BA Modern Languages and English (German)

Programme overview

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

Programme specification

The information on this page is accurate for students entering the programme in 2022/2023 or before. For students entering the programme from September 2023 or after, you can find the details of your programme: BA Modern Languages and English (German)(For students entering from September 2023 onwards)

The distinctiveness, appeal and strength of the BA Modern Languages and English at the University of Leeds lie in the combination of depth, breadth and flexibility which it offers, as well as in the exceptional range of degree combinations with languages available.

This programme also allows the opportunity to undertake a work placement, field work or study abroad. The combination of English with the study of another language and cultural context allows students to explore cultural production in multiple cultural contexts, gaining deeper and more critical cultural insights alongside sophisticated reception and production skills in a major world language.

The programme permits students to study two disciplines, in depth and to degree level while acquiring a broader range of skills than is typically possible within a single honours degree. It is emphatically a joint honours programme, rather than an integrated programme: students can therefore make the links they choose from the wide choice of optional modules available within each discipline. Within certain parameters, they thus effectively make connections and devise pathways according to their own preferences, rather than being faced with a prescribed combination of modules chosen for them by others.

The students must acquire the flexibility of mind and variety of learning techniques needed to switch between the two disciplines. A further element of distinctiveness is the flexibility of the programme structure, which allows joint honours students to change direction more easily, and more radically, than single honours students.

Year 1

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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Compulsory Modules

All students will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL1055	Writing Matters	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL1065	Reading Between the Lines	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MODL1150	Worlds of Literature	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Optional Modules

Route A
Students with prior knowledge of German (B1 of the CEFR) will be required to study the following modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM1010	German Language Awareness and Skills	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP
GERM1140	Exploring German-Speaking Cultures, Histories and Societies	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Route B
Students with no prior knowledge of German will be required to study the following modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM1020	Beginners German (A1 of the CEFR)	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
GERM1021	Pre-Intermediate German Language (A2/B1 of the CEFR)	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)	PFP
GERM1145	Exploring German-Speaking Cultures, Histories and Societies for Beginners	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Route A
Students taking GERM1010 may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 1 OR Basket 2).

Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM1200	20th Century German History	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL1221	Modern Fictions in English: Conflict, Liminality, Translation	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1261	Poetry: Reading and Interpretation	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1286	Drama: Reading and Interpretation	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL1855	Race, Writing and Decolonization	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Discovery Modules

Route A
Students taking GERM1010 may take up to 20 credits of discovery modules.

Year 2

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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Compulsory Modules

Students will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2030	Writing Environments: Literature, Nature, Culture	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2045	Body Language: Literature and Embodiment	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Optional Modules

Route A
Students who took GERM1010 in year 1 will be required to study the following module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM2010	German Language Skills in Context	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Route B
Students who took GERM1020 and GERM1021 in year 1 will be required to study the following module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM2020	German Language Skills (B1/B2 of the CEFR)	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Route A
Students taking GERM2010 may study up to 40 credits from the following lists of optional modules (Baskets 1-4):

Route B
Students taking GERM2020 may take up to 20 credits of the following lists of optional modules (Baskets 1-4): 

Basket 1: 

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2029	Renaissance Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2085	Medieval and Tudor Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2065	Postcolonial Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2090	Modern Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Basket 3:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2095	Other Voices: Rethinking Nineteenth-Century Literature	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2096	The World Before Us: Literature 1660–1830	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Basket 4:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2055	American Words, American Worlds	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2080	Contemporary Literature	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

All students are required to study a minimum of 20 credits and may study up to 40 credits of the following optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
FILM2030	Introduction to German Cinema	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
GERM2080	Translating German-Speaking Cultures: The German Language in Intercultural Relations	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
GERM2082	Dealing with difficult pasts: German memory cultures	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
GERM2083	Language and Society in the German-speaking world	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

All students may study up to 20 credits from the following optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
HIST2260	Digital Methods for History, Art and Literature	20	Not running in 202526
MODL2001	Linguists into Schools	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL2003	Global Queer Politics and Cultures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL2015	Black Europe	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL2070	Reception, Transmission and Translation: The Global Circulation of Literature	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL2075	Global Environmental Humanities	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL2250	Digital Communications Across Cultures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Discovery Modules

Students may study up to 20 credits of discovery modules.

Year 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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Compulsory Modules

Students will be required to study the following compulsory module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MODL9500	LCS Year Abroad	120	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Year 4

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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At Level 3, students must study 120 credits. Overall, students must take 100 credits across their two subjects. Students are required to take a minimum of 40 credits in English and a minimum of 40 credits in German.

All students must take 40 credits as a Final Year Project module, which can be taken in - and count towards - either of their two subjects.   

Compulsory Modules

Students will be required to study the following compulsory module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
GERM3010	Advanced German Language in Contemporary Discourses	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Optional Modules

Students are required to take ONE of the following Final Year Project modules.

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3005	Textual Editing Project	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP
ENGL3041	Final Year Project	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP
MODL3050	Final Year Project	40	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Students who take their FYP in German may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules:

Students who take their FYP in English are required to take a minimum of 20 credits and may take up to 40 credits from the following list of optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
FILM3026	Contemporary German Cinema	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
GERM3092	Advanced Translation from German into English	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
GERM3240	Cultures of protest and resistance: challenging state and society in German-speaking cultures	20	Not running in 202526

Students who take their FYP with English may take up to 40 credits from the following list of optional modules (from EITHER Basket 1 or Basket 2.

Students who take their FYP in German are required to take 40 credits from the following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 1 OR Basket 2.

Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3031	Sex and Suffering in the Eighteenth-Century Novel	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3033	Writing and Gender in Seventeenth-Century England	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3034	Romantic Lyric Poetry	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3037	Speech Acts: Contemporary Approaches to Text and Performance	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3046	Parts, Periodicals, Newspapers: Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Press	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3059	South African Writing: Apartheid and After	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3063	Haunted Hinterlands: Wyrd Works and Folk Horror Fictions	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3068	African American Narrative	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3069	African Literature	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3073	Turks, Moors and Jews: Race and Identity in Early Modern Drama	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3114	Forming Victorian Fiction	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3268	Transformations	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3321	Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3365	Theatricalities: Beckett, Pinter, Kane	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3386	Telling Lives: Reading and Writing Family Memoir	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3484	Prose Fiction Stylistics and the Mind	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3680	Postcolonial London	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
FOAH3001	Global African Writing	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3006	Remixing the Renaissance	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3008	Writing Modern Sexualities	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3027	Shakespeare	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3061	Heart Disease in Contemporary Literature	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3062	Charles Dickens Then & Now	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3065	Page, Publication and Audience	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3066	The Public Poet (Creative Writing)	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3072	Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3100	Digital Englishes	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3153	Refugee Narratives	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3163	Milton	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL32111	Gender, Culture and Politics: Readings of Jane Austen	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3314	Imagining Posthuman Futures	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3391	September 11 in Fact and Fiction	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3394	Bowie, Reading, Writing	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3396	Fictions of the End: Apocalypse and After	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3402	Home Bodies: Domestic Animals in Contemporary Literature	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3407	Shakespeare and Global Cinema	20	Not running in 202526
ENGL3461	Imagining the United States: Citizenship, Domesticity and Slavery	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3476	Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3483	The Politics of Language	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3579	Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Students may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MODL3200	Representing the Holocaust: Transgression and the Taboo	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MODL3410	Contemporary World Literature	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL3600	Material Cultures and Cultures of Consumption	20	Not running in 202526
MODL3610	Adventures of the Imagination: Crime and the Fantastic Across Continents	20	Not running in 202526
MODL3620	Decolonial Approaches	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
MODL3630	Social Movements across Cultures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL3650	Minoritised Languages, Dialects and Cultures from Past to Present	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL3800	Linguists into Schools	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Discovery Modules

Students may choose to take 20 credits of discovery modules.

Last updated: 16/07/2025 13:36:56

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