English Language and Literature (BA)

Throughout the degree, our aim is to support you to become an independent, creative and critical thinker.

First year teaching provides carefully structured support through lectures and seminar discussions to help you develop key skills and gain confidence. Teaching in Years 2 and 3 is lecture- and seminar-based and moves gradually in the direction of specialisation and independent research. By the final year you’ll learn through guided independent reading and smaller interactive workshops and seminars, discussing new research with internationally recognised academics who are currently working in that area. You’ll have access to all course materials through our electronic learning environment.

In this supportive environment you’ll develop your abilities to closely analyse texts and arguments, collaboratively work through problems, construct your own arguments, and present your ideas clearly to others.  You will also develop skills in communication and collaboration that you can transfer to the world of employment.

How will I be supported?

Your main sources of support are your module leaders, your Personal Tutors and the School Writing Development Centre. You’ll have one Personal Tutor in English Language and one in Literature. Your module leaders have drop-in sessions during teaching weeks that you can attend if you have any questions about course materials or assessments. Personal Tutors can advise you on academic matters, including study skills, careers, and your academic progress, as well as on pastoral matters. You’ll be invited to meet with your Personal Tutors regularly throughout your degree, and they are available for extra meetings as needed. Welsh-speaking students will be offered a Welsh-speaking personal tutor.

The School’s Writing Development Centre provides specialist support for academic writing across the programme. You can access online materials, workshops and one-to-one meetings about any aspect of academic writing to support you with your assessments.

Our Professional Services Team provides academic and student support and is there is to help you with information and guidance if you have any queries. Beyond the school, the university offers a range of support services and events to help you plan your career, manage your emotional, mental and physical health, support you with financial issues, and provide assistance for students with disabilities. These services are co-located at the university's Centre for Student Life. Libraries, study spaces and other resource centres will all be available to you.

How will I be assessed?

Your assessments are designed to cumulatively develop key skills in communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and reflection. These can include critical analyses of texts, essays, exams, critical reviews, presentations, group work and group discussion assessments, analytical tasks, weekly tasks, and reflective assessment of your own skills. In the final year, in English Language, you will work on analysing data and presenting your findings for diverse audiences, while in English literature you will collaborate with others to produce a public-facing piece of work.

You’ll receive regular feedback on your progress as you move through the degree. Oral feedback in lectures, workshops and seminars will help you assess your understanding of the course material and your critical responses to it. You’ll receive formative comments on essay ideas and draft work, and detailed feedback on all marked coursework.

What skills will I practise and develop?

The Learning Outcomes for this Programme describe what you will achieve by the end of your programme at Cardiff University and identify the knowledge and skills that you will develop. They will also help you to understand what is expected of you.

On successful completion of your Programme you will be able to:

Knowledge & Understanding:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of core areas of English language and linguistics, including phonetics, grammar, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse.
• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of how language works in the social world.
• Systematically comprehend literature from different cultures and periods (including pre-1800) and the range of principal literary genres across prose, poetry, and drama.
• Systematically comprehend the relationships between literature and other cultural forms, such as film, art, music, and material/digital cultures.
• Systematically comprehend how culture, language, technology, and economics affect how, where, and by whom texts are produced and received.

Intellectual Skills:

• Apply descriptive terminology relevant to English language and linguistic phenomena.
• Analyse various types of linguistic data.
• Develop and explain complex and specialised arguments that support claims in response to the conventions of the genre.
• Evaluate the impact of language use in a range of contexts.
• Examine different kinds of literary and cultural materials closely and critically.

Professional Practical Skills:

• Systematically comprehend and explain ideas, arguments and empirical research with accuracy.
• Show critical awareness of different writing conventions and writing tools, and have the ability to use and adapt them successfully.
• Assess and solve problems independently, taking the views of others into account in a systematic and evaluative way.

Transferable/Key Skills:

• Organise and communicate complex ideas and arguments in different formats suitable to different audiences, using appropriate referencing conventions.
• Develop initiative by taking responsibility for structuring and time-managing a research task, working in teams when appropriate.
• Reflect on and respond to constructive feedback.