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BA Modern Languages and English Literature

  • UCAS code
    R9Q3
  • A level offer
    BBB
  • Year of entry
    2024/25
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  4 Years
  • Year of entry
    2024/25
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  4 Years

Study a modern language, and explore a variety of writers from across the globe, with our BA Modern Languages and English Literature degree.

This highly flexible degree enables you to study a modern language – choosing from our core languages of French, German, Italian and Spanish – alongside your studies in English literature.

You'll be taught by experts from the Department of Languages and Cultures and the Department of English Literature, both of which prioritise learning in small seminar groups. This enables you to interact directly with your teachers and fellow students, and to add your own voice to discussions. In the National Student Survey 2023, 98% of students in the Department of Languages and Cultures and 94% of students in the Department of English Literature said our teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things.

Learn a language

At the University of Reading, you’ll join a lively, multilingual community and study alongside students from all over the world.

Learn from internationally recognised researchers whose wide-ranging expertise includes migration, literature, history, cinema, linguistics, publishing, and translation. 100% of our research is of international standing (Research Excellence Framework 2021, combining 4*, 3* and 2* submissions – Modern Languages and Linguistics).

Choose to study one of our four core languages:

  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish

These languages are offered at beginner’s, intermediate or advanced level, depending on your experience.

Our flexible, supportive teaching style will enable you to become confident and highly skilled in your chosen core language. You will master the fundamentals of the language – both written and spoken – graduating with a high level of proficiency.

Direct access to our staff for help and feedback ensures you develop your language skills to the best of your ability.

The study of language includes cultural modules that develop your understanding of the cultures of the countries in which the language is spoken, from their literary and cinematic traditions to their history, politics and linguistics. As well as complementing your joint studies, this enables you to develop as a specialist with an international, comparative approach.

Optional modules also include introductory study of one of the following languages (subject to approval and availability):

  • Arabic
  • British Sign Language
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Modern Greek
  • Japanese

Overview

Study a modern language, and explore a variety of writers from across the globe, with our BA Modern Languages and English Literature degree.

This highly flexible degree enables you to study a modern language – choosing from our core languages of French, German, Italian and Spanish – alongside your studies in English literature.

You'll be taught by experts from the Department of Languages and Cultures and the Department of English Literature, both of which prioritise learning in small seminar groups. This enables you to interact directly with your teachers and fellow students, and to add your own voice to discussions. In the National Student Survey 2023, 98% of students in the Department of Languages and Cultures and 94% of students in the Department of English Literature said our teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things.

Learn a language

At the University of Reading, you’ll join a lively, multilingual community and study alongside students from all over the world.

Learn from internationally recognised researchers whose wide-ranging expertise includes migration, literature, history, cinema, linguistics, publishing, and translation. 100% of our research is of international standing (Research Excellence Framework 2021, combining 4*, 3* and 2* submissions – Modern Languages and Linguistics).

Choose to study one of our four core languages:

  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish

These languages are offered at beginner’s, intermediate or advanced level, depending on your experience.

Learning

Our flexible, supportive teaching style will enable you to become confident and highly skilled in your chosen core language. You will master the fundamentals of the language – both written and spoken – graduating with a high level of proficiency.

Direct access to our staff for help and feedback ensures you develop your language skills to the best of your ability.

The study of language includes cultural modules that develop your understanding of the cultures of the countries in which the language is spoken, from their literary and cinematic traditions to their history, politics and linguistics. As well as complementing your joint studies, this enables you to develop as a specialist with an international, comparative approach.

Optional modules also include introductory study of one of the following languages (subject to approval and availability):

  • Arabic
  • British Sign Language
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Modern Greek
  • Japanese

Entry requirements A Level BBB

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we'll guarantee you a place even if you don't quite meet your offer. For details, see our firm choice scheme.

 Our typical offers are expressed in terms of A level, BTEC and International Baccalaureate requirements. However, we also accept many other qualifications.

Typical offer

BBB, including English Literature or a related subject (English Language, English Language and Literature, Drama & Theatre Studies, and Creative Writing)

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall, including 5 in English Literature or a related subject (English Language, English Language and Literature, Drama & Theatre Studies, and Creative Writing) at higher level

Extended Project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer.

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM, with comparable subject modules

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

International Foundation Programme

If you are an international or EU student and do not meet the requirements for direct entry to your chosen degree you can join the University of Reading’s International Foundation Programme. Successful completion of this 1 year programme guarantees you a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. English language requirements start as low as IELTS 4.5 depending on progression degree and start date.

  • Learn more about our International Foundation programme

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Structure

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3
  • Year 4

Compulsory modules

Language modules in French, German, Italian and/or Spanish, depending on your chosen core language(s)

Ideas of Frenchness (if French is a core language)

The Making of Contemporary Germany (if German is a core language) 

Making Italians: A Journey in the History and Culture of Modern Italy (if Italian is a core language)

Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Culture (if Spanish is a core language)

Poetry in English

From the Renaissance to the present, uncover the history of poetry as you explore key genres related to love, politics, pastoral, elegy, satire, the sonnet, the ode, and the dramatic monologue. You’ll study poems drawn from the wider English-speaking world including Ireland, the Caribbean and North America, encountering the diversity of voices found in gender and sexuality. 

Theory and Practice of Writing

Discover the key concepts that shape our understanding of literature from the perspective of composition and of critical work. Consider how writers are connected to other authors, editors and publishers as you articulate your own and others’ ideas in a portfolio of written work.  

Optional modules

Introduction to Drama

Discover the genre of drama as you explore a historical range of texts from the early modern periods. You’ll focus on four plays as you explore comedy, tragedy, form, structure, and the elements of change and continuity found within the genre. 

Modern American Culture and Counterculture

Discover American countercultures in work, from 1950s Beat poetry to fiction responding to the Black Lives Matter movement. You’ll study the perspectives of African-American, Native American and white American creatives in a variety of genres: poetry, short stories, YA fiction, science fiction, drama, songs, films, war reportage and the graphic novel. 

Thinking Translation: History and Theory

Shelf Life

Become acquainted with English literature’s material dimension and how writers, both past and present, have depicted the library as a symbol. As you study, you'll interpret poems, novels and plays, and investigate books and other archival documents as physical objects.

What is Comparative Literature?

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Language modules in French, German, Italian and/or Spanish, depending on your chosen core language(s)

Further compulsory modules will depend on your chosen core language(s), for example

How to Think in French (if French is a core language)

Cinema of Germany (if German is a core language)

Fictions of Italy: Themes and Genres (if Italian is a core language)

Literature and Society in the Modern Hispanic World (if Spanish is a core language)

Optional modules

Science, Perversion and Dream in Global Fantastic Literature

Society, Thought and Art in Modern Europe

Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe

Global Ecologies: Discourse, Environment and Society

Early Modern Literature

Eighteenth-Century Satirists and Novelists

Romantics and Victorians

Myth, Legend and Romance: Medieval Storytelling

Explore storytelling in medieval England as you take in the fantastical tales of ancient heroes, drama that blends comedy and religious devotion, and magic and supernatural beings. You’ll consider the stark contrast of narrative structure, character development and language use by medieval writers in contrast to our own.  

Modernism in Poetry and Fiction

Examine the concepts of modernity, modernism, and the history of early twentieth-century poetry and fiction. You’ll explore experimentation and innovation in poetic and narrative form, and their relation to wider social upheaval and cultural movements in the period. 

Contemporary Fiction

Study a selection of fiction from the 1980s to the present day, exploring the formal, thematic and cultural diversity of Anglophone fiction produced in this period. You’ll consider these texts within a number of social, political and historical contexts, such as multiculturalism, feminism and globalisation.  

The Business of Books

Writing America: Perspectives on the Nation

Writing the Public Sphere

Study literature designed to prompt social and political change as you examine speeches, pamphlets, tracts and political posters from the early modern period to the present. Consider how such literature shapes debates on race, class, religion, nationality and women’s rights across Britain and Ireland.  

Critical Thinking

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Study Year Abroad

Compulsory modules

Language modules in French, German, Italian and/or Spanish, depending on your chosen core language(s)#

Future Worlds in Film

Identity and Conflict in Modern Europe

Language and Power

Further compulsory modules will depend on your chosen core language(s), for example

The French Caribbean: Language, Literature and Identity (if French is a core language)

Writers of the Weimar Republic: At Home and in Exile (if German is a core language)

Crisis, Change, Opportunity: Italy from 1968 to the Present (if Italian is a core language)

Narrating the Colombian Conflict (if Spanish is a core language)

Optional modules

Black British Fiction

Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury

Publishing Cultures: Writers, Publics, Archives

Nigerian Prose Literature: From Achebe to Adichie

Medieval Otherworlds

Environment, Ecology and Literature

Decadence and Degeneration: Literature of the 1890s

Bibliotherapy: Writing and Health

Literature and Mental Health

Discover how literature engaged with mental health in the first half of the twentieth century, a crucial turning point in psychology. You’ll consider the de-stigmatisation of mental health in the wake of World War I, the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology that emerged from it, and how literature engages with trauma, anxiety and obsession.  

Children's Literature

The Bloody Stage: Revenge and Death in Renaissance Drama

From Romance to Fantasy

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,250

New international students: £22,350

*UK/Republic of Ireland fee changes

UK/Republic of Ireland undergraduate tuition fees are regulated by the UK government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law.

EU student fees

With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students.

Year abroad fees

If you spend a full year abroad, you will only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee for that year. For more information, please see our fees and funding pages or contact studyabroad@reading.ac.uk.

Additional Costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

In the latest Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020-21, 93% of our Languages and Cultures leavers are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation (based on our analysis of HESA data © HESA 2023, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020/21; includes first degree Languages and Cultures responders).

In the Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020-21, overall, 95% of graduates from English Literature are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation (based on our analysis of HESA data © HESA 2023, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020/21; includes first degree English Literature responders).

Recent modern languages graduates have found careers in translation, teaching, business and finance, the arts, and marketing. Recent employers include:

  • Sony Europe
  • Civil Service
  • Oxford University Press
  • BNP Paribas
  • Dow Jones
  • Vodafone
  • PwC.

Past English literature graduates have gone on to work for employers such:

  • the BBC
  • The Telegraph
  • Oxford University Press
  • Waterstones
  • Cisco Systems
  • Royal Mint
  • local authorities and schools. 

 

BA Modern Languages and English Literature

I chose Reading because of the staff members I met on the day as well as students who showed us around the campus. What I enjoy most about studying my degree is that I’ve been able to tailor it the way I want to, like studying fiction novels by black British authors or the history of Germany post WW2. I highly recommend Reading because of the amazing staff and the experiences I’ve made here.

Kiran

Contextual offers


We make contextual offers for all our courses.

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