English Language and Literature (BA)

This Single Honours degree enables you to combine the study of English Language and English Literature by choosing from the full range of modules offered by each subject. Although you spend roughly half of your time on each subject, the flexibility of the degree means that you can specialise in different areas across the programme.

Year one is a foundation year designed to equip you with the skills for advanced study and to give you an overview of the two subjects that will enable you to make informed choices from the modules available in the following years. In years two and three you select from a range of literature and language modules in which you will build on the foundation year, developing high-level skills.

English language

English Language is concerned with the structure, use and significance of language, with a particular focus on the English language as it is spoken and written across the world in many different social and professional settings. It studies spoken, written and multimodal texts but also how speakers and hearers learn, interpret and evaluate language and communicative contexts. Studying for a degree including English Language develops abilities to analyse and critique the language and communication that surrounds us but also helps to develop strong skills in communicating clearly and effectively. English Language graduates are known for their ability to combine the best of social science skills, such as technical analysis and systematic method, with the best of humanities skills, such as flexibility, communication and critique.

The English Language element of this degree programme combines a strong foundation in the analysis of language and communication, with plenty of opportunities for students to pursue specific academic and career-related interests. There are modules in descriptive traditions of language, such as the study of phonetics, grammar and child language, but also in critical traditions such as the study of discourse and the relation between language and power. The School also offers a number of modules that are directly relevant to career areas in education, the media, health, and the legal process.

English literature

The English Literature element of this degree programme offers opportunities to study all periods of literature in English from the Anglo-Saxon period to the twenty-first century and from many different parts of the world. In year two you select from a range of period-, genre- or theme-based modules in which you will build on the foundation year, reading a variety of texts in their historical and cultural contexts. In final year there is a range of more specialised modules in which you can pursue interests developed in the previous two years and engage with current issues in research and scholarship, enabling you further to develop analytical and presentational skills that employers will value, as well as equipping you for postgraduate study. The focus throughout the degree is on becoming a careful, attentive, and informed reader, sensitive to the nuances of language and style and able to articulate your responses to texts in writing which is precise, stylish, and effective.

I've really enjoyed studying at Cardiff, due mainly to the fantastic variety of interesting modules on offer. With modules on sounds of speech, accents and dialects to the visual communication of advertising, to the history of the language from Celtic varieties to Present Day English, there's a module for everyone.

Adam Duce, BA English Language Year one

You will take 40 credits in English Language and 40 credits in English Literature. You then choose a further 40 credits which may be from English Language or English Literature or 20 credits from each.

Core modulesModule titleModule codeCreditsIntroduction To Language & SocietySE111020 creditsIntroduction to Poetry and the NovelSE213620 creditsIntroduction To LanguageSE110920 creditsReading and IdentitySE213120 creditsYear two

Core modulesModule titleModule codeCreditsSound, Structure and MeaningSE141120 creditsOptional modules

Module titleModule codeCreditsVisual CommunicationSE137320 creditsSociolinguisticsSE136920 creditsResearch MethodsSE131820 creditsHistory of EnglishSE139820 creditsLanguage & CultureSE140220 creditsLanguage & the MindSE140420 creditsReading Old EnglishSE244120 creditsShakespeare and Renaissance DramaSE244220 creditsElizabethan ShakespeareSE244320 creditsModernist FictionsSE244520 creditsModern Welsh Writing in EnglishSE244820 creditsCreative Writing ISE241720 creditsTwentieth-Century Crime FictionSE245520 creditsFiction of The Indian SubcontinentSE228320 creditsIntroduction to Romantic PoetrySE245020 creditsModernism and the CitySE246320 creditsThe Post-1945 American NovelSE256620 creditsImaginary Journeys: More to HuxleySE245720 creditsIntroduction to Visual CultureSE246120 creditsLanguage & GenderSE140320 creditsContemporary Women's WritingSE244620 creditsAfrican-American LiteratureSE245120 creditsInternational Study Abroad (60 credits) AutumnSE625160 creditsInternational Study Abroad (60 credits) SpringSE625260 creditsChildren's Literature: Form & FunctionSE244720 creditsWords & MeaningSE137020 creditsDiscourseSE136220 creditsRepresenting the VictoriansSE246620 creditsThe Robin Hood TraditionSE236720 creditsFictive Histories/Historical FictionsSE246720 creditsGothic Fiction: The Romantic AgeSE246820 creditsRomanticism, Politics, AestheticsSE246920 creditsSocial Politics and National Style: American Fiction and Form 1920-1940SE247020 creditsWays of ReadingSE244920 creditsLiterature and ScienceSE247120 creditsDickens in Many MediaSE247220 creditsYear three

Optional modules

Module titleModule codeCreditsCommunication DisordersSE134720 creditsPersuasive CommunicationSE137120 creditsProject in Language and Communication 1SE138120 creditsProject in Language and Communication 2SE138220 creditsForensic LinguisticsSE132420 creditsFunctions of GrammarSE134020 creditsLanguage Learning and TeachingSE132920 creditsLanguage, Genre and IdeologySE139720 creditsDissertationSE138040 creditsLifespan CommunicationSE132720 creditsNineteenth-Century Crime FictionSE239020 creditsDissertationSE252420 creditsWriting Caribbean SlaverySE256820 creditsCreative Writing II: Special TopicsSE237020 creditsHitchcockSE254420 creditsCreative Writing III: Special TopicsSE237320 creditsLove, Death and Marriage in Renaissance LiteratureSE258320 creditsR. S. Thomas: No Truce with the FuriesSE257820 creditsFrench TheorySE257020 creditsSecond-generation Romantic PoetsSE258220 creditsDesire, the Body and the Text: Psychoanalysis & LiteratureSE258020 creditsUtopia: Suffrage to CyberpunkSE258120 creditsChildren, Language & CommunicationSE131220 creditsCommunicating in RelationshipsSE134420 creditsSound in ActionSE140720 creditsDissertation in English Language & LiteratureSE141240 creditsSocial InteractionSE133920 creditsPatterns of LanguageSE139620 creditsMedia DiscourseSE140820 creditsThe Graphic MemoirSE140920 creditsInternational Study Abroad (60 credits) AutumnSE625160 creditsInternational Study Abroad (60 credits) SpringSE625260 creditsBluestockings, Britannia, Unsex'd Females: Women in public life, 1770 - 1800SE258820 creditsGothic Fiction: The VictoriansSE258920 creditsInterwar Experiments: Sex, Gender, StyleSE258420 creditsModern British Political DramaSE259020 creditsNorse Myth and SagaSE256020 creditsCanterbury Tales: Genre, History, InterpretationSE257920 creditsFour English Poets of the Twentieth CenturySE259120 creditsGender & Monstrosity: Late/Neo VictorianSE256420...