English language and linguistics courses
Our undergraduate courses offer study of English language and linguistics through a highly flexible, modular structure. As well as being able to build a
programme that suits your interests by choosing from more than 50 different modules, you can change your course at the end of your first or second year.
Teaching is through a combination of large group lectures and small group seminars. Our modules offer a variety of assessment methods, including coursework,
exams, presentations and project work.
Single honours
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BA English Language
You gain insight into issues such as how accents vary between English dialects, how English is used in conversation and the media, how English words have changed their
form and meaning over time, and how grammar has evolved. The course is extremely flexible. In your first year, you take three compulsory modules and one optional module.
In your second and final years there are no compulsory modules, giving you the opportunity to build a course that suits your interests.
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BA English Language, Language Acquisition and Language Disorders
This course 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. You specialise in psycholinguistics and study issues such as how we produce and process words and sentences. The course is ideal for those fascinated
by the reasons why some people are unable to communicate properly.
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BA English Language and Linguistics
This course enables you to combine modules which describe the sound, word and sentence structure of English, and sociolinguistic modules on varieties of English, with more
general linguistics modules. As your course progresses, you can choose modules which suit your interests, enabling you to specialise in areas such as conversation and social
interaction, media and institutional talk, varieties of English, language and gender, language variation and English phonology, and lexical and grammatical changes in the history
of English.
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BA Linguistics
Our BA Linguistics examines issues such as how children learn to talk and read, the best ways to teach and learn a foreign language, and how our age, gender, and social
and regional backgrounds affect the way we speak. The course is extremely flexible and gives you free choice of linguistics modules in your second and final years. It is ideal
for those interested in understanding how we communicate with each other and how different methods of communication convey something about ourselves.
Joint honours
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BA English Language and History
This course covers linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of the structure and use of modern English, and offers you the chance to study a range of historical periods from the
sixteenth century to the present day. In each of your three years at Essex, your time is split equally between studying English and studying history. The course is for those who want
to know the reasons why the English language takes its current form, and also want to know how historical events have shaped the world.
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BA English Language and Literature
This course covers linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of the structure and use of modern English, and offers you the chance to study a range of literary genres and approaches
to literary criticism. In each of your three years at Essex, your time is split equally between studying English and studying literature. The course is for those who want to know the
reasons why the English language takes its current form, and who enjoy reading and studying a wide range of poetry, prose and drama texts encompassing several genres and periods.
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BA Linguistics and Sociology
This course enables you to apply the study of the structure of modern society to sociolinguistic concerns such as accent and dialect variation, multilingualism, and language in
the media. If you are interested in understanding how we communicate with each other and how society functions, while looking at the effect of language on society and the effect
of society on language, then this course is for you.
We also offer joint honours courses in modern languages with English language or linguistics.