English Language (including Year Abroad)

Description

Our BA English Language (including Year Abroad) can give you an insight into these questions like: what range of sounds are found in present-day English and what are their distinctive characteristics? How do accents vary from one dialect of English to another? What techniques can we use to investigate the structure of words and sentences in English? What are the differences between the main varieties of English spoken round the world? What kind of techniques can we use to research how English varies according to age, sex, social background and regional origins? How is English used in conversation and in the media? How have English words changed their form and meaning over time, and how has the grammar of English evolved over the centuries? You spend your third year abroad.

The first year of your course provides you with an introduction to techniques employed in contemporary linguistic research into the study of sounds, words, sentences, meaning and use. Your second and final years offer you a wide choice of English language options on a variety of specialist topics including conversation and social interaction, media and institutional talk, researching language variation, varieties of English, language and sex, structure of English, English phonetics and phonology, language variation and English phonology, black Englishes and creoles, lexical change in the history of English, and grammatical change in the history of English. You also have the opportunity of spending an additional year abroad (eg in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, or the USA) as part of your course, if you so wish.

Detailed Course Facts

• GBP 9000 Year (EEA)
• GBP 11950 Year (Non-EEA)

• English

Course Content

The special characteristics of our courses are flexibility and choice. In your first year, you usually take four or five modules that include pre-requisite(s) for your course but, in many cases, mean you can try subjects you have not come across before. If you are taking a humanities or social science, then you have the greatest choice, as most of our first-year modules do not assume any specialist knowledge.
With a small number of exceptions, if you successfully complete the first year of your BA, then you are qualified to enter the second year of that course and a range of other courses: for example, if you take economics, politics, philosophy and sociology, then you have a choice of at least nine possible single or joint honours courses at the end of your first year. This means you can change your course, providing you have taken the appropriate pre-requisites and places are available. We offer a range of optional modules in your second- and final-years and most courses allow you to undertake a final-year project, an individual piece of research on a topic that interests you.
We operate a credit framework for our awards, which is based on principles widely used across the UK university sector. Each module has a credit rating attached and our standard three-year course consists of 360 credits (120 credits in your first year, and 240 credits across your second and final years).
Please note that module information on our course finder provides a guide to course content and may be subject to review on an annual basis.

Year 1

Foundations of Sociolinguistics;
Foundations of Psycholinguistics;
Foundations of Linguistics; and
one linguistics, language or social science option

Year 2

Three English language options; and
one linguistics, language, social science or project option

Year 3

Year abroad

Year 4

Three English language options; and
one linguistics, language, social science or project option

English Language Requirements

IELTS band : 6

To study at this university, you have to speak English. We advice you to

Requirements

• A-levels: ABB-BBB
• GCSE English: C
• IB: 32-30 points (we consider IB certificates at the Higher Level on a case-by-case basis)
• Achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 6 level three credits at distinction and the remainder at merit (or above) or achievement of the Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 45 level three credits at merit (or above).

English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 6.0 overall with minimum 5.5 in each component (or equivalent). Different requirements apply for second year entry.

Work Experience

No work experience is required.

Related Scholarships*

• Academic Excellence Scholarship

  "The Academic Excellence Scholarship can provide up to a 50 % reduction in tuition per semester. These scholarships will be renewed if the student maintains superior academic performance during each semester of their 3-year Bachelor programme. The scholarship will be directly applied to the student’s tuition fees."

• Access Bursary

  Bursary for UK students all subjects where the variable tuition fee rate is payable.

• Alumni Bursary

  Alumni Bursary for UK Undergraduate students

* The scholarships shown on this page are suggestions first and foremost. They could be offered by other organisations than University of Essex.

Funding

For up-to-date information on funding opportunities at Essex, please visit: www.essex.ac.uk/studentfinance.