COURSE OVERVIEW

Learn the latest linguistics theories and apply them to your classroom practice. Advance your career in language teaching, or even take it international.

Study in Cambridge, a city famous for language teaching, or by distance learning
Boost your career prospects with new critical and analytical skills
Take part in conferences and other high-profile research events

Our MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL will improve your theoretical understanding of language learning and help you to develop your teaching skills.

You will explore the latest theories in topics such as second language acquisition and social discourse, as well as learning different methods of analysis with which to assess to their value to your own language teaching.

You will also learn to conduct your own research, compiling and analysing qualitative and quantitative data and developing your critical-evaluative skills. These skills will be put to use on your own research project at the end of the course, as well as in your future career.

Our optional modules will also allow you to explore your own interests, with topics including course design and classroom practice, as well as ‚Impacts of Migration’ and ‚Language, Identity and Policy’, which will help prepare you for a teaching career in Europe or further afield.

Outside of the course, you can take part in our research seminars and conferences, like the Identities in Language conference, or the British Association for Applied Linguistics conference 2016.

CAREERS

Our MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL will help you prepare for many language-learning and teaching-related professions, such as teaching English and other languages (in the UK and abroad), and developing courses, tests, materials or language policy.

You might also decide to continue on to a research degree, such as our PhD English Language and Linguistics or PhD English Language and Intercultural Communication.

MODULES & ASSESSMENT

Second Language Acquisition

You’ll focus on the major themes that have emerged from literature on second language learning over the last three decades. You’ll examine some of the research on the second-language acquisition process, look critically at reports of second-language research, and examine some of the theories which endeavour to interpret research evidence. You will be encouraged to use your own language learning and teaching experience to assess the relative merits of such materials. The module is taught through weekly seminars, offered in the early evening to accommodate those who are in part- or full-time employment. You may be asked to prepare or analyse material for presentation and discussion in class. Students taking part in distance delivery will work in small groups with support from the tutor by means of the Virtual Learning Environment, with progress monitored through formative tasks. Your assessment will be in the form of an extended written assignment to be submitted at the end of the module.
Discourse in Society

You’ll examine the relationship between language and society, and the construction of discourse in various domains. In the first part of the module you’ll explore sociological and sociolinguistic models and theories, such as speech communities, communities of practice and ethnolinguistic vitality, with a particular focus on social variation and stratification across various linguistic levels (phonology, lexicon, syntax). The second part of the module expands the discussion, and you’ll explore the notion (or notions) of discourse in both its linguistic and wider meaning, and its construction in and through society and language use. Throughout the module, you’ll study methods for the collection and transcription of data, and discover various approaches to linguistic and discourse analysis. These methods and approaches will then be put into context and used in the analysis of the relevant social spheres and domains, such as educational or institutional discourse. By the end of the course, you’ll become more familiar with some of the theoretical foundations on which the study of language use is built, and you’ll be able to apply the practical techniques of sociolinguistic and discourse analysis. You’ll be assessed through coursework consisting of a portfolio of tasks (3,500 words).
Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

This module will provide you with an introduction to research methods in preparation for the MA dissertation. Fortnightly sessions will familiarise you with the basic processes of conducting research, including general methodological approaches as well as research ethics. You’ll analyse and discuss both qualitative and quantitative data, in order to develop your critical-evaluative skills. Two sessions will be used to introduce you to the main software packages for both qualitative and quantitative research. If you’re taking the distance learning option, you’ll work on the Virtual Learning Environment in small groups with support from the tutor, with your progress monitored through formative tasks. Your assessment will consist of a portfolio, including an outline plan for a research project, which may become the basis for the dissertation.
Major Project

This module will support you in the preparation and submission of a Masters dissertation, allowing you to explore in-depth a particular topic that reflects your academic interest.

ASSESMENT

You will show your understanding of the theoretical issues explored on the course and their practical application through various methods, including portfolios, classroom observation tasks and critical essays. At the end of the course, you will also research and complete a 15,000-word major project.

NB Distance Learning students will take the following modules: Major Project, Second Language Acquisition, Classroom Theory and Practice, Materials and Course Design, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, Discourse in Society