Multilingualism, Linguistics and Education

The MA draws on expertise from two departments, the , to offer students a wide-ranging interdisciplinary programme.

The programme is targeted at students working or planning to work in education in diverse contexts, and those interested in exploring intercultural and multilingual communication.

It'll be of particular interest if you have or wish to gain experience in teaching second and foreign languages (for example in multilingual classrooms, in bilingual education settings internationally, or English as a foreign language) and aim to achieve a wider theoretical knowledge base.

This MA will add value to your professional life, whether as managers, teachers or researchers, or in other careers related to language and education.

You learn how the English language and other languages are structured and used in a range of cultural settings, and how to support the literacy and learning development of students from multilingual backgrounds.

The course offers critical engagement with theory, policy and practice, and students benefit from intellectual debates in the disciplines of both education and linguistics.

You complete two compulsory courses, two option courses and a 15,000-word dissertation.
As compulsory courses you can choose one of the following from the Department of English and Comparative Literature (ECL):

* Global English: History & Variation or
* Language in its Sociocultural Context

And one of the following from the Department of Educational Studies (ES):

* Bilingualism and Biculturalism in Education or
* Teaching Language in Multilingual Contexts

In addition, you must choose two option courses.

One from the following ECL courses:

* Intercultural Discourse & Communication
* Core Issues in English Language & Linguistics
* Language & Ideology in Written Discourse
* Analysing Discourse & Identity in Spoken Interaction

And one from the following ES courses:

* Children's Literature and Cultural Diversity
* Race, Culture and Education
* Masculinities, Femininities and Identities in Education
* Early Childhood Education for a Diverse Society

For the dissertation we encourage hands-on research based on the uses of written and spoken language in a variety of institutional and informal contexts.

Where possible, we'll help you access multilingual settings relevant to you research. This will give unique insight into the practices of British classrooms and different linguistic communities.

You're also encouraged to draw on your own experience or unique cultural and linguistic background.

We run an additional MA study skills course in which we cover topics such as: using electronic resources; British academic essay writing & referencing at MA level; planning a dissertation.