English Language BA (Hons) at Northumbria University

With a strong focus on your employability, our English Language degree gets you thinking in a sophisticated way about how language can be interpreted and used to understand human behaviour, psychology, and society. Language and communication is an integral part of our everyday lives. This course opens windows onto the rich variety of linguistics study, from animal communication and theories of politeness to the evolution of English across the globe.

Faculty: School of Humanities and Social Sciences  |  Duration: 3 years Full Time or 4 years with a placement (sandwich)/study abroad  |  Study mode: full-time (optional placement/sandwich year)  |  Intake: September 2027  |  Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom

What you will study

Year 1 core modules: Understanding English Grammar, Introduction to Language and Literature, Approaches to Language Study, Doing Linguistics, Introduction to Discourse Analysis, Introduction to TESOL Classrooms; Year 2 core modules: Language and Society, History of English, Psychology of Language, The sounds and structures of English; Year 4 core modules: English Language Dissertation. Optional modules include Language and Literature, Classroom Skills for TESOL, Student Tutoring, Cognitive Linguistics, World Englishes, Variation, Change and Corpus Linguistics.

Career pathways

While the course itself is strongly focused on the development of employability skills, there are also topics and pathways which are designed to set you up for your dream role. Our first-year linguistics students work on a project with an innovative marketing firm, learning how linguistics unlocks understanding and communication in this major industry.

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