BA English Language & Literature

The English Language and Literature offers a programme of courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The main objectives the undergraduate programme are to improve students' English language skills, enabling them to read with understanding and thus, to form intelligent responses to works of literature. Because the medium of instruction is English, students who are admitted to our Department are required to sit for the English Proficiency Exam prepared by the School of Foreign Languages at the beginning of the academic year. Students who fail the exam undergo a one-year preparatory programme to improve their command of English. In the first year of the programme of our Department, students take courses such as English, Translation, Survey of English Literature, Textual Analysis, and practise the art of close reading on a wide range of texts. The second year of our programme offers courses which focus on various periods of English literature, emphasising analysis of literary texts within various social, cultural, historical and political contexts. The courses in year two include Medieval Literature, 16th and 17th Century English Literature, 18th Century English Prose and Fiction and Social History of Britain. Students in this year also take an Introduction to Poetry course. In the first two years of their study, students are required to take courses such as Literature of Antiquity, Mythology and Latin. In the third and fourth years, representative works of major 19th and 20th century British poets, prose writers, novelists and playwrights are studied. In years three and four, there are also courses on translation, writing, critical and literary theories in order to hone students' language and analytical skills. In addition to these mandatory courses, third and fourth year students are also offered a certificate programme in English Language Teaching, the successful completion of which qualifies them to teach English at public and private schools. In the last year of the programme, students are required to submit a senior thesis on a particular topic in British literature within the frame of various critical, theoretical and methodological discourses. There are possible career opportunities for the graduates of our Department. Some become teachers of English, while others take their studies to a higher level pursuing M.A or Ph.D degrees. Our graduates also work as translators, editors or journalists, and in administrative positions in governmental or private institutions and organisations.