MA Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) – February or September entry

Core modules:  

Language Curriculum Design

Explore the main approaches to the design of language curricula, examine relevant factors in specifying a syllabus and analyse teaching materials in the light of syllabus requirements. You’ll discover the processes involved in implementing curriculum innovation while understanding the educational environment and goals, needs of learners, principles underpinning language teaching, and curriculum evaluation.

Foundations of Language Study

Explore the phonetic and phonological systems of the English language to develop skills in analytical listening and broad phonetic transcription. You’ll acquire a practical understanding of functional units involved in the production of sounds, syllables, stress, intonation, words, and the construction of sentences. 

Second Language Learning Principles

Discover the principles of second language learning and their implication for professional practice in language teaching, learning, and other relevant disciplines. You’ll familiarise yourself with the key factors that influence language learning, understand their effects on learners and learning processes, and analyse how they can be used to promote real-life language learning and teaching. 

Academic Practice in Applied Linguistics

Gain the skills needed to identify, evaluate, and use relevant information resources and virtual learning and assessment platforms at the University. You’ll understand the significance of following appropriate academic practices and conventions, and the importance of critical reading and writing skills at master’s level.

Research Design Methods

Explore the principles of research and commonly used research designs, approaches, and techniques used in TESOL and applied linguistics. You’ll gain necessary knowledge and skills to conduct valid, ethical, and reliable research and use quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods techniques for data collection and analysis. 

Dissertation

Develop a dissertation topic in a sub-field of TESOL or applied linguistics to conduct a piece of original research within a clearly defined context, leading to the production of a master’s-level research dissertation.

Portfolio

Through observation of classroom events, detailed analysis of a language learner, development of lesson plans, and teaching delivery, you’ll acquire basic knowledge of how to evaluate, adapt, plan and deliver a lesson or part of a lesson, and how to analyse the language of learners. 

Issues in Language Skills Teaching

Gain an understanding of the theory and practice of a skills-based English language lesson, including the design of activities and tasks for teaching reading, writing, speaking and listening in English. 

New technologies in language learning and teaching

Explore the connection between second language acquisition theories and the implementation of current Internet and computer technologies. You’ll examine ways in which technology can be used to support the learning of a new language in both educational and everyday life settings. 

Optional modules: 

Language Testing Principle

 Discover the issues and methods of language testing and its role in educational, professional, employment and immigration fields. You’ll explore the key characteristics of good language tests, consider the usefulness of different tests for educational and non-educational purposes, and provide opportunities for test evaluation and test design. 

Sociolinguisitics

Gain a deep understanding on the interaction between social factors such as age, gender, region, and the way people use language, and why people and societies value particular ways of speaking over others. Explore the role of language in a range of social issues, including citizenship, racism, educational policy and migration. 

Intercultural Communication

Explore how people of different discourse systems or nationalities communicate with one another in various face-to-face and digitally mediated contexts. You’ll gain knowledge of a range of theoretical and methodological tools, such as discourse and conversation analysis, that will support your critical analysis and reflection. 

Child Language Development

Examine the main theories of language development and the developmental stages of language components: phonology, lexicon, morphosyntax, and pragmatic. You’ll learn to use a computer programme for child data analysis to develop your own research project and investigation of a   child language development issue. 

Issues in Bilingualism

Explore the concepts and problems discussed in bilingualism studies. You’ll be introduced to the main research questions and analysis methods of problems related to societal and cognitive bilingualism.

Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

Gain basic training in the use of specialist software programmes for the analysis of language in large or specialised corpora, applying a set of quantitative and qualitative methods. You’ll learn how to use computational corpus-based tools and methods to study a variety of linguistic and semantic features, registers and genres. 

Approaches to Discourse Analysis

Gain practical insights into how the theoretical and methodological tools of discourse analysis can be applied in educational and other professional contexts. Explore a range of analytical approaches in the description of authentic language, relating features of text to the context in which the language is produced and understood.

Language and Migration

Explore the role of language in migration by focusing on the multiple and complex ways that migration has been sustained and constrained through language use for centuries. You’ll examine a range of theories from sociolinguistics, sociology and education studies, learning to apply these theories to different contexts of migration across the world, and study topics such as multilingualism and mobility, and globalisation and language policy.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

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