English Language and Literature BA

Course overview

How do words work to shape and express human experience? This course explores the English language, its linguistic and literary heritage, significance and future. Learn about how language varies according to geographic, historical, social, and stylistic influences, as you encounter richly diverse texts across different literary and non-literary genres. Explore fiction, poetry, drama, speeches, advertising, news, and more from literary and linguistic perspectives.

Working across a variety of historical periods, places, and cultures, you’ll consider how and why texts are produced, read, and understood, understanding the impact of creativity and power, engaging with theories that shape and underpin literary and language study, and discovering how critical approaches can change the way we see literature, language, and the world around us.

You’ll choose optional modules covering language and literary topics in English from the Middle Ages to today and work with expert tutors with a wide range of research interests, developing your digital and communication skills.

Effective communication drives the world. This course prepares you for a rewarding and fulfilling professional future. Graduates pursue careers in media, publishing, journalism, education, the cultural industries and creative arts, or enter fields including management, marketing, and business, where strong analytical skills are prized.

Our expertise

The School of English supports a vibrant community of researchers and creative practitioners. One of the largest English departments in the country, the School covers literatures in English from the medieval to the present day. It is home to Poetry@Leeds and it regularly hosts readings and talks by well-known and emerging contemporary writers. The highly respected literary magazine, Stand, is produced in the School of English and we also support a range of student publications.

Facilities

The University of Leeds is a partner of the National Poetry Centre, a national home for poetry, performance, learning and literacy based in Leeds.

The University’s world-class Brotherton Library has a wealth of archive, manuscript and early printed material in its Special Collections including a Shakespeare First Folio, letters by Charles Dickens, materials from the Brontë family, the collection of Bram Stoker papers, as well as more recent archives for writers such as Peter Robinson, Simon Armitage, and Tony Harrison. It is also the home of the Survey of English dialects, which contains documents and recordings of the dialects of English.

The School of English has its own print studio, allowing you to learn traditional typesetting and printing techniques and print your own works.

Take a look around our libraries:

Course details

In your first year, core modules will allow you to develop the skills you need to study language and literature at a university level. You’ll cover the foundations of literary studies, learn to think about the English language in its historical and social contexts and choose from a range of modules, including Discovery options in other Schools. 

You’ll build your knowledge and skills from this foundation in the following year, and study modules that will give you a sense of how literature in English has evolved and how it varies between writers and cultures. You’ll also explore the function and power of language and its role in society. In addition, you have the opportunity to tailor your degree to your interests by choosing from an extensive range of optional and Discovery modules (detailed below).

In your third year, alongside a choice of modules, you’ll start work on your final year project. Based on a topic of your design, this individual project will showcase your development as a critical thinker and researcher and demonstrate your ability to manage a large project and communicate effectively. 

For more information please read BA English Language and Literature in the course catalogue.

Year 1 compulsory modules

These modules are founded on the individual expertise of colleagues in English language and literature and build on the tradition of excellence at Leeds.

English Structure, Style and Genre (20 credits) - This module provides an exciting introduction to the study of the English language from the smallest element of sound, through syntax and style, to the analysis of different text types, including, for example, newspaper articles, advertising, poetry, narrative, and courtroom discourse. Students are introduced to a wide range of ways of approaching the description, analysis, and interpretation of texts, including use of the IPA, quantitative, qualitative, and computational approaches. It gives students opportunities for formative feedback on their analytical skills and oral presentation of their ideas, as well as group discussion and live lectures. In this module students are given access to a range of issues and approaches developed in English Language modules available at Levels 2 and 3.

English Variation, Creativity and Use (20 credits) - This module introduces the fascinating breadth and diversity to be found within the English language. It offers insights into different geographic, historical, social and stylistic variations – where they come from, their characteristics, how and why they are used.

Reading Between the Lines (20 credits) - This module equips students with a critical vocabulary for sophisticated literary study. Through close analysis of texts from a range of periods, the module introduces the creative, argumentative, and exciting discipline of ‘English Studies’. Students will encounter some of the theories that have shaped the discipline, and in turn, will discover how an English degree might change how they read the world. Guided critical reading, collaboration with peers in group presentations and seminars, and a variety of assignments will introduce students to the different kinds of assessment required later in the degree.

Writing Matters (20 credits) - Writing and communication skills are vital to most professional careers and are at the heart of English studies. This module uses well-known texts to explore the theoretical approaches and rhetorical strategies used to write about literature. Students will enhance their own writing by engaging ethically with both the text and what has been written about it, developing structured arguments, expressing ideas clearly and concisely, working with feedback, and practising writing as a process. As a result, students will cultivate a deeper understanding of how writing works, within the context of the degree, the discipline of English, and the wider world beyond.

Year 1 optional modules

Selection of typical options shown below:

• Poetry: Reading and Interpretation (20 credits)

• Drama: Text and Performance (20 credits)

• Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation (20 credits)

• Race, Writing and Decolonization (20 credits)

• Language Projects (20 credits)

• Language: Meaning and Use (20 credits)

Year 2 compulsory modules

Power of Language (20 credits) - This module aims to familiarise students with the linguistic means by which a whole range of persuasive texts can be analysed. We will also be considering the use of English language as a powerful tool in itself. We investigate a range of discourse types and theoretical approaches including but not restricted to analysis of: advertising, journalistic and political texts, consideration of stylistic and rhetorical features, examination of linguistic creativity and language 'play', techniques for revealing a text's underlying ideological stance and bias, sociolinguistic examination of power relationships and the effect this has on language.

Language in Society (20 credits) - In this module students will engage critically with topics, theories and research methodologies in the field of sociolinguistics, which is concerned with the complex relationship between language and society. Focusing on language in its social context, we will ask about linguistic variation (how small scale patterns of language use correlate with social categories such as class, gender and age) and the role of language in social life (including its relationships to power, national identity and ideology).

Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture (20 credits) - This module examines what it means to live as human beings on a more-than-human planet. We’ll investigate how literary texts from different times and places have understood the relationship between nature and culture. We’ll address human impacts on the environment in relation to historical phenomena such as colonialism. And we’ll explore the insights that literature can offer at a time of concern about climate change and other environmental issues.

Body Language: Literature and Embodiment (20 credits) - At the heart of this module are big questions such as: what does it mean to be ‘human’? Does technology change who we are? What are the links between the body and the mind? Tackling the relationships between embodiment, language, and representation in texts from different periods and in different forms and genres, the module examines how writers have imagined the relationship between material bodies and literary representation.

Year 2 optional modules

Selection of typical options shown below:

• Prose Fiction Stylistics and the Mind (20 credits)

• Forensic Approaches to Language (20 credits)

• Keywords: The Words We Use and The Ways We Use Them (20 credits)

• Digital Discourse (20 credits)

• Language of the Media (20 credits)

• Global English': Colonialism, Postcolonialsm, and Decolonisation (20 credits)

• Contemporary Literature (20 credits)

• Renaissance Literature (20 credits)

• Medieval and Tudor Literature (20 credits)

• Modern Literature (20 credits)

• Postcolonial Literature (20 credits)

• The World Before Us: Literature 1660-1830 (20 credits)

• Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature (20 credits)

• American Words, American Worlds (20 credits)

Year 3 compulsory modules

Final Year Project (40 credits) - This module encourages independent, self-directed learning, and provides the culmination to the research strand emphasised in other modules. Working with their supervisor and supported by a programme of lectures and workshops, students pursue their own intellectual interests by designing, defining and creating their own capstone project. Since this might take any of a number of forms, it fosters a wide variety of responses to the challenges it offers students. Most importantly, it promotes academic creativity by allowing students the space to explore their own intellectual passions. Students on this degree can choose to do a final year project in English language or English literature.

Year 3 optional modules

Each year we offer a selection of optional modules at Level 3. These are taught by research specialists based in the School. Some typical examples are shown below:

• Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Cultures, Media (20 credits)

• Children, Talk and Learning (20 credits)

• Trial Discourse - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913 (20 credits)

• The Politics of Language (20 credits)

• Dialect Hunting (20 credits)

• Language Policy (20 credits)

• Cursing and Courtesy (20 credits)

• American Words, American Worlds, 1900-Present (20 credits)

• Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel (20 credits)

• Telling Lives: Reading and Writing Family Memoir (20 credits)

• Home Bodies: Companion Animals in Contemporary Literature (20 credits)

• Postcolonial London (20 credits)

• Global African Writing (20 credits)

• Shakespeare and Global Cinema (20 credits)

• Refugee Narratives (20 credits)

• Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After (20 credits)

• Bowie, Reading, Writing (20 credits)

Learning and teaching

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

English Language and Literature modules are assessed using various methods, including essays and shorter written assignments.

Some modules will also include wikis, podcasts, research exercises, online tests, or oral presentations.

This range of assessments will help you develop your communication skills, improve your digital literacy, and enhance your ability to deliver different projects. 

Entry requirements

A-level: AAB including English (Language, Literature or Language and Literature).

Other course specific tests:

Where an applicant is taking the EPQ in a relevant subject this might be considered alongside other Level 3 qualifications and may attract an alternative offer in addition to the standard offer. If you are taking A Levels, this would be ABB at A Level including English (Language, Literature, or Language and Literature) and grade A in the EPQ.

Alternative qualification

Read more about UK and Republic of Ireland accepted qualifications or contact the School’s Undergraduate Admissions Team.

Alternative entry

We’re committed to identifying the best possible applicants, regardless of personal circumstances or background.

Access to Leeds is a contextual admissions scheme which accepts applications from individuals who might be from low income households, in the first generation of their immediate family to apply to higher education, or have had their studies disrupted.

Find out more about Access to Leeds and contextual admissions.

Typical Access to Leeds offer: BBB including English (Language, Literature or Language and Literature) at A Level and pass Access to Leeds.

Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

This course is designed for students whose backgrounds mean they are less likely to attend university (also known as widening participation backgrounds) and who do not currently meet admissions criteria for direct entry to a degree.

The course will give you the opportunity to be taught by academic staff and provides intensive support to enable your development of academic skills and knowledge. On successful completion of your foundation year, you will progress to your chosen degree course. Find out more about the Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

Alternative Entry Scheme for Mature Students

If you are a mature applicant (over 21) and you don’t have the required A Levels or GCSE English and maths qualifications, you can complete our Alternative Entry Scheme (subject to meeting the eligibility criteria for the scheme). As part of this, you may be asked to take tests in English and maths and to write an essay.

Contact the Lifelong Learning Centre for more information.

International

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. For more information contact the School of English admissions team.

International Foundation Year

International students who do not meet the academic requirements for undergraduate study may be able to study the University of Leeds International Foundation Year. This gives you the opportunity to study on campus, be taught by University of Leeds academics and progress onto a wide range of Leeds undergraduate courses. Find out more about International Foundation Year programmes.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English
If you're an international student and you don't meet the English language requirements for this programme, you may be able to study our undergraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

Fees

UK: To be confirmed

International: To be confirmed

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
The fee for UK undergraduate students is decided by the Government and may vary if policy changes. The fee may increase in future years of your course in line with inflation, and as permitted by law.

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 will be £9,535.

The tuition fee for the following programmes with an integrated foundation year is £5,760 for the foundation year, and £9,535 for subsequent years of study:
•    Business Studies with Foundation Year BSC
•    Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year BA
•    Interdisciplinary Studies with Preparation for Higher Education BA
•    Social Science (foundation year) BA
 

Tuition fees for international undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
Tuition fees for international students for 2025/26 are available on individual course pages.
 

Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year
If you take a study abroad or work placement year, you’ll pay a reduced tuition fee during this period. For more information, see Study abroad and work placement tuition fees and loans.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There is help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more in our Undergraduate funding overview.

Applying

Apply to this course through UCAS. Check the deadline for applications on the UCAS website.

Read our guidance about applying.

International students apply through UCAS in the same way as UK students. Our network of international representatives can help you with your application. If you’re unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of English

Contact us

School of English Undergraduate Admissions

Email: englishug@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:

Career opportunities

A degree in English Language and Literature gives you a range of valuable skills and attributes. Our graduates have gone on to find success in areas such as the creative industries, marketing, education, journalism, law, publishing, media, business charity work, civil service, management consultancy and leadership. 

Many have also progressed to postgraduate study. On this course, you’ll develop your abilities as an excellent communicator who can present well-reasoned arguments and conclusions.

Learning in groups with others and reading about human problems and social situations will develop your interpersonal skills and understanding of ethical and cultural complexities. You’ll have strong organisational and time management skills. 

You’ll be able to conduct research, interpret complex information, think critically and express yourself clearly. Employers are always looking out for people with these critical skills. 

Careers support

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.

Study abroad and work placements

Study abroad

On this course you have the opportunity to apply to spend time abroad, usually as an extra academic year. We have over 300 University partners worldwide and popular destinations for our students include Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Latin America. 

Find out more at the Study Abroad website.

Work placements

Practical work experience can help you decide on your career and improve your employability. On this course you have the option to apply to take a placement year module with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.

Find out more about work experience on the Careers website.