MA Applied Linguistics

University of Essex

Applied linguistics addresses real-life language problems through insights gained from current linguistic theory, psychology and education.Our MA is designed for people who want to know more about how foreign or second languages (particularly English) are learned, and how different kinds of classroom practice might affect proficiency. You explore different approaches to understanding language and language acquisition, and the methods that can be used to investigate language learning and teaching. You select a mixture of modules on language learning and its application to classroom practices.Our course can lead to careers in areas such as academic research, publishing, journalism, administration, public service and teaching. You develop key employability skills including research design, data analysis, thinking analytically, report writing and public speaking.We work with the University’s Employability and Careers Centre to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.Within our Department of Language and Linguistics, we also offer supervision for PhD and MPhil. We offer supervision in areas including language acquisition, language learning and language teaching, culture and communication, psycholinguistics, language disorders, sociolinguistics, and theoretical and descriptive linguistics.

Language and Linguistics