Program Overview

BA English Language and Linguistics with Foundation

The BA English Language and Linguistics with Foundation degree is a four-year program that includes a foundation year leading directly into the three-year course. This program explores how language lies at the heart of human life and society, and develops core academic skills.

Overview

The foundation year provides skills and knowledge to succeed at university, including core skills in academic study, writing, and research. The subject-specific studies include Academic Skills, Study for Success, and Identities.

Foundation Year

The foundation year benefits include:

• Access to full range of facilities and resources
• Full integration into university life
• Experience of an academic environment
• Specialist support and guidance

Learning

Following successful completion of the foundation year, students progress onto the three-year BA English Language and Linguistics degree. This course examines how language is crucial to understanding ourselves as members of society, individuals, and as a species.

Structure

The program consists of:

1. Foundation Year
2. Year 1
3. Year 2
4. Year 3

Compulsory Modules

• Study for Success: Gain experience in producing assignments at undergraduate level
• Global Identities: Consider your place in the global community
• Foundation in Academic Skills: Develop academic skills essential for success
• English Language and Society: Understand how language operates in social groups
• Techniques and Skills for Applied Linguistics: Develop reading, writing, critical thinking, and presentation skills
• Sounds, Grammar and Meaning: Examine language as a communication system
• Globalisation and Language: Learn how languages spread across the world
• Discourse Analysis: Discover key methodological frameworks and analytical approaches
• English Grammar and Phonology: Develop transcription skills and knowledge of phonological systems
• Sociolinguistics: Understand how sociolinguistic theories can help solve practical issues
• Language in Professional Communication: Investigate the use of language in professional contexts

Optional Modules

• Introduction to Linguistics: Investigate the origin, development, and characteristics of human language
• Environmental Humanities: Explore how texts and digital media help understand the relationship between humans and the physical environment
• Changing Identities: Explore the theme of identity across a wide range of texts
• Film Narrative: Explore the different types of narrative in film
• Government and Politics: Develop a good basic understanding of the nature of political institutions, concepts, and ideologies
• Topics in Sociology: Explore key topics in sociology
• Language and the Mind: Critically examine how the mind acquires, stores, and processes language
• Language and Gender: Address real-world problems such as gender-based discrimination and inequalities
• Analysing Speech: Use software to analyse and understand the acoustic and physical features of speech
• Introduction to English Language Teaching: Explore important aspects of current language teaching methodology
• Language and Digital Media: Explore how digital media are changing the way people use language
• Noise Annoys: British Youth Culture, Popular Music and Social Change, 1950s-90s: Explore post-war Britain and how social and political change was reflected in and/or driven by youth culture
• Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe: Examine modern ideas of nation, national identity, the nation-state, and nationalism
• Child Language Development: Discover the developmental stages of language and tools to collect, encode, and analyse child language data
• Introduction to Corpus Linguistics: Explore key concepts of Corpus Linguistics
• Issues with Bilingualism: Examine bilingualism from societal and cognitive viewpoints
• Intercultural Communication: Explore how people of different nationalities communicate with each other
• Teaching the Language Skills: Explore current and effective methods of teaching English as a second/foreign language
• Introduction to Speech and Language Pathology: Explore a range of speech and language conditions and disorders
• Language and Power: Explore the linguistic means by which a whole range of persuasive texts can be analysed

Entry Requirements

• A Level: CCD
• International Baccalaureate: 24 points overall
• BTEC Extended Diploma: DMM
• English language requirements: IELTS 6.5, with no component below 5.0

Fees

• New UK/Republic of Ireland students: ｣5,760 for 2026/27 Foundation year, then rising to the standard course fees
• New international students: ｣23,000 for 2026/27 Foundation year, then rising to the standard course fees

Careers

A degree in English language and linguistics provides transferable skills for a wide range of careers. Previous Reading graduates have found employment with Google, Oxford University Press, Media Planet, Teach First, and local government. Our graduates have also pursued careers in teaching, speech and language therapy, publishing, event coordination, journalism, speech writing, the Civil Service, media, and information technology.