English Language and Linguistics BA (Hons)

This module will introduce you to the fundamental components of linguistic study, and place your learning about these concepts within our multilingual world. We will explore the history of English as a global language, and consider how our languages have been shaped by contact with each other. You will consider the current dominance of the colonial languages, and think about the implications of this for smaller and indigenous languages, and for their speakers and natural environments. This will give you the chance to learn to use some critical discourse analysis tools, and to discover some newer areas of linguistics, such as ecolinguistics.

This module will introduce you to key ideas and concepts in the study of language and society. You will explore how language varies across different settings and users. While looking at ways of analysing differences in language, you will investigate variations in phonetics, lexicon, grammar and register. You will also consider how language is used to reflect and construct social identities.

On this module you will learn about meaning in language from linguistic, psychological and philosophical perspectives. To do this you will consider: 

• The meanings of words 
• The ambiguity of language 
• Speech acts 
• Implied meaning in language 

This will give you an awareness of how theories are constructed and evaluated based on research data. To do this, you will gain experience in using online questionnaires for data collection and analysing conversations. 

This module is your introduction to the descriptions of grammatical structures. This means looking at word classes, sentence types, morphology and more. You will study grammatical variations in English found within the UK and in other parts of the world. By the end of the module you will have a solid understanding of the basic terminology and key concepts. 

This module introduces you to the principles of articulatory and practical phonetics. You will learn how to recognise, describe and produce a subset of the sounds of the world’s languages, using the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. You will also learn basic transcription skills in English. The module provides a foundation for further linguistic study, enabling you to recognise, transcribe and analyse sounds in, for example, children’s language and varieties of English or other languages. If you are studying another language, or are interested in teaching languages including English, this module will help you to understand not only how sounds are produced by the vocal tract, but also how they fit into the context of different language systems. 

This module will introduce you to British Sign Language. The topics you will cover include basic vocabulary for transport, weather, food and more.  You will also learn basic deaf awareness. You will learn key BSL grammatical features and practise your ability to sign short BSL narratives about yourself, use everyday greetings, and explain your likes and dislikes using BSL.  At the start module you will complete a multiple choice assessment and answer some questions related to the content of the module. 

On this module we will investigate signed languages in a range of different social contexts. This will include investigating:

• Individual language use
• Learning signed languages as first or second languages
• Language evolution and the development of individual signed languages
• The political context of language use, such as the effect of racial segregation on language development, and language policies.

The module will include a range of in-class activities including experiments, presentations, group discussions and lectures.  

On this module we will introduce you to aspects of phonetics and phonology that support the analysis of varieties of language, including child phonology and languages other than English.  The module is taught using a problem-based learning workshop approach. You will learn about:

• The concept of the phoneme
• Phonotactics and syllable structure
• Transcription skills, including connected speech phenomena
• Phonological features

This module will give you a deeper understanding of how the English language is spread across the globe. You will study the history of English both in the British Isles and abroad, thinking about the social history of language change, variety and status. You will also explore the concept of standard varieties of English, and the structural variation in major international varieties of English. 

On this module you will learn about key areas of feminist and queer linguistics. We will cover different theories and approaches to the study of language, gender and sexuality, and you will learn about how some of these approaches have been applied in domains such as education, the workplace, literature and the media. Through this you will gain confidence in arguing for your own, informed position, and using the grounding you have received as a starting point for your own work and ideas.

On this module you will explore how media uses language and other communication resources to shape ideas and influence power. You will learn to analyse the choices media makes in language (and beyond) and uncover the hidden messages and beliefs woven into the ways those behind it communicate with us.

On this module you will focus on your future career, as well as taking part in a 10 day work placement. 5 days will be completed in a graduate level role, while the other 5 can be completed in a role of your choice that will be discussed with your tutor. The module will also involve considering the role of language in different workplace contexts. This might include looking at advertising, language and power, and clinical communication. We will also help you to enhance your employability by providing training in: 

•  Personal branding 
• Presentation skills
• Interview and application writing skills 

This module will introduce you to the field of forensic linguistics. You will learn how to analyse language as forensic evidence for crimes such as sexual assault, terrorism, murder and hate crimes. Applying your knowledge of linguistics, you will also look at how language is used in the justice system, from police interviews to language in the courtroom. 

On this module you will learn about children’s language and literacy development. By the end of the module you will be able to perform a fine-grained analysis of children’s writing at various stages of literacy development. You will finish the module with a good understanding of what the reading and writing that children do at various ages and stages tells us about their literacy development.  You will also learn about contextual issues that impact on children’s literacy development, such as the impact of education policy and home literacy and language environments.  

On this module you will develop your awareness of the psychological underpinnings of language knowledge and use. You will learn about spoken and written language comprehension from the smallest units (phonemes and graphemes) to the biggest (sentence-level and pragmatic processing). You will also learn about the cognitive processes which underpin language production, as well as specialist weeks on topics such as emotional language and artificial intelligence. You will gain hands-on experience of psycholinguistic methods by taking part in a whole-class language experiment as one of your assessments, followed by a more traditional essay tailored to one of the topics learned about on the module. 

On this module you will learn about the wide variety of ways attitudes to language use and language learning impact on society and individuals. We consider language hierarchies, what is known as the Complaint Tradition, and explore the notion of the Monolingual Habitus. Through these explorations, we consider how language discrimination arises in multiple contexts, and explore the potential role of the applied linguist in creating social change. 

This module introduces you to key theories of child language acquisition, with a focus on the acquisition of speech sounds. We will take workshop approach to learning about how children acquire and produce speech sounds, the typical phonological processes seen in children, and how these articulations move towards the adult system over time.  You will also learn to use specialist language acquisition applications and acoustic analysis software.

On this module you will learn about the lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonetic and phonological features of British accents and dialects. You will apply prior knowledge of phonetics, phonology and grammar to speaker data by exploring patterns of usage across a range of linguistic variables. You will also develop your skills in data collection, before completing an analytical description and comparison of your own data. 

On this module, you will gain an advanced understanding of the role language plays in the construction and expression of a wide range of social and cultural identities. We will introduce you to social philosophy and theory concerning the nature of identity itself, before applying these theoretical ideas to analysis of the relationship between language, identities and cultures. 

This module will introduce you to the field of communication disorders, developing your understanding of clinical applications of linguistics, and how background understanding of linguistics works alongside clinical knowledge.  You will find out about how clinical decisions can be reached using a range of informal and formal assessments, and how communication disorder and difference impacts on people throughout their lives. 

The portfolio you will produce for assessment on this module will draw on content from across the whole of your course, and your experiences during your degree. You will be tasked with exploring in depth one linguistic topic of your choosing, and independently exploring how to communicate this topic to a wide range of different audiences. This is an opportunity to significantly extend your communication and digital literacy skills.

Your dissertation is your chance to take responsibility for your own learning. You will conduct an independent piece of linguistic research on your chosen topic, with the support of an assigned tutor.  You will attend a series of skills sessions that will help you in this task by guiding you through relevant areas of linguistic research, from ethical applications to writing literature reviews. You will also have access to individual supervision meetings where you can ask for support and guidance with the design and conduct of your research and writing.