Course summary

This degree explores human communication by focusing on the English language, its history, diversity and flexibility. You’ll learn what distinguishes machine language from human language and how people adapt and change their ways of communicating in multilingual and multicultural contexts. You’ll investigate how language works from written texts and conversations down to words and the smallest units of sounds. You’ll also explore English as a creative medium to express humour, thoughts and emotions. This qualification is not, however, designed to teach English to speakers of other languages. Key features of the course

• Explores the history of English, its contemporary diversity, its role as a global language and its use in various parts of the world.

• Engages in debates surrounding the historical and contemporary position of English in relation to other languages.

• Teaches strategies that promote critical evaluation of texts in relation to the social, artistic and cultural contexts they’re produced in.

• Develops you as a competent communicator who can synthesise information, assemble logical arguments and write coherently.

• Reveals how the English language works, and how the choice of words and grammar affect the message.