English Language at undergraduate level: its identity as a subject in UK Higher Education in the 21st century
During 2007, LLAS funded a mini-project on English Language at undergraduate level. This study reviews the current place of undergraduate English Language in Higher Education institutions in the UK in light of a rapid expansion of the subject. It is based on the analysis of documents available from universities (e.g. prospectuses, brochures, e-mails) and on the web. It provides an overview of 49 single honours English Language programmes considering the ways they are labelled, their relationship with other disciplines, their rationale, content and structure. It also identifies and discusses the preferred teaching and learning methods, and assessment procedures in these programmes. Finally, it explores marketing procedures and recruitment trends for these degrees.
Timescale
January, 2007 - December, 2008
Funded by:
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
Authors:
Judith Baxter and Denise Santos, University of Reading
Outcomes:
Abstract:
This study reviews the current place of undergraduate English Language in Higher Education institutions in the UK in light of a rapid expansion of the subject. It is based on the analysis of documents available from universities (e.g. prospectuses, brochures, e-mails) and on the web. We provide an overview of 49 single honours English Language programmes considering the ways they are labelled, their relationship with other disciplines, their rationale, content and structure. We also identify and discuss the preferred teaching and learning methods, and assessment procedures in these programmes. Finally, we explore marketing procedures and recruitment trends for these degrees. We conclude by discussing the contributions of our findings towards a better understanding of how English Language is conceptualised in UK higher education.
