English Language, Language Acquisition and Language Disorders

Description

Our BA English Language, Language Acquisition and Language Disorders lets you delve into questions like: How do children learn to talk and read? What are the best ways of teaching and learning a foreign language? How do our age, sex, social background and regional origins affect the way we speak? How do accents and dialects come about? How do languages change over the course of time and why? How do we produce and process words and sentences? What are the causes and consequences of different types of language disorders in young children and adults?
This BA enables you to study how children acquire their first language and what language disorders may occur, alongside our descriptive modules in the structure of English sounds, words and sentences. Your first year modules enable you to switch to other BA courses offered by our department, if you wish. You have the opportunity to spend an additional year abroad as part of your course, if you so wish. Provided that this experience is part of a full year Erasmus exchange, your fees will be waived by the University.
Our first-year students take three compulsory modules. Foundations of Psycholinguistics examines the mental processes involved in language comprehension and production as well as language disorders. You take Foundations of Linguistics, which looks at how the sounds, words and sentences of languages are analysed in Linguistics, and Foundations of Sociolinguistics, which explores the relationship between society and language. During your second year you take Psycholinguistics which builds on Foundations of Psycholinguistics and focuses on language processing, either Child Language Acquisition or Second Language Learning, one English language option and a linguistics option. In your final year you take one English language option, one Linguistics option and two acquisition and disorder options.

Detailed Course Facts

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

• English

Course Content

The special characteristics of our course are flexibility and choice. In your first year three modules are compulsory and your optional module can be taken from across the faculty. During your second year you take two compulsory modules and two optional modules, one English Language module and one linguistics module. In your final year all your modules are optional, but you take one English Language, one linguistics and two acquisition and disorder modules. There is a great deal of choice for these optional modules due to the extensive range of modules offered by our departments.
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 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 Linguistics;
Foundations of Psycholinguistics;
Foundations of Sociolinguistics; and
one linguistics, language or social science option

Year 2

Psycholinguistics;
Child Language Acquisition or Second Language Learning;
one English language option; and
one linguistics option

Year 3

One English language option;
one linguistics option; and
two acquisition and disorders options

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.