Language and Linguistics MA

Are you interested in the way language works – its structure and organisation, its connection with mind and society, and how it influences human behaviour?

Our MA in Language and Linguistics addresses contemporary questions concerning the nature of language and the increasingly prominent role it plays in shaping the world around us.

Why Lancaster?

* Lancaster is one of the best places in the world to study language and linguistics according to the QS World Rankings

* Study in one of the largest centres for language and linguistics in the UK with academics specialising in a broad range of different areas

* Learn from world-leading experts in fields including corpus-linguistics, cognitive linguistics, critical discourse studies, forensic linguistics, language acquisition, phonetics and bilingualism

* Benefit from our cutting-edge laboratory facilities, including our Phonetics Lab, our Eye-tracking Lab, and our Brain and Bilingual Experience Lab

Tailor your degree

Our flexible programme provides a solid grounding in core elements of linguistic theory while allowing you to explore frontier topics and cutting-edge methods across a range of contexts where language matters.

The combination of core and optional modules means you gain essential knowledge of linguistics but are free to focus on specialist topics that are of interest to you. Choose to study topics including:

* Language acquisition and processing in the brain

* Language and society

* Political and media communication

* Meaning in interaction

* Figurative thought and language

* Language and AI

* Computer-assisted analysis of large-scale language data

* Language as evidence in criminal investigations

Immersed in learning

You’ll join a thriving intellectual community. Master’s students typically join one or more of our research groups and get to hear not only from academics at Lancaster but from leading experts around the world who share their latest research with us.

There are also opportunities to get involved in organising and present your own work at the annual Lancaster Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference.

A supportive environment

It’s not just an exciting academic environment you’ll be in but a friendly and supportive one too.

You’ll be assigned an individual advisor who provides one-to-one support and guidance throughout your degree.

In the second half of your programme, you’re assigned a dissertation supervisor who will help you produce a larger piece of work in a specialist area of your choosing.

Throughout your degree, there are recurrent workshops to help you develop additional skills you might need, including in academic writing and research methods.