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English and French BA (QR31)

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Find out more about our English and French degree at Warwick

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QR31

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Bachelor of Arts (BA)

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4 years full-time, normally including a year abroad

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26 September 2022

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Modern Languages and Cultures

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University of Warwick

3a

Intensive language work opens up the richness of French language and cultural life. Our English and French degree gives you the opportunity to explore connections and interactions between two major literary and cultural traditions. Our modules reflect the range and diversity of the culture, history, and society of the English and French speaking worlds.

3b

Explore two rich and diverse literary and cultural traditions while developing your fluency in French. There is a core French language module in every year of study.

First-year core modules will introduce you to French literature and culture, English literature, and comparative literatures.

In your intermediate and final years all English and French optional modules are open to you, spanning topics from literature and critical theory to history, politics, philosophy and film. In your final year, you can choose to write a dissertation on comparative French and English literature. You will normally spend your second or third year of study consolidating your language skills abroad.

You will graduate as a highly qualified linguist with advanced intercultural skills, a deep understanding of key issues and developments in France’s past and present, as well as an advanced knowledge of French, English, and comparative literatures.

3c

In your first year, you will follow a core French language programme at beginner or advanced level. You will also take the core module The Story of Modern France, where you will examine primary texts from major periods and events in French history, literature, and politics; you will choose one further first-year module in French.

On the English side of your degree, you will take a module which focuses on questions of approach, critical practice, and reading strategies. You will additionally choose one English module in your first year, from a list of three: Epic into Novel; Medieval to Renaissance Literature; or Modern World Literatures.

In your intermediate and final years, you will take core and optional modules in English. You will also further develop your French language skills in more advanced language classes. You will be able to develop your own particular interests in Francophone culture by choosing from a wide selection of modules offered by specialists in French culture, society, literature, politics, philosophy, film, and history. If you wish, you can also select from interdisciplinary cross-School modules.

3d

We employ a variety of teaching styles within the School of Modern Languages including:

Lectures
Seminars (consisting of around 15 students and focussing on student participation)
Written and spoken language classes in small groups

You will spend the rest of your time:

Studying independently
Preparing for classes
Reading
Analysing materials set for study
Writing essays
Working on your language skills

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Seminars generally involve around 15 students.

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12 hours per week (15 hours per week in first year).

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We will track your progress through:

Language assignments
Essays
Presentations
Portfolio submissions
Examinations (written and oral)

On some modules, you have the option of engaging in more creative assessment, such as making short films, creating a wiki page, or writing sonatas. To help you improve your skills you will receive detailed and personalised feedback throughout your course.

Your intermediate- and final-year marks each contribute 50% of your final degree classification.

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Study abroad

We strongly recommend that you take a year abroad as part of your modern languages degree, if they are able to. If you are unable to take a year abroad you will move to a three-year degree. You will be required to complete further language reinforcement work. You will also be encouraged to spend time abroad in other ways, during vacation times.

You will usually spend your year abroad doing one of three things:

Working as a language assistant teaching English in a primary or secondary school
Studying full-time at a partner university in your chosen country
On a work placement

Find out more about flexible Year Abroad options.

4a

A level typical offer

AAB to include English Literature (or English Language and Literature combined) and a modern or classical language

A level contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is ABB including B in a modern foreign language or Latin/Ancient Greek and B in English Literature/Language and Literature. See if you’re eligible.

General GCSE requirements

Unless specified differently above, you will also need a minimum of GCSE grade 4 or C (or an equivalent qualification) in English Language and either Mathematics or a Science subject. Find out more about our entry requirements and the qualifications we accept. We advise that you also check the English Language requirements for your course which may specify a higher GCSE English requirement. Please find the information about this below.

4b

IB typical offer

36 to include 5 in Higher Level English Literature (or English Language and Literature combined) and 5 in a modern or classical language at Higher Level

IB contextual offer

We welcome applications from candidates who meet the contextual eligibility criteria and whose predicted grades are close to, or slightly below, the contextual offer level. The typical contextual offer is 34 including grade 5 in Higher Level English and 5 in a Higher Level modern foreign language or Latin/Ancient Greek. See if you’re eligible.

General GCSE requirements

4c

We welcome applications from students taking a BTEC alongside A level French and A level English Literature (or English Language and Literature combined).

5a

Year One

Modern French Language 1

You will deepen your understanding of French grammar and syntax with the help of tutors experienced in facilitating the transition from A-level to university-level competence. You will learn appropriate technical vocabulary and handle complex structures. You will develop the skills required to produce authentic and accurate translations of journalistic material from French to English. Finally, writing in formal French introduces you to the structures and methods used to debate ideas on contemporary issues. You will increase your reading and comprehension skills and develop your ability to exploit texts for vocabulary, idioms, syntax and grammatical structures. Working with a native speaker in small groups, you will discuss topics on contemporary French culture and society, using audio, video and written resources.

Modern French Language for Beginners

As a beginner in the acquisition of the French language, you will cover the main linguistic skills in speaking, listening, writing and reading. You will focus on gaining grammatical accuracy as well as communicative fluency and competence. By the end of the year, you will be expected to be able to sustain everyday conversations in French, read authentic texts such as newspaper articles, follow the gist of TV/video extracts and be able to write an intermediate range of texts in French. You will also work on basic translations to and from French as a means of consolidating your knowledge.

Modes of Reading

What is a reader? How is our understanding and perception of a text formed? What does it mean to think critically when we read? This module allows you to explore these questions by putting a spotlight on the question of critical thinking in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. By studying a series of literary texts in relation to some of the most influential literary and cultural theorists of the last hundred years, you will take your own position on everything from Marxism, queer and feminist theory to ecocriticism and postcolonial critique.

Choose one option in French Studies:

The Story of Modern France

Why is modern France so deeply invested in the past? What are the milestones in the creation of modern France? How have notions of France and Frenchness been shaped through the stories told about them? These are some of the questions you will explore through close reading of primary sources from major periods and events in French history. You will explore a range of materials, from the cartoons of May 1968 to prints dating back to the French Revolution, and from stories of Charlemagne to films and texts reflecting France’s ongoing preoccupation with its (often controversial) recent past. Equipped with these foundations, you will be well prepared to study further aspects of French and Francophone culture in the later stages of your degree.

French Cultural Landmarks: Love, Language and Power

French is the language of love, or so the saying goes. On this module, you will explore what love, desire and sex signifies in works written in French in earlier periods and consider how this challenges contemporary perceptions. You will critically examine the connections between love and gender, power and political engagement, in a wide range of resources, from the courtly love of the medieval period, to the heyday of French classical theatre epitomised in the work of Molière and Racine, right up to the French novel.

And one option from English:

Epic into Novel

Tracking the transition from the epics of the ancient world to the novels of modernity, this module introduces you to some of the most influential and formative works of world literature. You will study central texts of the classical world, such as Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid; the ancient Indian epic The Mahābhārata; Milton’s Paradise Lost; as well as novels like Henry Fielding’s bawdy comedy Tom Jones and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s novel of decolonising Kenya, A Grain of Wheat. Reading across history and cultures, between languages and genres, you will develop the skills to analyse narrative, character, and style.

Medieval and Early Modern Literature

Taking you from the mythical court of King Arthur to the real world of ambition, intrigue, and danger in the courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, this module introduces you to early literature written in a range of genres (romance, epic, fabliau) and poetic forms. You will study texts like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Thomas More’s Utopia, Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Shakespeare’s sonnets to explore some of the period’s highest ideals—‘trawthe’ or integrity—as well as some of humanity’s darkest impulses: greed, deception, revenge, and desire.

Modern World Literatures

This module introduces you to the defining concerns, styles, and contexts of modern world literature from 1789 to the present. You will encounter concepts like Romanticism, modernity, gothic, and postcolonialism through novels, short stories, poetry, and drama from revolutionary France to Meiji era Japan, industrial Britain to the decolonizing Caribbean. Your reading might include Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein, Lu Xun’s story of China in transition 'Diary of a Madman', or Clarice Lispector’s haunting meditation on life in Rio de Janeiro The Hour of the Star. You may also replace this module with a language module.

Intermediate Year

Modern French Language 2

You will consolidate and develop the productive and receptive language skills you acquired in your first year. By the end of the module, you should have appropriate knowledge of vocabulary and syntactic and grammatical structures to produce written French in two prescribed genres. You will develop your skills in translation to and from French, with a focus on specific translation problems, and increase the accuracy with which you use grammatical structures. In spoken French, you will comprehend and produce structured spoken French on a range of topics of contemporary significance in the context of simulated scenarios.

Modern French Language 2 (Post-beginners)

You will increase the range of your general and specialised vocabulary in French, improve your speaking, listening and comprehension skills, and develop your ability to translate from French, including through a sound knowledge of grammar, register, semantic nuances and style. There will be opportunities to write in French and to work on materials applicable to real-life situations.

A selection of optional modules in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (30 credits) and in English and Comparative Literary Studies (60 credits)

Final Year

Modern French Language 3

You will consolidate and develop your ability to write and speak confidently and at a level of intellectual sophistication in correct French. By the end of the course, you should be able to produce a structured written argument on a topic related to your intellectual interests or of cultural concern, in French that is grammatically correct, idiomatic, varied in vocabulary and grammatical structure, and in an appropriate register. You should be able to translate from French to English and English to French accurately, using your detailed knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and idiom, and employing an appropriate register. You will strengthen your skills in pronunciation and intonation and demonstrate these through fluent oral presentation and discussion of an intellectually serious topic.

A selection of optional modules in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (30 credits) and in English and Comparative Literary Studies (60 credits)

5b

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There may be costs associated with other items or services such as academic texts, course notes, and trips associated with your course. Students who choose to complete a work placement or study abroad will pay reduced tuition fees for their third year.

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