates to other related fields.

Key facts

Location Brighton: Falmer

UCAS code QQ31

Full-time 3 years
With year abroad 4 years

Book your open day place

Meet our students, see our accommodation and find out more about your course.

Applying for 2017

Places are available on this course for UK, other EU and international students.

Apply now with UCAS

Entry requirements

A-levels or BTEC
Entry requirements are in the range of A-level BCC–CCC (104–96 UCAS Tariff points), or BTEC Extended Diploma DMM–MMM. Our conditional offers typically fall within this range.

A-levels must include English language or combined English language and literature.

We will generally make you an offer if your predicted grades are at the top of this range. If your predicted grades are towards the lower end of this range we may still make you an offer if you have a good GCSE (or equivalent) profile or relevant non-academic achievements.

International Baccalaureate
27 points.

Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 60 credits overall. Humanities, history or politics courses preferred. At least 45 credits at level 3.

GCSE (minimum grade C or grade 4)
At least English language and maths.

Foundation degree/HND/HNC
May enable you to start the course in year 2.

For non-native speakers of English
IELTS 6.0 overall, with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the other elements.

International equivalencies

International equivalencies by country

Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language institute

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For academic preparation courses.

Course in detail

Why study with us?

You’ll study at our Falmer campus situated on the edge of Brighton and the South Downs. You’ll benefit from outstanding modern facilities and easy access to the city centre, with its well-established arts and social scene.

You’ll be part of a vibrant, research-active programme where our talented teaching team create a dynamic and supportive environment.

You'll gain vital transferable skills including personal organisation, independent research, team working, communication and presentation that you can use throughout your career.

The course is delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops, small group or individual tutorials. You will have plenty of opportunity and time for independent study and to make use of the university’s online learning environment.

Options mean that you can tailor your degree to your individual interests or career ambitions and create a unique pathway to suit you.

This degree provides good grounding for many different industries including publishing and journalism, but equally provides a solid foundation for further study or research.

Year 1

In your first year, you will develop an understanding of the basic concepts and modes of linguistic analysis focusing particularly on the four structural approaches to linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax. In addition, you will also gain an insight into the processes by which children acquire and develop their first language.

Your first year also provides you with an essential introduction to the study of English language at degree level. The core English language modules will enable you to develop the meta-language to describe language features and their use in different genres. You will also explore the historical perspective of the development of the English language.

Modules

The Structure and Grammar of English
Introduction to Pragmatics
Perspectives on the History of the English Language
General Linguistics 1: Phonetics and Phonology
General Linguistics 2: Morphology and Syntax
Language Acquisition and Development

Year 2

In year 2, linguistics modules will introduce you to the study of meaning and different approaches to describing and analysing grammatical structures. The second year also provides an essential grounding in understanding language in society and how it varies according to both context and the user. The focus of several year two modules is also on enabling independent study and research in preparation for the skills required for your year 3 dissertation or creative project.

Modules

Language, Identity and Power
Researching English Language Use
Linguistics and Grammar: Concepts and Analyses
Semantics

Two from options* including:

Creative Writing
Studying Travel Writing
Queer Writing
Literature in Practice
Literature and Art History
American Literature 1850–1960
Multilingualism
Sign Language Linguistics
Mind and Language
Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
Regional Englishness
Media in Practice
Introduction to Journalism
Photography: from painting with Light to Zeros and Ones
Documentary Filmmaking: Theory and Practice
Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
Television Studio Production
Contested Stories
Deconstruction: Lamguage, Theory, Society
Ancillary Language: French, German or Spanish and Reflective Language Learning

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability

Final year

In your final year, you will examine the content and explanatory potential of a number of theoretical frameworks that have been proposed to explain language use in context.

Building on the knowledge developed over the first and second year, you will study different approaches to analysing how different types of discourse are constructed. Finally, you will write a dissertation on a topic of your choice in which you can explore and investigate particular aspects of language use.

In your third year, you study two core modules, one in linguistics and one in English language; two options, and a dissertation.

Modules

Dissertation

Options*

One from:

Approaches to Analysing Discourse
World Englishes

One from:

Pragmatics, Meaning and Truth
Language, Philosophy, Mind
Non-truth-conditional Semantics

Two from:

From Script to Screen
Creative Writing Project
Adaptations
English Language Teaching
Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
Russian Literature and Culture
Gothic: Texts and Context
Victorian Sexualities
Literature and Philosophy
Post-war American Literature
Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
(Re)Viewing Shakepeare
Postcolonial Literature
Writing the Contemporary
European Literatures
Culture Wars: Revisiting The Great Divide
Popular Culture
Approaches to the Study of Meaning
Images of War
Language, Culture and Ideology
Language of Gender and Sexuality
Community Engagement in Practice
Television Broadcast Journalism
Autobiography and the Screen
Media Ethics and Conflict
Ancillary Language: French, German or Spanish and Cultural Project
Children's Screen Cultures
The Cultural Politics of Screening Race
Framing Women
Screen Comedy

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability

Staff profile

Tim Wharton

Course leader

Tim is a lecturer in linguistics and course leader of the English Language and Linguistics BA(Hons). His main interest is pragmatics, the study of utterance interpretation. In particular he explores how the ‘natural’, non-linguistic properties of utterances – intonation, facial expression, gesture – interact with the linguistic ones, and how they can both be integrated within a theory of communication.

Meet the rest of the English Language and Linguistics staff

Careers and employability

Graduates progress to become teachers, journalists and work in different business environments, including publishing, the media and information technology. Many students opt to continue their studies with postgraduate courses.

Fees and funding

Your fees

UK/EU (full-time) 9,250 GBP

International (full-time) 13,920 GBP

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2017–18. Tuition fees are payable for each year that you study with us.

Where UK/EU students are subject to regulated fees, the annual fee increase cannot exceed the UK government’s maximum regulated tuition fee limit set for the relevant year. For all other students, ie those not subject to regulated fees, tuition fees are subject to a maximum annual increase of the higher of 5% or RPI.

You can find out more about our fees in the the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full- or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

What's included in the fee?

When costs such as health or DBS checks, or use of specialist materials are incurred as a mandatory requirement of the course they are included in your tuition fee.

You may incur additional costs depending on the optional modules or activities you choose. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. Before you apply check with the school that provides your course using the contact details in the Find out more tab (at the end of this page) for advice about what is included and what optional costs you could face so you can budget accordingly.

See our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships as well as further information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Location and living here

Location

About Brighton

Brighton has been called the happiest place in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. With five miles of pebble beach, more than 300 pubs and a packed festival calendar, Brighton is the ideal place to spend your student years.

Arts and culture: The Royal Pavilion is the most famous landmark in Brighton, opening its doors to around 400,000 tourists every year. Right next door is the Brighton Dome, the south coast’s premier multi-arts venue, and the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, which holds a diverse collection of decorative arts, textiles and archaeological artefacts.

Festivals: The Brighton Festival is now the largest arts festival in England and a major milestone in the international cultural calendar. Meanwhile, The Great Escape has been established as the UK’s leading event for new music, with over 300 bands playing 30 venues across the city over three days.

Nightlife: Aside from the many nightclubs that line the city’s seafront, student favourites include The Haunt, Concorde 2 and Patterns, which attract leading bands and DJs from around the world. If you don’t feel like dancing, you can take your pick from the many hundreds of pubs and bars that dot the city centre.

Shopping: The quirky North Laine district houses Brighton’s finest collection of boutique shops and independent cafes, while the narrow, winding streets of the South Lanes house collections of jewellery and antiques. Churchill Square is the city’s main shopping centre and serves all of your high street needs.

Sports: Brighton’s seaside location offers the perfect opportunity to try paddle boarding, kayaking and windsurfing. Further into the city, The Level has a skate park for skateboarders and BMX riders to practise their skills.

Campus where this course is taught

Falmer campus

Surrounded by the South Downs National Park and just five miles from the centre of Brighton, our Falmer campus has benefited from over £60million of investment over the past 10 years. 7,000 students are based here, studying subjects including English, education, social science, nursing and medicine.

Recent developments include the Falmer Sports Centre – with its fitness suites and sports hall – and the innovative Checkland Building, which has natural ventilation systems and an insulating green roof.

Falmer has also recently installed more than 600 solar panels, which reduce the campus’s carbon emissions by more than 80 tonnes. The renovation has made us one of the top universities in the UK for on-site renewable energy production.

Accommodation

Brighton

Our Brighton halls of residence are located across the city in Grand Parade, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

Our Grand Parade campus is in central Brighton and has one hall of residence, Phoenix Brewery, within walking distance. We have around 300 rooms available in Phoenix Brewery, which are all ensuite and self-catered.

Moulsecoomb is two miles from the city centre and also has one hall of residence, Moulsecoomb Place, on campus. All accommodation in Moulsecoomb Place is catered, offering breakfast and an evening meal during term time. There are more than 150 rooms available here, with six to eight rooms per flat.

Varley Park offers the biggest choice of student accommodation with ten halls of residence. The site is four miles from Brighton centre but within walking distance of Falmer train station.

Falmer campus has two halls of residence: Great Wilkins and Paddock Field. Great Wilkins offers 150+ self-catered single rooms and one-bed couples flats, while Paddock Field offers 450+ catered and self-catered single rooms only. All rooms in Falmer are en-suite.

Aside from halls, you have the option of Unihomes, which we let out to our students on behalf of private landlords. The rent covers all utilities and includes £5,000 of contents insurance for your personal belongings.

You can also choose to join the many students who live away from campus in private rented accommodation. We have a list of high-quality, university-endorsed private sector accommodation and can help you find housemates to move in with.

Find out more on our Brighton accommodation webpages and if you have any questions, our accommodation team will be happy to help. You can contact them by email at accommodation@brighton.ac.uk or by telephone on 01273 644100.

Paddock Field

Moulsecoomb Place

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Falmer campus and Brighton and Sussex Medical School map

Unistats

Unistats and key information sets

Unistats is an organisation that collects specific data about university courses in the UK which enables you to compare information that is important in your decision-making when choosing a university. All universities publish Unistats data on their online course pages.

Wherever we can we have provided extra information here to help put the data into context so that it is as useful as possible when you are making decisions.

Programme specification

The programme specification is the official university document for each course. They are updated each year, and give a very detailed breakdown of what your course might look like.

Programme specification