Course summary

A Combined Honours degree at Chester gives you the opportunity to study two subjects. You will spend a fairly even amount of time studying each subject area, with possible opportunities to declare a major – minor towards the end of your studies. English Language Unlock the power of words through the investigation and analysis of the fundamental structures and theoretical principles of English language and linguistics. During this course, you will study the structures and theoretical principles of English and language in general, and use them to understand and analyse spoken and written English discourse in context. This may include investigating sounds, word meanings, sentence structures, discourse analytical principles, child language acquisition, and language variation and change. You will be offered a variety of assessment types, including standard essays, presentations, data collection projects, exercises, transcriptions, dissertation and even blogs. This will equip you with the academic experiences you need to make the most of employment opportunities following your undergraduate degree and/or postgraduate study. The course has been repeatedly praised by external examiners, who have noted the unusually broad range of expertise provided by the teaching team, which covers some of the most cutting-edge subjects in English language and linguistics, such as Corpus Linguistics (computer-assisted discourse analysis). Staff also have considerable expertise in the areas of sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, child language acquisition, models of grammar, critical discourse analysis, dialectology and comparative linguistics. Journalism Immerse yourself in the vibrant world of news as you learn to practise journalism and critique the industry. Journalism is an exciting subject, crucial to any understanding of the current state of the world. Our course strives to remain at the cutting edge of journalistic practice and theory, with an emphasis on sustainability and technology. The way journalists report news and how consumers engage with it is evolving all the time – mainly due to the impact of digital technology. The Journalism course recognises the value of developing relevant skills throughout your studies with a particular focus on enhancing your ability to adapt to everchanging environments within a fast-moving industry. To prepare for this multimedia environment, the practical skills we teach include news research and writing, photography, video and audio production techniques (including podcasting).