About this course
Gain in-depth knowledge of the English language and its cultural impact on this BA English Language and Literature degree. Discover how English emerged, how it continues to change, and how it varies across its millions of speakers. You’ll explore writing in varieties of English from the early medieval period to the present day, as well as from around the world.
You'll combine both literary and linguistic approaches to the subject on this flexible course.
You’ll study topics such as:
- the history and development of the English language
- the cultural significance of English and its unique global status
- phonetics, language acquisition and the psychology of language (psycholinguistics)
Optional modules mean you can adapt the course to match your interests. Topics you can choose to study include:
- the Renaissance
- 18th or 19th century writing
- Arthurian literature
- children's literature
You’ll learn from expert academics and graduate ready for a career across industries like:
- education
- mass media
- advertising and marketing
- speech therapy
- writing and publishing
You’ll also be able to make use of our Lifelong Learning programme, which provides extracurricular teaching of some 12 languages.
Our degree programmes are informed by research carried out in our leading Research Centres, including the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research and the Centre for Global Englishes.
We regularly review our courses to ensure and improve quality. This course may be revised as a result of this. Any revision will be balanced against the requirement that the student should receive the educational service expected. Find out why, when, and how we might make changes.
Our courses are regulated in England by the Office for Students (OfS).
Learn more about this subject area
Download the Course Description Document
The Course Description Document details your course overview, your course structure and how your course is taught and assessed.
Entry requirements
For Academic year 202425
A-levels
ABB including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
A-levels additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
A-levels with Extended Project Qualification
If you are taking an EPQ in addition to 3 A levels, you will receive the following offer in addition to the standard A level offer: BBB including English Language or another relevant essay writing* subject in Humanities or Social Sciences and grade A in the EPQ
A-levels contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all applicants with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise an applicant's potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme, as follows:
BBB including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level, including 5 at Higher Level in English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
International Baccalaureate Diploma additional information
*Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
International Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
International Baccalaureate Career Programme (IBCP) statement
Offers will be made on the individual Diploma Course subject(s) and the career-related study qualification. The CP core will not form part of the offer. Where there is a subject pre-requisite(s), applicants will be required to study the subject(s) at Higher Level in the Diploma course subject and/or take a specified unit in the career-related study qualification. Applicants may also be asked to achieve a specific grade in those elements. Please see the University of Southampton International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme (IBCP) Statement for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
BTEC
Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Diploma plus B in A level English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC National Diploma plus B in A level English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences Distinction in the BTEC National Extended Certificate plus AB at A level to include English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
RQF BTEC
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
Additional information
*Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
QCF BTEC
Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC Extended Diploma plus B in A level English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences Distinction, Distinction in the BTEC Diploma plus B in A level English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences Distinction in the BTEC Subsidiary Diploma plus AB at A level to include English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
Access to HE Diploma
60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at Level 3, of which 30 must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit, plus 6 Distinctions in English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
Access to HE additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. *Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
Irish Leaving Certificate
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2017)
H1 H2 H2 H2 H3 H3 including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
Irish Leaving Certificate (first awarded 2016)
A2 A2 B1 B1 B2 B2 including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences at B1
Irish certificate additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. *Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
Scottish Qualification
Offers will be based on exams being taken at the end of S6. Subjects taken and qualifications achieved in S5 will be reviewed. Careful consideration will be given to an individual’s academic achievement, taking in to account the context and circumstances of their pre-university education.
Please see the University of Southampton’s Curriculum for Excellence Scotland Statement (PDF) for further information. Applicants are advised to contact their Faculty Admissions Office for more information.
Cambridge Pre-U
D3 M2 M2 in three principal subjects including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences
Cambridge Pre-U additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. *Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
Welsh Baccalaureate
ABB from 3 A levels including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences or AB from two A levels including English Language or another relevant essay writing subject* in Humanities or Social Sciences and B from the Advanced Welsh Baccalaureate Skills Challenge Certificate
Welsh Baccalaureate additional information
Offers typically exclude General Studies and Critical Thinking. *Relevant essay-writing subjects include: English Language, English Literature, History, Drama and Theatre Studies, Classical Civilisation, Criminology, English Language and Literature, Geography, Latin, Law, Modern Foreign Languages, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies, Sociology
Welsh Baccalaureate contextual offer
We are committed to ensuring that all learners with the potential to succeed, regardless of their background, are encouraged to apply to study with us. The additional information gained through contextual data allows us to recognise a learner’s potential to succeed in the context of their background and experience. Applicants who are highlighted in this way will be made an offer which is lower than the typical offer for that programme.
T-Level
Not accepted for this course.
Other requirements
GCSE requirements
Applicants must hold GCSE English language (or GCSE English) (minimum grade 4/C) and mathematics (minimum grade 4/C).
Find the equivalent international qualifications for our entry requirements.
English language requirements
If English isn't your first language, you'll need to complete an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to demonstrate your competence in English. You'll need all of the following scores as a minimum:
IELTS score requirements
- overall score
- 6.5
- reading
- 6.0
- writing
- 6.0
- speaking
- 6.0
- listening
- 6.0
We accept other English language tests. Find out which English language tests we accept.
You might meet our criteria in other ways if you do not have the qualifications we need. Find out more about:
- skills you might have gained through work or other life experiences (otherwise known as recognition of prior learning)
Find out more about our Admissions Policy.
Got a question?
Please contact our enquiries team if you're not sure that you have the right experience or qualifications to get onto this course.
Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
Course structure
The programme brings together linguistic and literary approaches to the study of English, allowing you to study a range of complementary topics taught between the two.
Each year we offer a customisable course programme with a variety of compulsory and optional modules.
Year 1 overview
Begin by exploring the key concepts of English Language and literature. You'll engage with the ideological debates surrounding the development and use of English around the world.
Your core modules will explore topics such as:
- the forms and functions of literary language
- the theoretical principles of literary critical study
- society's effect on language, and approaches to the development of English
Your first year optional modules will give you the chance to explore anything from language processing to drama, or the historical dimensions of literary study.
Year 2 overview
Build on the core methodologies of your chosen disciplines while customising your degree. You'll develop key analytical tools of enquiry and linguistic principles so that you can apply them to the study of language.
Your optional core modules will allow you to explore topics like:
- phonetics
- children's literature
- 19th century writing
- language acquisition and the brain
Through the subject-specific and free electives available to you, you'll also have the opportunity to study:
- a module in a foreign language
- a module in another subject
- a curriculum innovation module
- creative writing options
Year 3 overview
Tailor your degree to the interests you developed in your first and second year studies. You'll take a English Language and Literature Dissertation module across the two semesters.
You can choose from a wide range of options across both subjects, including:
- utopias and dystopias
- Shakespeare
- holocaust literature
- English as a global language
- language teaching and language testing
- second language acquisition
- syntax and phonetics
You can customise your degree further by selecting from our range of options in Modern Languages and Linguistics, English Literature, and Creative Writing. You can also study a foreign language, a module in another subject, or a curriculum innovation module.
Students on the course who do not have English as their first language may be required to take the appropriate English Language stage. Your personal academic tutor will help guide you through the choices available.
Want more detail? See all the modules in the course.
Modules
The modules outlined provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. As a research-led University, we undertake a continuous review of our course to ensure quality enhancement and to manage our resources. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand. Find out why, when and how we might make changes.
Year 1 modules
You must study the following modules in year 1:
Elements of Linguistics - Sound, Structure and Meaning
This module provides an introduction to linguistic approaches to sound, structure and meaning in the branches of linguistics known as phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
From English to Englishes
This module introduces you to the spread of English from its historical origins to colonial and postcolonial contexts and, further, to current global contexts. It explores sociolinguistic issues and debates centering on the development of English. It enga...
Poetic Language
How do we read poems, and what language can we use to describe our readings? This module will provide a detailed introduction to the particular qualities your ear, eye and brain will need to read poetry more effectively. You will study key features of poe...
The Making of Modern English
The module looks at the development of the English language, and examines its relationship with other, potentially rival, languages that have been spoken in the British Isles. It examines the effect of successive waves of conquest on the sociolinguistic s...
Theory & Criticism
The module asks big questions. What do we do when we interpret literature and culture, and how can we analyse our practices of interpretation? Can anything be a text, and if so what do we understand by ‘literature’? How does literature shape our identity,...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 1:
Applications of Linguistics
This unit will introduce you to the main areas relevant to applied language studies.
English Language Stage 4
English Language Stage 5
Language Acquisition
You may have asked yourself how children learn their first language or whether some animals can speak just like humans do. People often wonder whether there are any lifelong benefits of bilingualism as well. This module introduces you to the field of lang...
Literary Transformations
Why have some stories gripped the imagination of writers, musicians, and artists across cultures and centuries? And what does the emergence and constant re-emergence of such stories tell us about ourselves and others, past and present? What do readers and...
Puzzles about Art and Literature
Both individuals and society attach great importance and value to certain works of art, including poems, novels, films, plays, symphonies, and paintings. Most of us spend a considerable amount of our limited time and resources acquiring, creating, experie...
The Act of the Essay
This module focuses upon the essay as a critical practice and a literary form. The essay is fundamental to literary criticism, and basic to assessment across your degree. But the essay is also a literary and popular-cultural genre in its own right, a form...
The Invention of English Literature: Medieval to Early Modern
Where did the idea of ‘English Literature’ as we know it today come from? When and how did writers first start thinking of themselves as English authors? How did the mechanisms of book production and the material forms of books shape readers’ understandin...
World Dramas
In this module, you will learn how to approach dramatic texts in a way that takes into consideration their place in the world as a complex political, economic, and cultural network. We will focus on questions such as: • What is the difference between r...
Year 2 modules
You must study the following modules in year 2:
Syntax: Studying Language Structure
This module will provide introduce you to the study of syntax within current linguistic theory.
Variation and Change in English
This module takes an empirical approach to questions such as: - Are there patterns of speech and language associated with males and females in varieties of English? - What is the role of teenagers in the propagation of change in English? - After a...
You must also choose from the following modules in year 2:
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
You might watch a stunning film, hear a delightful song, enjoy a beautiful sunset, read a dreadful poem, attend an elegant dance, or see a garish building. Experiences like this can stimulate thoughts and feelings of great depth, and provide pleasure or d...
African Freedoms and The Novel
In Africa, the ideal of freedom has the capacity to evoke multiple layers of struggle and aspiration: from state decolonisation and the end of official racial segregation, to gendered, national, economic and spiritual freedoms. Historically, the novel has...
Brief Encounters: Writing Short Stories
Many writers begin with the short story. Through writing short stories they are able to experiment, learn the fundamentals of narrative composition, and have the satisfaction of completing something to a high standard in a relatively short period of time....
Chaucer and his World
The writings of Geoffrey Chaucer have had a deep and lasting influence on writers in English from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries. But every generation since the poet’s death has valued and interrogated different aspects of Chaucer’s works, re...
Children's Literature
Children's literature is a rather slippery term encompassing a variety of genres, child/adult concerns, engagement with historical/contextual issues on, for example, gender; class; nonsense; the nature of time; slavery. Other issues addressed are subject...
Corpus Linguistics: Working with large-scale text data
In this module, we introduce corpus linguistics as an approach to and method for analysing large-scale text data. We will develop an understanding of building and curating datasets, annotating data, and using quantitative and statistical measures for lang...
Data Environmentalism
Data is material. It is produced by people, it is made possible by resource extraction, it needs power to survive, it inhabits and resculpts the landscape. The use of data, then, contributes to climate catastrophe, but that role can be hard to see, hidden...
Data, Culture, and Justice
Data organise our present and shape our future. Those data are never neutral because they are the product of human labour, of choices made by people about what data to record, how to record it, and who is best equipped to do that recording. Drawing on wor...
Decolonising Modernity
Literary history is often told in epochs. In particular, it can be useful to understand the world in relation to some or other idea of “modernity”: for example, English literary studies is often organised through conceptions of the early modern, the mode...
Discourse Analysis
This module highlights and analyses the link between language structure and its situation of occurrence.
Experiment!
What does it mean to make literature new? What forms and reformations have offered starting points for rethinking literary convention? In this module, you will explore the revolutions, innovations, and boundary-crossings that have taken place in literatur...
Film, Realism and Reality: representing the world, from revolution to the everyday
This module will introduce you to some of the principal realist and documentary movements, asking how the simple aim to ‘show things as they really are’ has resulted in a range of creative and wildly different cinematic forms. It will consider the issue a...
From Black and White to Colour: A Screen History of Race, Gender and Sexuality in Post-War Britain
This module presents a history of post-war multicultural Britain through the lens of British film and television, considering how our attitudes to 'race', sexuality and British identity more generally have been defined, challenged and changed by film and...
Globalisation: Culture, Language and The Nation State
This module will problematize the concept of globalisation and explore and develop an understanding of its meaning in economic, political and cultural terms. Furthermore, we will examine the ideological struggle between competing forces over the nature an...
Great Writers Steal: Creative Writing and Critical Thinking
Many writers have penned essays about fiction and memoir: E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov, Milan Kundera, A.L. Kennedy, A.S. Byatt, to name just a famous few. Indeed, it seems essential at some p...
Images of Women
Cultural representations of women shed important light on notions of female subjectivity, sexuality and racial identity in the modern world. Medical discourses on gender, mental pathology and the rise of modern feminism are just some of the pivotal histor...
Inventing America
This module studies writing and visual representation in the early years of the republic of the United States. Focusing on the period from shortly before the American Revolution to the early years of the nineteenth century, this module will introduce stud...
Language, Power and Institutions: how linguistic practices can shape our lives
This module will introduce you to the making of institutions through language. We will investigate the links between language, institutions, and power to understand, how institutions are not only shaping the language used by members and users of instituti...
Multilingualism
This module will introduce you to the notion of ‘Multilingualism’, how this is understood and represented in different ways, and why it matters to you. You will explore how people become multilingual, and whether it makes a difference if multilinguals are...
Psycholinguistics
This module examines different sub-topics in psycholinguistics which help to understand what the relationship between language and the human mind might be.
Puzzles about Art and Literature
Both individuals and society attach great importance and value to certain works of art, including poems, novels, films, plays, symphonies, and paintings. Most of us spend a considerable amount of our limited time and resources acquiring, creating, experie...
Queens, Devils and Players in Early Modern England
Early modern England is a period associated with Elizabeth I and the Tudor court, the plays of Shakespeare, blood and violence on the Jacobean stage, the discovery of new worlds, and the persecution of witches and heretics. The diversity and vitality of t...
Romantics and Victorians
In 1831 the philosopher John Stuart Mill struggled to define the ‘Spirit’ of the nineteenth century. ‘It is’, he wrote, ‘an age of transition. Mankind have outgrown old institutions and old doctrines, and have not yet acquired new ones.’ If the nineteenth...
Scriptwriting
Dialogue, pace, setting, and story. Understanding the nuts of bolts of scriptwriting is not only key to a successful piece of theatre, cinema, or radio, but to all forms of creative writing or literary analysis. This course will introduce you to the art o...
Sound and Voice
This module builds on the basic concepts of articulatory phonetics introduced in the first year, and introduces theory and methodology of acoustic science for the study of the production and perception of speech sounds.
Speech Acts
How do writers activate and amplify the sonic properties of language? Why do artists use vocal performance of text in video art? How can text ‘perform’ on the page (or onscreen), and what does it mean for language to be performative? What does writing for...
Sweatshops, Sex workers, and Asylum Seekers: World Literature and Visual Culture after Globalisation
What can the voices and narratives of sex workers and asylum seekers depicted in world literature and visual culture tell us about the conditions and pressures of life in the contemporary world? How might considerations of narrative technique, genre, and ...
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
This module will introduce you to key issues, concepts and methods in teaching English as a second/foreign language.
The Early Modern Body
In this module, students will explore a wealth of different texts and different discourses, from the literary to the scientific, on humanity and the human body in the early modern period. Starting with a glimpse of ancient and modern visions of the body, ...
Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present
This module will introduce you to the social, political and cultural history of Vienna and Berlin in the 20th century, German using a wide range of sources which will include literature, film and architecture. Topics covered may include the following:...
Year 3 modules
You must study the following module in year 3:
You must also choose from the following modules in year 3:
Burning Worlds, Drowning Worlds: Oil Cultures, Climate Crisis, and Traumatic Desires in World Literatures
We keep being barraged with a deluge of unnerving news - about environmental crisis, multi-level pollution, exceeding desertification and inundation of centuries-long places of human habitation, floods, forest fires, relentless rise in sea-level due to t...
English as a Global Language
This module explores the rise of English as a global language focusing on the factors that have led to, and the issues that have arisen from, its dominant status. You will learn about the interrelation between globalisation, standardisation and variabilit...
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
You might watch a stunning film, hear a delightful song, enjoy a beautiful sunset, read a dreadful poem, attend an elegant dance, or see a garish building. Experiences like this can stimulate thoughts and feelings of great depth, and provide pleasure or d...
American Cinema Since 1965
The module offers a history of American cinema since 1965, covering the decline of the Hollywood studio system and the moment, from 1968 to 1975, when a new wave of directors produced a number of key films sometimes known as constituting the Hollywood art...
American Gothic
As the Puritan colonialist John Winthrop said at Holyrood Church in Southampton before embarking for Boston, American was to be ‘as a city upon a hill’, a beacon of progress and enlightenment for the world. But from the beginning, America has been shadowe...
Animal Forms: poetry and the non-human
What can animals teach us about the human and non-human? What do the creative forms we use to describe them show us about human form and the other? In this module, you will read a range of poetic and critical material which explores the porous boundaries ...
Authoring Austen: Writing, Reception and Adaptation
Jane Austen’s global appeal in the twenty-first century has been shaped by the ways that she has been read in the 200 years since her death. In this module, you will read Austen's novels, letters, and unpublished juvenile fiction, and explore some of the ...
Chaucer and his World
The writings of Geoffrey Chaucer have had a deep and lasting influence on writers in English from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries. But every generation since the poet’s death has valued and interrogated different aspects of Chaucer’s works, re...
Creative Writing in Schools
Are you interested in helping young people study English? This module will introduce you to teaching creative writing in secondary schools by providing training in effective classroom management and guidance on designing lesson plans for studying fiction ...
Environmental Cinema and Media
There is now an overwhelming scientific and political consensus that climate change is occurring as a result of human activity and that there is an urgent need for action to address the causes and effects of this. This module will consider the place of f...
Fantasy Film and Fiction
Fantasy film and fiction spans a wide range of texts, from Gothic 'classics' and feminist fairy tales, to Utopian literature and musicals. Analysing fantasy texts alongside psychoanalytic and cultural theories will enable you to engage with questions conc...
German-Jewish Writing Across the Twentieth Century
The turbulent history of Austrian and German Jews during the twentieth century was accompanied by the production of a diverse and influential body of German-language literature by Jewish authors. Prior to World War Two, Jews played a crucial role in the c...
Holocaust Literature
How has the Holocaust been represented? We will examine a range of responses to the Holocaust from the 1940s to the present day, including memoirs of camp survivors and experimental texts. Focusing on the limits of representation we will approach question...
Kings, Poets and Terror: Literature of the 1790s
The 1790s was a decade of revolutions abroad and of chaos and state paranoia at home. Britain began its longest continuous war in 1792. In a letter years afterwards to Byron, Percy Shelley declared that the French Revolution was ‘the master theme of the e...
Language Teaching Theory and Practice
This module examines the theory and practice of language teaching and explores 'reflective practice' as a set of skills that can be applied to your future working life.
Language Testing and Assessment in Society
This module develops awareness of how language testing and assessment have developed in educational and wider social contexts. It focusses on both purposes and processes of language testing and assessment, and critically examines applications in policy ar...
Language and Speech Disorders
This module focuses on language and communication disorders, both developmental and acquired. It builds on your linguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge developed in other modules you have followed in your programme. It will also examine the disorders...
Language and the City
One of the socially and culturally most significant consequences of transnational mobility is that urban populations in particular are increasingly multilingual: in global cities such as London, New York and Berlin there are speakers of hundreds of differ...
Love and Death in Africa's Cities
The stereotype of Africa as a predominantly ‘natural’ space ignores the existence of large and cosmopolitan urban environments on the continent. Yet today, the sprawling conurbations of Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg (as well as Africa’s other towns and ...
Meaning and Structure in Sociolinguistics
This module will introduce you to examples of sociolinguistic variation that occur in morpho-syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. We will examine the status of the sociolinguistic variable – which has historically focused on phonological variation – and thi...
Minorities and Migrants: Exploring Multicultural Germany
Germany has had a long tradition of immigration and is one of the most multi-cultural countries in Europe today. We will examine the impact of diverse immigration movements on recent German history and notions of German identity. This includes examining b...
Radical England: Literature and Crisis in the Seventeenth Century
The seventeenth century was a time of extreme change and political instability in England. In 1649, after years of civil war, Charles I, the King of England, was beheaded on Whitehall in front of a crowd of thousands. England, overnight, became a republic...
Second Language Acquisition
This module provides an insight into the cognitive processes involved in the acquisition of language. Different theories of first and second language acquisition will be examined and critically assessed in the light of empirical evidence. Various factors ...
Shakespeare Then and Now
Has Shakespeare aged well? From the boys in wigs on the Elizabethan stage to the digital wizardry of the twenty-first century, the technology as well as the ideology that informs Shakespearean performance keeps evolving—sometimes in unexpected ways. This ...
Sociophonetic Project Module
This final year module builds on the theoretical grounding students gain in LING 2011 Variation and Change in English and the instrumental analysis techniques from LING 2008 Sound and Voice. Through a series of computer, lab-based sessions, students test ...
Telling True Stories: Narrative Non-Fiction
Narrative non-fiction is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary writing. After many years of being seen as having lower artistic status than fiction, a hugely diverse range of memoir, autofiction, essay collections, and historical writing has draw...
The Origins of Climate Crisis: Ecology in Victorian Literature
Are we living in an age of climate change or climate crisis? In her 2019 speech to the World Economic Forum, Greta Thunberg famously declared “Our house is on fire”: a statement underscored by the Australian bushfire crisis of 2020 and the mass devastatio...
Utopias and Dystopias in Literature and Culture
From Plato’s Republic and Thomas More’s Utopia to Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, utopias have always been haunted by the spectre of the dystopian. If utopias imagine alternative ways of organizing society, dy...
Writing Queerness
Once upon a time, no one called themselves queer; now it names everything from a kind of person to a type of weather. Queerness seems necessary, ubiquitous, paradoxical – but why? Ranging from the eighteenth century to the present day, this module will ex...
Writing the Novel
The essential elements of writing a novel include crafting beginnings and endings, constructing characters, manipulating structure and plot, and developing an intimate relationship with language. Writing exercises and discussions of work in progress will ...
Learning and assessment
The learning activities for this course include the following:
- lectures
- classes and tutorials
- coursework
- individual and group projects
- independent learning (studying on your own)
Academic support
You’ll be supported by a personal academic tutor and have access to a senior tutor.
Course leader
Matthew Hunt is the course leader.
Careers
As an English language and literature graduate, you'll be qualified to work across a number of sectors; whether you're writing press releases, producing interviews or applying speech therapy techniques.
Areas you could go into include:
- creative industries (eg publishing, advertising, marketing, design)
- the arts and cultural sector
- commercial graduate training schemes
- civil service fast track
- journalism
- speech therapy
Our course will also give you a strong foundation in skills that are attractive to graduate employers. These include:
- written and verbal communication
- analytical and critical thinking
- presentation
- project management
- research
- organisation
As well as language learning opportunities provided by the Centre for Language Study, you can also make use of our Lifelong Learning programme, which provides extra-curricular teaching of some 12 languages.
Careers services at Southampton
We are a top 20 UK university for employability (QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2022). Our Careers, Employability and Student Enterprise team will support you. This support includes:
- work experience schemes
- CV and interview skills and workshops
- networking events
- careers fairs attended by top employers
- a wealth of volunteering opportunities
- study abroad and summer school opportunities
We have a vibrant entrepreneurship culture and our dedicated start-up supporter, Futureworlds, is open to every student.
Fees, costs and funding
Tuition fees
Fees for a year's study:
- UK students pay £9,250.
- EU and international students pay £22,300.
What your fees pay for
Your tuition fees pay for the full cost of tuition and all examinations.
Find out how to:
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We normally invite all candidates to an interview.
We'll aim to process your application within 2 to 6 weeks, but this will depend on when it is submitted. Applications submitted in January, particularly near to the UCAS equal consideration deadline, might take substantially longer to be processed due to the high volume received at that time.
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Email: enquiries@southampton.ac.uk
Tel: +44(0)23 8059 5000
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