English Language and Literature BA

Course overview

• Do you enjoy reading and analysing novels, stories and poetry?
• Are you interested in finding out more about the historical and cultural contexts for your favourite literary texts?
• Have you ever wondered how language works, how we learn languages, or how languages change over time?

If you've answered 'yes' to these questions, English Language and Literature may be the degree for you.

English Language and Literature at Nottingham provides students with a thorough understanding of the historical range of English literature and the development of the language. It considers the uses of English in context, and the themes, principles, techniques, values and significance of literary works in their contexts. 

Year one 

You share the same core modules as BA English, and are introduced to prose, poetry and drama from the medieval period to the modern day, and to aspects of English language from the beginnings of English to applied linguistics.

While some of these areas may be familiar to you, others may be quite new, and our aim is to support you as much as possible as you encounter fresh ways of approaching and thinking about the study of English.

Alongside these modules, you will take the Academic Community module, taught in small tutorial groups, to introduce key issues to English and to develop your study skills as you make the transition from school or college to university.

You are also able to take module options in creative writing or in subsidiary modules, offered by the School and by other departments in the Arts Faculty and across the University. See the modules tab for further details. 

Year two   

At this point, you will begin to specialise in language and literature. You will study the core specialist module, English Through Time, as well as choosing five other modules from a variety of options, with the possibility of continuing with the study of other disciplines within English if you wish.

Final year   

Of the six modules taken in your final year, two will be in language and two in literature. You may choose these from a wide range of specialist modules: the options on offer vary from year to year, but they typically include single-author studies, genre studies and period studies in literature, and topics in language such as sociolinguistics or English language teaching.

The fifth module is a compulsory dissertation on a topic of your choice in the area of language and/or literature. The final module may be chosen from any area of the School provided that you have already taken any necessary pre-requisites.

For further details of final year options, see the Modules tab.

Entry requirements

A levels: AAA-AAB, including A in English literature or English language (or combined) at A level; 4 GCSE passes at grade A, including English

English language requirements 

IELTS 7.0 (no less than 6.0 in any element)

TOEFL iBT 100 (minimum 19 with 20 in Speaking)

Pearson Test of English (Academic) 67 (minimum score 67)

Alternative qualifications 

For details please see the alternative qualifications page

flexible admissions policy

We may make some applicants an offer lower than advertised, depending on their personal and educational circumstances.

Modules

Year-one modules 

Core modules

• Language and Context
• Studying Literature
• Beginnings of English
• Introduction to Drama
• Academic Community

Year one options and subsidiary modules 

You are able to take 20 credits of optional modules in Year one. Those offered by the School include: 

• Beginning Creative Writing (20 credits)
• Regional Writers (10 credits)
• Shakespeare's Histories (10 credits)
• Viking World (10 credits)

Alternatively, you may prefer to start or continue learning a language, or choose other modules from across the Arts Faculty and the University, such as in American studies, philosophy, history or psychology.

Year-two modules

Core module

• English Through Time

This module explores the key historical developments that explain the origins of English and how it evolved into its present-day form. You will become familiar with the language spoken by the earliest settlers in the British Isles, and how their emerging English spread through trade, empire, colonisation and political power to become a world language.

Optional modules

You will choose five modules from the wide range of options below:

Literature 1500 to the present 

• Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Page
• From Talking Horses to Romantic Revolutionaries: literature 1700-1830
• Victorian and Fin de Siècle Literature
• Modern and Contemporary Literature
• Literature and Popular Culture

Each of these modules will offer a comprehensive introduction to the changes in the genres of prose, poetry and drama across the period studied, placing the works encountered in the context of key aesthetic, social and political/historical contexts. 

English language and applied linguistics 

• Language Development
• Discourse, Communication and Society
• Literary Linguistics

Building on the study of language undertaken in year one, these modules provide the exciting opportunity for you to explore aspects of language use in the mind, in society and in literature. 

Medieval languages and literatures 

• Ice and Fire: Myths and Heroes of the North
• Sisters, Sex and Scribes: Writing Women in Early Medieval Britain
• Old English: Reflection and Lament
• Names and Identities
• Chaucer and his Contemporaries

You can choose to pursue one or more of the medieval areas introduced in year one, or you can opt to study a new but related area. In all cases, you will develop your understanding of language change and variety, registers, styles, modes and genres, as they appear in medieval texts, and become expert in reading with reference to wider medieval cultures.  

Drama and Performance 

• Theatre from the Long Twentieth Century
• Performance: Key Critical Approaches
• Shakespeare and Contemporaries on the Stage

These modules provide the opportunity to develop approaches from year one by studying 20th and 21st century theatre; by exploring key critical approaches to drama in theory and practice, and by focusing on a key period in the development of our nation's theatre. 

Creative Writing

Those students who choose Beginning Creative Writing in year one, may have the option of the following: 

• Prose and Poetry Writing

Final year modules

Core module

• Dissertation

Optional modules

You will choose at least two modules in literature and two in language. The final module may be from any area of English.

The modules we offer in the final year are inspired by the research interests of our staff and as a result, may change from year to year. The following list is therefore subject to change but are examples of the scope of modules that will be open to you.

Literature 1500 to the present 

• Enduring Realism
• D H Lawrence
• Romanticism: Writing in Britain
• Blake and his Legacy
• Modern Urban Fictions
• Literature of British India
• Modern British Fiction
• James Joyce
• Oscar Wilde
• Shakespeare
• Sex and Society
• Literature and Place from 1500 to the Present
• Representing Slavery
• Twentieth-Century Literary Utopianism

English language and applied linguistics   

• Sociolinguistics
• Language and Creativity
• Introduction to English Language Teaching
• Exploring Health Communication
• Discourse Analysis
• Stylistics
• Texts in a Digital World
• Language and the Mind
• Patterns, Functions and the Description of English

Medieval languages and literatures   

• Arthurian Literature
• Burning Desires
• Chaucer and his Legacy
• English Place-Names
• Literature of the Anglo-Saxons
• Outlaws, Ghosts and Heroes
• Dreaming the Middle Ages
• Love in a Cold Climate

Drama and Performance 

• Twentieth-Century Theatre: Memory, History, Performance
• Awakenings and Arguments: Twentieth-Century Plays
• Contemporary Performance
• Language in the Limelight
• Screen Shakespeares
• Performance: Theory and Practice
• Riotous Performance

Creative Writing   

• Creative Writing in a Contemporary Context 

Careers

By studying for a degree in English at Nottingham, you will gain many vital transferable skills identified as essential for high-level graduate employment and postgraduate study: communication and professional practice; creativity, initiative and problem-solving.

You will learn to plan your work, and develop the qualities of self-discipline, self-motivation and initiative that are essential to any form of graduate employment. We will help you develop your ability to research and process a large amount of information quickly, and to present the results of your research in an articulate and effective way. 

In addition to these skills, you will also have the opportunity to develop your employability profile further through innovative work-related learning projects in your final year, through a project-based dissertation or through involvement in the University's Nottingham Advantage Award. For more information, see Undergraduate Careers and Employability. 

Graduate career destinations

Graduates in English, as with many arts graduates, find themselves faced with many choices when it comes to selecting a career. No matter what your initial choice may be, you will find that the skills and knowledge that you have developed during your degree will have equipped you for the demanding and often highly changeable nature of the 21st-century workplace.

Careers of our recent graduates have included:

• banking and finance
• acting, television, film editing and related creative industries
• business, consultancy and management
• civil service and local government administration
• events/exhibition management
• human resource management
• insurance
• journalism - periodicals and broadcasting
• law
• librarianship, museum and archive and collection work
• marketing, advertising and public relations 
• management in the charitable sector
• politics
• primary and secondary school teaching
• public relations
• publishing and editorial work
• social work
• teaching English as a foreign language
• tourism and heritage
• writing  - as authors, poets, playwrights
• university administration
• university lecturing

Some students may decide that another year (or more) of study may give them an edge when it comes to seeking out a career and may, for example, choose to undertake postgraduate study or teacher training.

Careers support and advice

We have a Careers and Employability Service on campus, with a dedicated careers adviser who works with the School of English to deliver an extensive range of careers services. As well as helping students individually, the centre also hosts regular group events for English students. The School also has a careers advisor who is happy to meet students to talk through their career ideas.

School Careers Events

The School organises annual Careers events and invites graduates from the School to come and talk about their career choices. Previous Careers events have included talks from recent alumni working in management at BT, BBC journalism, the RSC, the University’s graduate trainee scheme as well as providing information on PGCE (teacher training), law conversion and postgraduate study. Podcasts of recent talks are available.

Average starting salary 

The average starting salary for 2010/11 full-time graduates of the School of English was £17,645.*

*Average starting salary from known destinations of first-degree leavers who studied full-time, 2010/11.

KIS