Applied Linguistics, MA by Research

Contribute to a Successful Research Community by Undertaking Original Research

linguistics description image

Course Overview

Start dates: 1st October, 1st January, 1st April & 1st July.

An MA by Research in Applied Linguistics enables you to undertake a project led by your own passions and interests, without committing to a full PhD.

Your project will take one year full-time or two years part-time.

Our staff are members of the Language Research Centre (LRC) and we are especially interested in projects concerning:

  • Computer Assisted Language Learning
  • Cognitive Psychology of Language
  • Discourse analysis
  • Lexical Studies
  • Pragmatics
  • Psycholinguistics
  • Second language acquisition
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Vocabulary learning


This programme is suitable preparation for doctoral work, but a proven ability to conduct independent research in the field will also improve your employment prospects in English language teaching and outside academia in the media, publishing or government bodies.

Your project will be agreed in consultation with supervisors and we recommend these discussions are started before applying, to help draw up an initial proposal.

You will be closely supervised by two experienced academics with relevant expertise throughout the course of the project. This involves fortnightly meetings in your first term and meetings at regular agreed intervals thereafter.

As a research student, you are required to attend skills and training courses. You deliver presentations to research students and staff at departmental seminars, at the annual departmental postgraduate symposium in June, and at the School of Culture and Communication Postgraduate conference.