English Literature with Mandarin

Study an exciting range of English literature from writers across the globe and from different eras or movements, such as Victorian literature and Romanticism, as well as classic and renowned authors including William Shakespeare and Jane Austen. Learn how texts work, and debate literature’s role in society both now and throughout the course of history. You’ll be taught by internationally renowned academics who will support you to articulate your ideas with confidence while writing with fluency and flair.

Alongside your English Literature curriculum, you can choose to study French, Mandarin or Spanish from either beginner level or post-beginner level. You will develop your linguistic skills and also gain an understanding of the social, cultural, political, historical and artistic topics from the Francophone, Chinese or Hispanophone world.

By choosing to study English literature with a modern language at DMU, you’ll join a lively and welcoming academic community. Our graduates from this course progress into a wide range of professions including media, marketing, publishing, teaching, public relations and the civil service.

Key features

• Learn a modern foreign language while studying English poetry, fiction and drama from different centuries and continents, with the flexibility to specialise in your areas of interest.

• Be taught by leading academics who produce world-leading research in areas ranging from medieval to contemporary literature, language, creative writing and digital humanities.

• Set yourself apart with recognised competence in a foreign language. You will study your chosen language at a level and pace that really suits you and your needs, alongside developing your knowledge of the country, the society, the culture and the people.

• Gain valuable workplace skills through placement and internship opportunities. Our students have previously worked with organisations such as the National Space Centre and Leicester Mercury newspaper, charities including the English Association, as well as local schools and colleges.

• Experience a range of teaching activities and a variety of assessment methods, ensuring your learning remains dynamic and enabling you to develop a broader range of skills.

• Our English graduates have succeeded in wide-ranging careers with well-known publishing companies including Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan, as well as news organisations such as HomeStyle Magazine and the BBC.

• Benefit from Education 2030, where a simplified ‘block learning’ timetable means you will study one subject at a time and have more time to engage with your learning, receive faster feedback and enjoy a better study-life balance.

If you are interested in advanced entry into Year 3 of this course, please visit the DMU website for the course details: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/pre-edu-2030/english-literature-with-modern-languages-ba-degree/english-literature-with-modern-languages-ba-degree.aspx

First year
Block 1: Approaches to Reading and Writing
Block 2: Introduction to the Novel
Block 3: French, Mandarin or Spanish Beginner or French, Mandarin or Spanish Post-Beginner
Block 4: Poetry and Society

Second year
Block 1: Exploration and Innovation: 14th Century to 18th Century Literature
Block 2: Romantic and Victorian Literature
Block 3: French, Mandarin or Spanish Post-Beginner or French, Mandarin or Spanish Intermediate
Block 4: Screen and Literary Adaptations of The Classics

Third year
Year long: Dissertation
Block 2: Remediating Texts
Block 3: French, Mandarin or Spanish Intermediate or French, Mandarin or Spanish Advanced
Block 4: Modernism and Magazines

We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.

Structure
You will be taught by internationally-recognised academics who are friendly, approachable and experts in their fields. You will debate literature from different centuries and different continents in lectures, seminars, workshops and one-to-one tutorials. There are opportunities to attend guest lectures by exciting writers and thinkers; previous speakers include Simon Armitage, Andrew Davies (screenwriter), Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay, Andrew Motion and Benjamin Zephaniah. You will learn to write fluently and persuasively, to articulate complex ideas and arguments, to research topics comprehensively and to challenge existing opinions.

The first year expands your knowledge of the major literary genres (poetry, drama, fiction) and develops foundational skills in research, writing and critical analysis. It also introduces you to adaptation studies – an area of study bridging English and other media, including film and television, which you can study in each year of your course at DMU if you choose. The second year broadens your understanding of the development of English literature through time. You will also develop your awareness of text production and learn to apply digital skills. The third year allows you to build on the knowledge already gained to pursue your own interests within the taught modules and through your dissertation. You will have French, Mandarin or Spanish language classes throughout each year as this continuous approach is recognised as the best way to learn a language, with the majority of teaching taking place in Block 3.

Teaching sessions might be structured around discussion, a film screening or based in a computer lab. You will complete reading and research in advance and join in conversation with your tutor and your peers. Individual tutorials with module tutors are available in weekly ‘office hours’, at which you can discuss any aspect of your course or get help with assignments. You will experience varied forms of assessment, including essays, presentations, preparation worksheets, journals, examinations, practical work (such as the production of a sonnet using a replica of a sixteenth-century printing press), website production, peer evaluation, creative work, self-evaluation, blogs and dissertation. This range of assessment methods will enable you to develop a broad spectrum of communication and technological skills, alongside an ability to think critically, independently, flexibly and imaginatively. For the French, Mandarin or Spanish language modules, assessment is focused on evaluating your competence in the four key skills of Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Hearing and your knowledge of the cultural, social, and historical context of your chosen language.

You will be supported by a personal tutor with access to specialist guidance in writing and study skills. Our postgraduate students also run a popular peer mentoring scheme providing friendly and informal advice for undergraduate students in English at DMU.

Contact hours
You will be taught through a combination of seminars, workshops, lectures, tutorials, group work and self-directed study. In your first year, you will normally attend around 7 hours of timetabled taught sessions (workshops and seminars) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 30 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.