Applied Linguistics and Communication MA

Our MA Applied Linguistics and Communication gives you the opportunity to explore language and communication from a wide variety of perspectives. It is designed to cultivate your understanding of key concepts, issues and theories, while also developing your analytical and empirical skills, so you can investigate and deal with real-world language issues applicable to a variety of domains and careers.

Why choose this course?

* Applied linguistics has been taught by experienced, world-leading academics at Birkbeck since 1965.

* Our most recent external examination reported: 'very high levels of professionalism and real quality in teaching. Students taking this unique course are getting the best in terms of professional practice and support. They are also allowed to develop their own interests and demonstrate independence of both skills and knowledge.’

* This Master's degree offers you a choice between two dissertation pathways: an empirical research investigation, or an independent library-based project on a relevant topic. It is ideal if you want to further your career prospects and professional development, or if you have an interest in doctoral research.

* You can choose to take a route through the course on campus, online or a combination of both.

What will I learn?

Core modules introduce you to qualitative and quantitative research methods for undertaking your own empirical and/or theoretical research into language and language behaviour and sub-domains of applied linguistics, for example, first and second language acquisition, intercultural communication, language pedagogy and assessment, language impairment, language policy, language and identity, and language variation. You can also choose from option modules to tailor your degree to your interests/career aspirations.

How will I learn?

This course is available to study full- or part-time with classes in the evening. You will learn through lectures, seminars, workshops and one-to-one supervisory sessions.

You will also benefit from the experience of attending extracurricular seminars hosting guest speakers. These will introduce you to cutting-edge research and enable you to mix with language professionals working inside and outside of academia.

This course is part of our Birkbeck Flexible Master’s UK, which gives you the choice of how you want to study - on campus, online or via flexible learning, which combines both.

If you require a Student visa to study in the UK, you will only be able to apply for the on-campus study option for this course. Online and flexible options will not be available to you because they may affect the conditions of your visa.

Highlights

* Birkbeck actively collaborates with the larger community of applied linguists throughout University of London colleges.

* We offer a number of bursaries for postgraduate students.

* You can apply for UBEL funding through the Multilingual Practices UBEL Pathway. The deadline for applications is 10 November. Contact Birkbeck's pathway leader Bojana Petric for more information.

Careers and employability

Through gaining important knowledge in critical skills, theory and practice this MA Applied Linguistics and Communication allows you to build your career prospects and sharpen your professional goals. On successfully graduating you will have gained an array of important transferable skills, including:

* advanced (academic) oral and literacy skills

* critical and analytical skills

* qualitative research skills

* quantitative research skills.

Graduates can pursue a range of careers in which language and communication is central; these include, for example, posts in education, local government and the charity sector, public relations and the media, marketing and lexicography. Possible professions include:

* English as a second language (ESOL) teacher

* lexicographer

* speech and language therapist

* Civil Service fast-streamer

* primary school teacher

* translator.