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English Literature and Linguistics

Entry Year: 2024

2 study options

English Literature and Linguistics BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
3 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
QQ13
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

English Literature and Linguistics with Year Abroad BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
4 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
QQ1Y
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

Year abroad cost

Finances for studying abroad on exchange

View details

Overview

The words we use hold power – they inspire, persuade and entertain. But how does language actually achieve this?

Calling lovers of literature and language. Join us to unpick words on a page while also untangling how the language itself is used in literature. Youll ask questions about the future – what is the impact of AI-generated language? How is the way we express ideas like gender shifting? 

Weve been the top-ranked research unit in linguistics in the UK for the past 20 years. And our English teaching team is made up of 40 academics who you might have already come across on the radio or TV. 

Well provide fascinating research insights into the nature of language while looking at the very earliest Anglo-Saxon poems to the latest bestsellers. Our modules also span a wide geography from the East End of London to India. 

Register your interest

The latest insights

By combining these subjects, youll be part of exciting conversations about a wide variety of literature and the way we communicate. Well also discuss the latest projects happening here such as how weve helped preserve the cultural heritage of local communities and provided training to help reduce bias. 

Research and analysis skills are sought after by employers, so well help you become confident communicating ideas and analysing data. Perhaps youll discover you want to apply these skills to work in the public sector, education or policy. Or maybe public relations is where youll find a rewarding role. 

Structure

You can complete your English Literature and Linguistics degree in three or four years. If you choose to do a year abroad this will take place in Year 3 and Year 3 modules will instead be studied in Year 4.

Year 1

In English, you will take the following modules (all compulsory):

  • Poetry (15 credits)
  • London Global (30 credits)
  • Literatures in Time Epic and Romance in the Middle Ages (15 credits)

 

In Linguistics, you will take the following two compulsory modules:

  • Foundations of Language (30 credits)
  • Sociolinguistics: English in Use (15 credits)


In addition, students choose 15 credits from linguistics modules at level 4.

 

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

In English you will take one 30 credit module from List One or Two, and at least one module from Lists Three or Four:

List One: Medieval and Early-Modern Studies

  • Chaucer: Gender, Faith, Identity 
  • Renaissance Drama
  • Renaissance Literary Culture

List Two: Eighteenth Century Studies, Romanticism, Nineteenth-Century Studies

  • Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth Century City
  • Romantics and Revolutionaries
  • Victorian Fictions  

List Three: Modern, Contemporary, and Postcolonial Studies 

  • The Long Contemporary
  • Modernism
  • Postcolonial and Global Literatures 

List 4: Special Options (this list changes each year). Modules may include:

  • American Romanticsm
  • Art Histories: an Introduction to the Visual Arts in London
  • Global Shakespeare
  • James Baldwin and American Civil Rights
  • Terror, Transgression and Astonishment: the Gothic in the Long Nineteenth Century
  • The Crisis of Culture: Literature and Politics, 1918-1948
  • The Thousand and One Nights

 

In Linguistics, students normally choose 60 Credits optional linguistics modules at level 5 from a wide range of options that changes each year. Modules may include:

  • Aspects of Meaning
  • Explaining Grammatical Structure
  • History of English
  • Language and Mind
  • Language in the USA
  • Research Methods in Linguistics
  • Semantics of African American English

 

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

You will take one of the following modules:

  • English Research Dissertation
  • English/Linguistics Research Project

You then choose your final-year elective modules from a wide range of options that changes each year. In English, your selection will normally include one 30 credit option module. 

Elective modules may include:

  • Beyond Language: Multimodality in Theory and Practice
  • British Fictions of the 1960s
  • Constructing a Language
  • Creative Writing Prose Fiction
  • Developmental Disorders of Language and Cognition
  • Feminism(s)
  • Gender and Language
  • Guillotines, Ghosts and Laughing Gas: Literature in the 1790s
  • Heroes and Outlaws in History and Fiction from 1100 to 1600
  • James Joyce's Ulysses
  • Language and Health Communication
  • Meaning in the Real World, Sex
  • Reading Late Victorian Literature
  • Shakespeare: the Play, the Word and the Book
  • Teaching Trans Lives
  • Time, Narrative and Culture
  • Writing Black and Asian Britain

This is a sample of modules from our full module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Study options

Apply for this degree with any of the following options. Take care to use the correct UCAS code - it may not be possible to change your selection later.

Year abroad

Go global and study abroad as part of your degree – apply for our English Literature and Linguistics BA with a Year Abroad. Queen Mary has links with universities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia (partnerships vary for each degree programme).

Find out more about study abroad opportunities at Queen Mary and what the progression requirements are. 

Additional Costs

A few modules may require you to buy tickets to shows or exhibitions (often at a discounted rate) as well as pay for travel within London.

Testimonial

Studying abroad has allowed me to improve upon my adaptability and flexibility in new situations. I now feel even more comfortable communicating with people from different cultures because of this experience. I loved meeting people from all over the world.

Charlotte Jones, English Literature and Linguistics (2018)

Teaching

Teaching and learning

You'll receive approximately 10 hours of weekly contact time, which will be a mixture of lectures and seminars. Lectures are given by expert staff, and can also feature guests such as industry experts, poets, linguists and curators. Modules may also include field trips, tutorials and workshops.

For every hour spent in class, you'll complete a further four to six hours of independent study.

Assessment

Assessment typically includes exams and coursework, often in the form of essays, but sometimes as extended projects, presentations, log books and portfolios.

Resources and facilities

Both Schools offer excellent on-campus and London-based resources to support your studies, including:

  • access to Senate House Library and the British Library – the most important intellectual resources in London
  • proximity to specialist archives and collections such as the BFI National Archive, Poetry Library, Women’s Library, National Art Library and the Warburg Institute
  • opportunities to meet visiting experts including publishers, curators, archivists, poets, novelists, activists and filmmakers
  • opportunities to write, edit and publish for student newspapers and magazines
  • Ling Lunch talks and departmental guest speaker seminars, which allow you to hear from Queen Mary academics, researchers and experts from institutions in Europe and North America
  • a phonetics laboratory, including a soundproof recording studio.
Video

English Literature Taster: Brave New Words: Writing Across Worlds and promoting writers of colour in Wasafiri.

Entry requirements

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include a minimum of 6 in Higher Level English A.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in English Literature or Literacy modules at Distinction.
GCSEMinimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4.
EPQ

Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification.

For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq

Contextualised admissions

Our standard contextual offer: Grades BBC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades BCC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include a minimum of 6 in Higher Level English A.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in English Literature or Literacy modules at Distinction.
GCSEMinimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4.
EPQAlternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq
Contextualised admissionsOur standard contextual offer: Grades BBC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades BCC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

Non-UK students

We accept a wide range of European and international qualifications in addition to A-levels, the International Baccalaureate and BTEC qualifications. Please visit International Admissions for full details.

If your qualifications are not accepted for direct entry onto this degree, consider applying for a foundation programme.

English language

Find out more about our English language entry requirements, including the types of test we accept and the scores needed for entry to the programme.

You may also be able to meet the English language requirement for your programme by joining a summer pre-sessional programme before starting your degree.

Further information

See our general undergraduate entry requirements.

Funding

Loans and grants

UK students accepted onto this course are eligible to apply for tuition fee and maintenance loans from Student Finance England or other government bodies.

Scholarships and bursaries

Queen Mary offers a generous package of scholarships and bursaries, which currently benefits around 50 per cent of our undergraduates.

Scholarships are available for home, EU and international students. Specific funding is also available for students from the local area. International students may be eligible for a fee reduction. We offer means-tested funding, as well as subject-specific funding for many degrees.

Find out what scholarships and bursaries are available to you.

Support from Queen Mary

We offer specialist support on all financial and welfare issues through our Advice and Counselling Service, which you can access as soon as you have applied for a place at Queen Mary.

Take a look at our Student Advice Guides which cover ways to finance your degree, including:

  • additional sources of funding
  • planning your budget and cutting costs
  • part-time and vacation work
  • money for lone parents.

Careers

Our English Literature and Linguistics graduates go on to work across many different sectors, including publishing, journalism, marketing, arts and heritage and public relations.

Recent graduates from our English Literature and Linguistics degree have been hired by:

  • Curzon PR
  • Harper Collins
  • The Independent
  • London and Partners
  • Penguin Random House
  • Shakespeare’s Globe.

Career support

You’ll have access to bespoke careers support every step of your degree, including personal academic support from the English and Linguistics Departments. A practical third-year module will prepare you for the transition from university to working life by researching career, entrepreneurial and postgraduate study prospects.

Our careers team can also offer:

  • specialist advice on choosing a career path
  • support with finding work experience, internships and graduate jobs
  • feedback on CVs, cover letters and application forms
  • interview coaching.

Learn more about career support and development at Queen Mary.

Data for these courses

English Literature and Linguistics - BA (Hons)

English Literature and Linguistics with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)

The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)

About the Schools

School of English and Drama - Department of English

We provide a first-class learning environment - the Departments of Drama and English are in the top 35 in the world (QS World Rankings by Subject 2018). And you’ll learn from leading experts: Drama is ranked first and English fifth in the UK for research quality (Research Excellence Framework 2014).

Our degrees make full use of the literary and cultural riches of London, with trips to venues such as Shakespeare’s Globe, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Library.

School of Languages Linguistics and Film

The School of Languages, Linguistics and Film explores global culture and communication through a vibrant interdisciplinary environment with five interconnected areas of academic excellence. Our multilingual community brings together brilliant minds from across the world to share a wealth of expertise – from practical film-making and contemporary literature to experimental neurolinguistics and 11 different modern languages – so that students can become truly global citizens.

Our School’s departments are united by the common threads of communication and culture. Both a single and richly varied entity, our work enables creative thinking that goes beyond national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. We combine research excellence with a commitment to social justice and mobility, true to the Queen Mary spirit, achieving the previously unthinkable through our unique mix of bright minds.

Contact us

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