New programmes launched for 2017

Drawing on the international reputation of its multiple disciplines, the School of English, Communication and Philosophy has launched two new single honours programmes for 2017: BA English Language and Linguistics and BA English Literature and Creative Writing.

Head of School, Professor Damian Walford Davies, said: “Enhancing existing areas of excellence and creativity, we have ensured that these two new degree schemes are distinctive, engaging, outward-facing and research-led. They bring our disciplines into dialogue in very exciting ways.”

In the most recent University Research Assessment exercise (REF2014), English Language and English Literature was ranked in the UK top ten, with 87% of submitted research rated as ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world-leading’.

The new BA English Language and Linguistics programme covers all aspects of human language. Examining how linguistic knowledge is acquired, produced and understood, it explores what languages have in common and what distinguishes them from one another. Investigating the change of language over time, it also scrutinizes accents and distinct social registers – those intriguing elements that add colour and variety to everyday speech.

The programme will appeal to those set on discipline-related careers, from speech therapy and language teaching to digital journalism and the legal system. Examining the human capacity for language in all its expressions across the world, it will deliver a greater focus on linguistic theory.

Phonetics, grammar, lexis and morphology strongly feature, enabling students to analyse numerical data and speech, and identify patterns in large collections of written and spoken language. In an age dominated by hybrid forms of word, image and sound, the production of ‘multimodal’ texts in the form of websites, blogs and magazine covers is built into the programme alongside essential proficiency in dedicated software.

Introducing the new English Literature and Creative Writing programme, Professor Walford Davies, who is Chair of Literature Wales, said: “Our new degree in English Literature and Creative Writing – complementing and clearly connected with our renowned MA and PhD programmes – will stretch our students intellectually and imaginatively, training them to explore literature as both innovative practitioners and smart critics, and giving them the opportunity to enhance their knowledge of genre, literary history and their own place in the traditions we both inherit and seek to change.”

Designed for budding professional creative writers and lovers of literature alike, the new programme opens up the full range of English Literature, from the earliest recorded Anglo-Saxon writing across the melting-pot of the English-speaking world to contemporary literary voices. Like its sister degree in English Literature, it offers an exciting degree of choice across period and theme.

Taught through weekly workshops with academic practitioners who specialise in multiple genres, the Creative Writing element culminates in a creative portfolio of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, playwriting or screenwriting. Students will be inspired by the School’s dynamic literary environment, which includes flagship events open to the public such as Cardiff BookTalk and Cardiff Poetry Experiment alongside the School’s Creative Writing Café and Visiting Writers programme.

With opportunities to study abroad as far afield as the USA and Canada, the new programmes are available both full-time and part-time from 2017.