English Language (Placement Year) BA (Hons)

Taught by academics and scholars highly rated for both teaching and research, your degree course focuses on the analysis of contemporary and historical English.

You’ll begin your degree with our core English Language module. This wide-ranging module will introduce you to the English Language, how to describe it, how it varies, and how it functions in a variety of contexts. You will not only study the traditional linguistic areas of English (eg lexis, grammar, phonetics), but also areas that are often overlooked (eg letters, spellings) and areas that have more recently come to the fore, such as pragmatics or conversation analysis. You’ll also take two further subjects of your choice.

In your second year, you’ll move on to core subjects such as English Sounds and Structures. At Lancaster, we offer you a range of exciting options for the second and third year of your degree, such as Discourse Analysis; Stylistics; Forensic Linguistics; Language in the Workplace, Contemporary Methods in English Language Studies.

You will have the opportunity to spend Year 3 on placement with a public, private or voluntary organisation in the UK or overseas. This experience will boost your employment prospects and will help you to decide on your career direction and the kind of organisation in which you want to work once you graduate. You will be doing a real, responsible job – with all the satisfaction that brings. Our Placements Team will support you in finding and applying for a suitable placement that will support your professional development. Applying for a placement is a competitive process and the preparatory modules you will complete in years one and two are designed to give you the best chance of success in your placement applications. You will also be provided with dedicated workshops, 1:1 appointments with careers professionals as well as opportunities to speak with employers here on campus.

During the placement year you will remain a Lancaster University student which means that you will still be eligible for a student loan, have access to facilities such as the library and receive discounts on transport and council tax. Your tuition fee will be reduced to 20% during the placement year.

The placement will enhance your understanding of the connections between theory and practice and this will benefit your final year of study. This is an exciting opportunity to build up experience and transferable skills, as well as to make contacts with potential employers which will place you a step ahead in the graduate recruitment market.

In your final year, you'll undertake a Dissertation research project, which enables you to independently explore a topic that is especially interesting or relevant to your career, overseen by a staff member in that area.

Careers

An English Language degree is suitable for careers at all levels in education as well as language related fields such as publishing, the media and information technology. It is also valuable in fields where international communication is important, like science, trade and international relations.

Recent graduates have gone onto work or train as teachers, speech therapists, computer programmers and consultants, bankers, chartered accountants, personnel managers, journalists and social workers. Our English Language in the Media degree is an ideal preparation for a career in the media, while studying abroad is a great way to make your CV stand out. A sizeable proportion of our graduates take up employment overseas.