Entry requirementsSelected entry requirements English language: Candidates must be proficient in the English language, which is the language of instruction and examination at the university. Acceptable English Language qualifications include IELTS 6.5, CPE grade C, CAE Grade B or another equivalent A level: Grades ABB including any language (including English Language or English Language and Literature combined). AS level: Two AS-Levels may be accepted in place of the third A-Level. Unit grade information: The University of Manchester welcomes the provision of unit grade information which, like all other available information, will inform the consideration of applications. Unit grades will not normally form part of offer conditions, except for Mathematics programmes. GCSE: Minimum grade C in English Language. Key Skills qualification: The University warmly welcomes applications from students studying the Key Skills qualification. However, as the opportunities to take these modules are not open to all applicants, currently this is not an essential requirement of the University. International baccalaureate: 33 points overall including a language (including English Language) grade 6 at higher level. Additional entry requirements Additional entry requirements exist for this course. You may view these by selecting from the list below.
Academic titleBA English Language
Course descriptionCourse description
BA (Hons) English Language offers you access to the full range of English language studies (theoretical, descriptive, and applied) and the opportunity for a broad-based study of English linguistics. In addition, BA (Hons) English Language gives you the skills required for analytical language study alongside the means to apply those skills to the development of your degree.
Non native speakers of English Language can combine the academic study of English Language with advanced training in English proficiency through our new international pathway through the BA (Hons) English Language degree programme. This programme combines all the major elements of our English Language programme with additional course units giving advanced tuition in English Language, together with courses on topics such as translation and TEFL.
Course Collaborations
English Language can be combined with one of the languages below as a joint honours degree
Special features
Manchester is an international centre for linguistics and English language BA (Hons) English Language is taught within the Department of Linguistics and English Language where there is a virtually unique breadth of subject areas and theoretical approaches.
Particular strengths in the discipline include: endangered languages and field linguistics, the linguistics of English (both synchronic and diachronic), phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax (especially Lexical-Functional Grammar and Construction Grammar), typology, language contact and sociolinguistics, historical linguistics (especially English, Romance and Germanic), semantics (both formal and cognitive), cognitive linguistics, corpus and computational linguistics, and language acquisition
Linguistics and English Language participates in the ERASMUS student exchange scheme. Under the scheme you may go on exchange for part of your course with students from a partner university in another EU country. There are possibilities for you to spend one or both semesters of your second year studying in Berlin, Gerona, Helsinki, Lund, Madrid, Naples or Odense.
Course content for year 1
The first year provides you with an introduction to the full range of course options included within English linguistics and the basis for further and more specialised study. This diversity is essential in order to experience English language study at university level and make informed choices about your future course units. You will study:
-Introduction to the History of English
-English Grammar
-Sounds of English
-Introduction to Varieties of English
-Study Skills
These course units add up to nearly one half of your first-year load. The remainder is made up of further course units chosen from Linguistics and English Language, such as Language, the Individual and Society; Investigating English Grammar; Introduction to Linguistic Change; Introduction to Semantics; Languages of the World; optional language course units; and/or a free choice available from across the University.
Course content for year 2
Second-year course units build on first-year work, developing each subject area to provide a greater breadth and depth of experience. In the second year your study is more flexible. Four out of six units must be chosen: Introductions to Old, Middle and Modern English Language, American English, World Englishes and Attitudes to Language. The remaining two thirds of your second year programme involves choices from a wide range of options, including Psycholinguistics, Introduction to Syntactic Theory, Phonology and optional language course units or a free choice available from across the University.
Course content for year 3
By the third year your study is completely tailored to your own interests. You can write a dissertation on a subject of your choice. Your remaining courses can be chosen from over forty units, including English Grammar, English Phonology, English Names and Naming, Optimality Theory and Syntax, Topics in Cognitive Linguistics, Germanic Syntax.
Career opportunities
Languages qualify you for a wide range of employment. Your high-level language skills will open up numerous paths with an international dimension (e.g. business, industry and finance). You will also have excellent all-round communication skills making you a strong contender for openings in the media, PR and similar areas.
In our experience, many graduates go straight into business services, marketing, advertising, management, banking or communications. Others opt for postgraduate study or further vocational training to become accountants, lawyers, teachers (in England or abroad) or enter the Civil Service.
Did you know?
-MI5 actively recruit graduates with language skills
-Past students have gone into areas as diverse as Radio Reporting, -Advertising, Accountancy, Events Management, Commercial Management and International Sales.
-Graduates from The University of Manchester are amongst the highest paid in the country
-More employers recruit at The University of Manchester than at any other UK university
-The University of Manchester's Careers Service is consistently voted the best in the country by both students and employers
-The School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures is one of the largest and most diverse in the UK and has received the prestigious European Award for Languages from CiLT, the National Centre for Languages.