Modern Languages and English Literature

Modern languages and English literature is a combination that brings the study of foreign languages and their cultural worlds into dialogue with the richest tradition of literary study in the English-speaking world. Modern languages develops your ability to read, write, and speak in languages other than English, while also giving you access to literatures, films, and cultures that English alone cannot reach. English literature trains you to engage with texts with sensitivity, analytical rigour, and historical awareness.

Together, they produce a comparativist sensibility: the habit of reading across linguistic and cultural boundaries.

At the University of Reading, this four-year, full-time programme gives you the space to develop both strands seriously. The four-year duration typically reflects the need for sufficient time to reach a high level in your modern language or languages while also engaging fully with the English literature curriculum, and you will benefit from Reading's strength in both areas. You will study literary texts in English across historical periods and genres, developing your ability to analyse and contextualise them, while also progressing your chosen modern language to a high level of communicative and interpretive competence.

Cultural history, translation, and the relationship between languages and their literary traditions are themes that run through both sides of the degree. A typical entry tariff of 120 UCAS points indicates the entry expectations for the programme.

The combination develops close reading skills, strong written expression in at least two languages, the ability to think comparatively, and a cultural range that is genuinely distinctive.

Graduates work in publishing, translation and interpreting, education, journalism, the cultural sector, the civil service, international business, and the law. The breadth and linguistic depth the degree provides is valued in roles requiring cross-cultural communication and sophisticated written expression. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in languages, literary criticism, translation, or comparative literature.