English Language BA(Hons)

International equivalencies

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

Why study with us?

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

• Our talented teaching team creates a dynamic and supportive environment where you will be challenged and helped to learn and grow. They will help you to think critically and creatively, develop detailed methods of analysis and interpretation and precisely communicate your ideas.

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

• Contact time through lectures and seminars is usually around nine hours each week. You will have plenty of opportunity and time for independent study and one-to-one or small group tutorials with tutors.

• Options mean that you can tailor your degree to your individual interests or career ambitions and create a unique profile for yourself.

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

Year 1

In the first year, you will be introduced to the basic concepts and skills that will enable you to describe language and analyse texts. You will reflect critically on key debates around the English language (e.g. prescriptivism vs. descriptivism) and develop metalinguistic skills in grammatical analysis, text analysis, phonology and stylistics.

You will also gain an understanding of the development of the English language from Anglo Saxon times to the present day. In addition, you will look at how children acquire their first language, how language is used in the media and how the sound system of English works.

Modules

• The Structure and Grammar of English
• Text Analysis: Genre and Style
• Perspectives on the History of the English Language
• General Linguistics 1: Phonetics and Phonology
• Language Acquisition and Development
• The Language of Media

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through our applicant portal.

Year 2

In year 2, you will develop your understanding of the diversity of the English language and its uses. You will explore different regional varieties of English in the British Isles and the cultural and social influences that have determined their development.

A further aspect of English language in year 2 is the investigation of the impact of language on social identity and its role in power relations. You will also develop an understanding of the tools involved in researching language use, and you will study the characteristic differences between spoken and written forms of communication.

Modules

• Language, Identity and Power
• Researching English Language Use
• Regional Englishes
• Deconstruction: Language, Theory, Society

Options*

• British Television Drama
• Creative Writing: Process and Craft
• Introduction to Journalism
• Studying Travel Writing
• Queer Writing
• Literature in Practice
• Literature and Art History
• American Literature 1850–1960
• Linguistics and Grammar: Concepts and Analyses
• Mind and Language
• Multilingualism
• Sign Language Linguistics
• Image and Text: The Language of Comics and Graphic Novels
• Writing for Stage, Radio and Screen
• Media in Practice
• Television Studio Production
• Photography – From Painting with light to Zeros and Ones
• Video Documentary Project
• Contested Stories
• Foreign Language and Reflective Language Learning Project or Foreign Language at Advanced 3 Level

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

Final year

In the final year, you will consolidate your skills and knowledge through applying current analytic frameworks more critically to texts, understanding the theoretical viewpoints informing different approaches and evaluating the different kinds of insights generated. You will also explore the global spread of English and its development as a world language. 

Years 2 and 3 will allow you to tailor your degree to your own interests or career ambitions and create a unique profile for yourself. The options are in the following areas: linguistics, English literature, media/film/photography, language teaching, creative writing, journalism and modern foreign languages.

Modules

• World Englishes
• Approaches to Analysing Discourse
• Dissertation

Options*

• English Language Teaching
• Russian Literature and Culture
• (Re)viewing Shakespeare
• Apocalypse, Utopia, Dystopia
• Literature and Philosophy
• Post-war American Literature
• Women's Writing and Feminist Theory
• Adaptations
• Approaches to the Study of Meaning
• Creative Writing Project
• Gothic: Texts and Contexts
• Victorian Sexualities
• Writing the Contemporary
• Postcolonial Literatures
• European Literature and Film
• Culture Wars: Revisiting The Great Divide
• Language, Culture and Ideology
• Language of Gender and Sexuality
• Television News Production
• Popular Culture – Europe and Beyond
• From Script to Screen
• Images of War
• Autobiography and the Screen
• Media Ethics and Conflict
• Community Engagement: Theory in Practice
• Foreign Language and Cultural Project

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

Watch students talking about their experiences of the Community Placement module.

Staff profile

Dr Chrystie Myketiak

Dr Chrystie Myketiak examines language and discourse in their broader social contexts. Her interests include gender/sexuality and power/inequality with specialist research in mass shooter texts, the social performance of sex talk and narrative construction in clinical incident reporting.

Sarah Varney-Burch

An experienced English language teacher, Sarah has a BA in linguistics and an MA in TEFL. She teaches on the BA and MA programmes and is currently the course leader for this degree. She is completing a Doctorate in education, conducting research in the area of English for academic purposes.

Location

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps

Accommodation

University building

Falmer campus and Brighton and Sussex Medical School map