With specialist training in the linguistic study of the English language, this course offers the best of both taught and research-focused postgraduate courses.

The course covers concepts and methodologies in linguistic description and analysis, including methods used to study linguistic structure and variation, and approaches in semantics, pragmatics and discourse analysis. You will also have the option to explore psycholinguistics or receive training in event organisation and presentation, with practical hands-on experience organising a conference.

Whatever your area of interest, we will give you the opportunity to develop your own specialisms and build on your skills in writing for publication, presenting work, publishing and researching. This course is taught by staff who are active researchers with expert knowledge across a range of fields in English language and linguistics, including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, lexical semantics, language and sexuality, corpus linguistics, and influence and persuasion.

With us you will build on strong research skills, including literature review and critical analysis of research methods, to enable you to build an interesting, thorough independent research proposal to explore in your final dissertation. The course is ideal for students who are self-motivated, with good time management and the ability to work independently, as these skills will be developed throughout. This is an excellent stepping stone to either research at PhD level or a career in teaching, publishing or research.

The English Language MA is a degree in linguistics.

The course helps you develop high-level linguistic, reasoning, analytic and presentation skills, and we expect graduates to go on to careers in areas such as teaching, publishing, media, and research.

The course also offers an excellent transition from postgraduate to PhD level study, ideal if you wish to advance your studies to the next level.