BA Modern Languages and English (Italian)

Programme overview

Entry requirements

Entry Requirements are available on the Course Search entry

Programme specification

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]
View Timetable

At Level 1, 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 Italian as well as the cornerstone module MODL1150.

Students on Route A may take the remaining 20 credits as discovery modules or as further options with English or Italian.

Compulsory Modules

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

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL1065	Reading Between the Lines	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL1110	Literature, Culture and Critique	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ITAL1025	Exploring Italy: Introduction to Italian Culture and Society	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL1150	Worlds of Literature	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Optional Modules

Route A

Students with prior knowledge of Italian (B1 of the CEFR or equivalent) will be required to study the following module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL1170	Lower Intermediate Italian (A2+ B1)	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

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

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL1160	Beginners Italian (A1)	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ITAL1165	Pre-Intermediate Italian (A2)	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)	PFP

Route A
Students taking ITAL1170 may take up to 20 credits of the following optional modules (from EITHER Basket 1 OR Basket 2).

BASKET 1: ITALIAN OPTIONAL MODULES

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL1034	Art and Literature in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: An Introduction	10	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ITAL1040	Italy from Fascism to the Present	10	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

BASKET 2: ENGLISH OPTIONAL MODULES

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 202627
ENGL1855	Race, Writing and Decolonization	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Students taking ITAL1170 may take up to 20 credits of discovery modules.

Year 2

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

At Level 2, students must study 120 credits. Overall, students must take at least 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 Italian.

Of the remaining credits, 20 should be taken as optional modules in either English or Italian. The remaining 20 credits may be taken as discovery modules or as further options with English or Italian.

Optional Modules

Route A
Students who took ITAL1170 in Year 1 (post A-level route) will be required to study the following module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL2028	Advanced Italian (B2 of the CEFR)	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

Route B
Students who took ITAL1030/ITAL1160 and ITAL1032/ITAL1165 in Year 1 will be required to study the following module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL2027	Upper Intermediate Italian (B1/B2 of the CEFR)	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

All students will be required to study at least 20 credits and may take up to 60 credits from the following optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
FILM2202	Screening Italy: Neorealist cinema to Netflix	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
ITAL2025	Linguistic Variety in Modern Italy	20	Not running in 202627
ITAL2500	Modern Italian Identities Across Cultures	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL2045	From Inferno to the world. Reading Dante’s Divine Comedy in a global context	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Students may study up to 40 credits from the following optional modules:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
MODL2003	Global Queer Politics and Cultures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL2006	Social Class across Cultures	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep 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)
MODL2090	Languages in Action: from Theory to Practice	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
MODL2250	Digital Communications Across Cultures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Students are required to take at least one of the following modules. They may also select both options, if preferred:

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)

Student may also select one or more modules from the options below, to fulfil the minimum requirement of 20 credits of English modules per semester. Students can select a maximum of one module per basket.(Baskets 1-6).

Basket 1:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2029	Renaissance Literature	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2144	Life, Love and Death from Chaucer to Marlowe	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

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)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

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)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

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)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 5: Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2024	Language in Society	20	Not running in 202627
ENGL2034	Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2039	Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2042	Language Policy, Planning, and Politics	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2044	Prose Fiction Stylistics and the Mind	20	Not running in 202627
ENGL2049	Language of the Media	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Basket 6: Please note that some of the modules in this basket have pre-requisites for enrolment

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ENGL2023	Power of Language	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2032	Children, Talk and Learning	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2033	Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2037	Forensic Approaches to Language	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL2038	Global English: Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Decolonisation	20	Not running in 202627
ENGL2043	The Politics of Language	20	Not running in 202627
ENGL2048	Dialect Hunting	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL2181	Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Students may take up to 20 credits of discovery modules.

Year 3

[Learning Outcomes, Transferable (Key) Skills, Assessment]
View Timetable

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]
View Timetable

At Level 3, students must study 120 credits. Overall, students must take at least 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 Italian. The remaining 20 credits may be taken as further options in English or Italian, or as discovery modules.

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 must study the following compulsory module:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL3410	Proficiency Italian (C1/C2 of the CEFR)	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)	PFP

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 with English (ENGL3005 or ENGL3041) are required to take a minimum of 20 credits and may take up to 40 credits from the following list of optional modules (from basket 1-2):

Students who take their FYP in Italian (MODL3050) may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules (from basket 1-2):

BASKET 1: ITALIAN OPTIONAL MODULES

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
ITAL3451	Made in Italy and Italian Creativity	20	Not running in 202627
ITAL3452	Modern Italian Identities across Cultures	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

BASKET 2: TRANSNATIONAL CULTURE AND SOCIETY OPTIONAL MODULES:

Code	Title	Credits	Semester	Pass for Progression
FOAH3230	Transnational Feminism and Creative Practice	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
MODL3130	Languages in Action: from Theory to Practice	20	Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun)
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)
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)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Students who take their FYP in Italian (MODL3050) are required to take a minimum of 40 credits and may take up to 60 credits from the following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 3 OR Basket 4).

Students who take their FYP with English (ENGL3005 or ENGL3041) may take up to 20 credits from the following list of optional modules (EITHER Basket 3 OR Basket 4):

BASKET 3: SEMESTER 1 ENGLISH OPTIONAL MODULES

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)
ENGL3046	Parts, Periodicals, Newspapers: Literature and the Nineteenth-Century Press	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
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)
ENGL3321	Angry Young Men and Women: Literature of the Mid-Twentieth Century	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3477	Cursing and Courtesy: (im)politeness in English	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3479	Forensic Approaches to Language	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3482	Language Policy, Planning, and Politics	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3491	Language of the Media	20	Semester 1 (Sep to Jan)
ENGL3579	Law and Literature: Transgression, Justice, and Interpretation	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)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

BASKET 4: SEMESTER 2 ENGLISH OPTIONAL MODULES

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)
ENGL3061	Heart Disease in Contemporary Literature	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)
ENGL3068	African American Narrative	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3072	Narratives of Witchcraft and Magic	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3164	Imagining Posthuman Futures	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3181	Digital Discourse: language, social media, AI	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)
ENGL3462	Slavery and Antislavery in the Atlantic Imagination	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3475	Children, Talk and Learning	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3476	Crime Fiction Stylistics: Crossing Languages, Culture, Media	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3481	Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3485	Trial Discourse: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1913	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)
ENGL3489	Dialect Hunting	20	Semester 2 (Jan to Jun)

Please note that optional modules run subject to enrolments. An optional module may not run if only a low number of students choose it.

Discovery Modules

Students may choose to take 20 credits of discovery modules.

Last updated: 13/05/2026 13:04:04

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