English Language

Are you ready to harness the power of the written and spoken word and become and expert communicator?

Course outline

The BA (Hons) English Language programme enhances your critical awareness and equips you with valuable communication, analytical and critical skills for your future career. Designed with a forward-thinking approach, it integrates your studies with professional contexts and practical applications. Our expert faculty, specialising in areas like forensic linguistics, language education, workplace communication, corpus linguistics, and literary linguistics, inform the curriculum directly.

This programme encompasses a wide range of language analysis, from political speeches and news reporting to everyday conversation and social media, enabling you to hone your linguistic analysis skills and work with linguistic data. You will explore literacy as a social practice, investigate language evolution and acquisition, and gain theoretical knowledge and cutting-edge linguistic skills applicable in legal, educational and business settings, among others.

Our training focuses on critical thinking, independent work, research project design, rigorous text analysis, data management and fostering an advanced analytical mindset. This skill set proves invaluable during your final year dissertation, offering versatility across various industries.

Opting for the placement year will also provide you with invaluable real-world experience, preparing you for the job market.

Key benefits

• Power up your future – Develop the skills employers around the globe look for. Gain an edge in a fast-changing world and thrive in your career with Aston Power Skills.

• Excellent prospects - Ranked 1st in the UK for ‘career prospects’ (English; Guardian, 2025)

• Safe in our hands - Ranked 5th in the UK for ‘student-to-staff ratio’ (English; Guardian, 2025)

• Here for you. 100% of students felt positive about the academic support they received (English Language and Literature; National Student Survey, 2024).

• Top teachers. 98% of students felt positive about teaching on their course (English Language and Literature; National Student Survey, 2024).

• Earn more – Our graduates are among the highest paid in the country, earning on average £35,400 five years after graduating (Longitudinal Education Outcomes, 2024)

• Gold standard teaching – Aston University was awarded Gold – the highest possible rating for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF, 2023)

Where can this degree take me?

The transferable skills that our English programmes provide mean that our graduates are successful in finding employment in a wide range of roles such as:

• Teacher

• Marketing executive

• Research and content writer

• Social media executive

• Police officer

• Education consultant

• Policy adviser

• Copywriter

• Operations support manager

• Merchandising assistant

Our graduates have gone on to work at companies and public sector organisations such as the BBC, Lloyds Banking Group, West Midlands Railway, West Midlands Police, Ministry of Justice, NHS and Airbus.