All journalists use language to convey facts, emotions and stories. Linguists analyse texts to understand the meaning of language. That’s why this course offers a unique opportunity to study both together, enhancing your employability in fields such as in advertising or social media, where both disciplines will be useful.
Within English language, you’ll learn from lecturers who specialise in a wide variety of linguistic areas of study. This includes for example language and society, psycholinguistics and language and gender. The English language team will share their expert knowledge in the study of sound (phonetics) and language structure (grammar) which are the building blocks that make up human communication. You’ll learn to analyse real life data, transcripts and texts to understand the way we see the world. Many of the modules you can choose are optional so you can specialise in the areas you like most. You could take modules in Teaching English as a Foreign Language or use this chance to explore how language is used to solve crimes in forensic linguistics. Another exciting field is sociolinguistics. You’ll get to explore how people use language differently depending on the context they are in. Is there a difference between male and female language use? Learn about how people make judgements on people’s personalities based solely on their accents and dialects.
Our journalism team are highly experienced practitioners, who’ll help you develop the skills to produce work in different styles for different platforms such as radio and video and for different websites, magazines and news sites. You’ll produce a showcase of work on a variety of platforms from blogs to print and report on international stories and ones guided by your interests. Want to write on fashion? You can do that. Want to write on sport? No problem. Many students also develop their journalistic interests as they go through the course, often because they have learnt from our former students who come back to give talks about their own professional experience. You’ll learn how to source stories, write in different styles, work as a team member and have the opportunity to take up a work placement in journalism or related areas.
What's the course about?
In your first year, you’ll explore the diversity of use of the English language including regional variants, language and ethnicity, and slang and street English. In journalism, you’ll be introduced to three key skills—research, writing and interviewing over several different platforms and think about the ethical dilemma journalists face every day.
In your second year, core modules in English language focus on grammar and the sounds of English. You can explore theories of how and why language developed and study language-related real-life problems such as plagiarism and crime investigation in forensic linguistics. You’ll also have the opportunity to find a news story, create your own magazine, make a radio broadcast and learn about the part journalists played in discovering major scandals or covering the growth of social movements such as Black Lives Matter.
Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s fine too. You’ll decide in your second year with us, so there is still plenty of time to think about this.
In your final year, you can follow modules in different topics, including child language and communication, clinical linguistics, gender and language, and formulaic language, informed by our academics’ own research specialisms. In journalism, you will have the opportunity of doing work experience within journalism or a related field, studying international reporting, creating your own journalistic website, and building a journalism portfolio or creating your own freelance or media business, based on your interests. You will create studio presentations and meet industry practitioners through our series of talks by people working in the communications industry, some of whom are former graduates of UH.
