BA Modern Languages and English (Japanese)

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 (Japanese)(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
EAST1252	Modern Japan	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
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

Students with no prior knowledge of Japanese will be required to study the following modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST1210	Basic Japanese Language (1)	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST1220	Basic Japanese Language (2)	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)	PFP

Students with prior knowledge of Japanese will, subject to a placement test, be required to study the following modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST1280	Intermediate Japanese (1)	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST1281	Intermediate Japanese (2)	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)	PFP

Year 2

[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 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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At Level 2, 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 60 credits in Japanese.

The remaining 20 credits may be taken as optional modules in either English or Japanese, or as discovery modules.

Compulsory Modules

Students will be required to study the following compulsory modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST2719	Japanese 2: Pre-Advanced Communication Skills 1	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST2720	Japanese 2: Pre-Advanced Communication Skills 2	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)	PFP
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

Students will be required to study 20 credits from the following optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST2007	Japan's International Relations	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
EAST2025	Global Korea in Context: Sociocultural and Political Dynamics	20	Not running in 202526
EAST2480	Japanese Development Assistance in a Globalising World	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST2714	Death in Japanese Society and Culture	20	Not running in 202526
EAST2715	Japanese Cinema in the World	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST2716	Nature and Technology in Japan: Cultural Images	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Students may study up to 20 credits from the from 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)

Students may take 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 4

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
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Students are required to take a minimum of 40 credits in each subject. Overall, students must take 100 credits across their two subjects. 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 modules

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST3285	Japanese 3: Advanced Communication Skills	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Optional Modules

Students will be required to study ONE of the following compulsory 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 English are required to take a minimum of 20 credits and may take up to 40 credits from following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 1 OR Basket 2)

Students who take their FYP in Japanese may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules (EITHER Baskets 1 OR 2)

Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST3018	Death in Japanese Society and Culture	20	Not running in 202526
EAST3156	Nature and Technology in Japan: Cultural Images	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
EAST3286	Advanced Japanese in Context: Culture and Identity	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST3287	Advanced Japanese in Context 5: Japanese Diplomacy and Foreign Policy in Historical Context	20	Not running in 202526
EAST3580	Advanced Japanese in Translation	20	Not running in 202526

Basket 2:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
EAST3016	East Asian Performing Arts	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
EAST3252	Modern Japanese History	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
EAST3271	East Asia's Regional Political Economy	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
EAST3350	Japanese Cinema in the World	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Students who take their FYP with English may take up to 40 credits from following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 3 OR Basket 4).

Students who take their FYP in Japanese are required to take 40 credits from following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 3 OR Basket 4).

Basket 3:

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)
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)
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)
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 4:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL3008	Writing Modern Sexualities	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3027	Shakespeare	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3062	Charles Dickens Then & Now	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3065	Page, Publication and Audience	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3072	Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
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)
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)
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)

All students may choose to take 20 credits of the following 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)

Discovery Modules

Students may study up to 20 credits of discovery modules.

Last updated: 16/07/2025 16:58:50

Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team