(MA) Master of Arts
Linguistic Studies
Withdrawn
University of Essex
University of Essex
Language and Linguistics
Colchester Campus
Masters
Part-time
None
MA Q10824
10/05/2023
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A 2:2 degree (or international equivalent) in the following disciplines: English Language studies – including education, English language and Literature, Teaching(English),Linguistics or Modern Languages.
We will accept applicants with a degree in an unrelated area but which contains a substantial element of education, Linguistics, Language studies and Teaching .
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.0 in writing
If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.
Additional Notes
The University uses academic selection criteria to determine an applicant’s ability to successfully complete a course at the University of Essex. Where appropriate, we may ask for specific information relating to previous modules studied or work experience.
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
Please refer to the full time version of this course for information on Core and Compulsory modules.
External examiners
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
- To offer students postgraduate level training in one or more areas of Linguistics, where students choose from a wide range of modules to put together a Masters programme suitable to their individual needs and interests.
- Any acceptable curriculum will have one or more core domains, and will be constructed with guidance from the Programme Director.
- To develop an understanding of the central issues in need of explanation within the domains providing coherence to the scheme.
- To develop appropriate skills of argumentation and descriptive and analytic techniques.
- To provide basic training in research skills, enabling students to carry out a piece of individual research.
- To provide students with a foundation for further study, employment and lifelong learning.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: Students will acquire advanced understanding of the major research questions in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
A2: Students will acquire advanced understanding of processes of formulating and testing hypotheses in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
A3: Students will be aware of the limits of knowledge in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme and be familiar with current controversies.
Learning methods
There is considerable variation in the teaching strategies employed across the full range of available postgraduate modules.
Depending on numbers of registered students, modules may be presented as formal lectures, lecture plus follow up class or small group discussion.
In all cases, teachers of modules also provide opportunities for one-to-one interaction
Assessment methods
Typically by coursework of 3000 words or some equivalent assignment.
Depending on the modules followed, there may be elements of oral and/or group assessment
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Students will be familiar with the relationship between theory, data and evidence in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
B2: Students will be familiar with the process of reviewing a specific problem area, carefully assessing existing accounts of relevant phenomena and offering a balanced, if not comprehensively-based, judgement on the current state of research
B3: Students will have the ability to analyse and describe complex linguistic data from the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
B4: Students will be able to assess the well-formedness of complex arguments, identify suppressed premises, and locate fallacies.
B5: Students will be able to formulate hypotheses in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme, and assess their initial plausibility.
Learning methods
Depending on the domain(s) forming the core of the program, more or less emphasis on conceptual foundations, etc.
As compared to empirical studies and data manipulation.
Opportunities to manipulate data at first-hand in appropriate contexts.
Opportunities to critically review existing primary literature.
Assessment methods
A variety of methods, including conventional essays, exercise-based material equivalent to essays in the amount of work demanded, some opportunities for oral presentation and group assessment, depending on the domain(s) forming the core of the programme.
The dissertation, containing elements of individual research, is assessed with respect to each of these outcomes.
C: Practical skills
C1: Students will know how to use text-based and on-line library resources.
C2: Students will be able to use the Web to access materials.
C3: Students will be able to analyse linguistic datasets and understand the significance of numerical data in the domain(s) forming the core of their programm
Learning methods
Independent, self-directed learning after initial induction via the relevant modules.
Extended direction beyond basic reading lists in appropriate contexts.
Assessment methods
Assessment of standard essays considers the adequacy of bibliographies and takes account of individual resourcefulness on the part of students.
Manipulation of datasets forms the basis of much exercise-based assessment; assessed reviews of empirical studies take account of students' abilities to understand statistical aspects of such studies.
All these factors play an important role in the assessment of the dissertation.
D: Key skills
D1: Students will be able to write in a coherent, concise and informed way on topics in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
Students will be able to contribute to discussion of a topic in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
D2: Students will have basic word processing skills, including the manipulation of text objects where appropriate. Students will be able to use the internet for information searches. Students will be able to use on-line data sources if this is necessary for the domain(s) forming the core of their programme.
D3: Depending on the domain(s) forming the core of their programme, students will be familiar with relevant statistical techniques, complex procedures of symbol manipulation, or both.
D4: Students will be able to extend problem solving techniques in the domain(s) forming the core of their programme to novel problems. They will be aware of the difference between success and failure in solving a problem, and will bring this awareness to their own efforts.
D5: Improving own learning and performance
Learning methods
D1. Students are given guidance on academic writing, and subsequently receive extensive feedback on their essays.
D2. Initial guidance on general presentational aspects of dissertations, essays and other work is provided, and feedback on these matters is full and systematic.
D3. Statistical techniques are presented via dedicated modules and, to some extent, in the modules where they play a role.
Complex procedures of symbol manipulation are carefully introduced via lectures, with students given ample opportunity to deepen their understanding via one-to-one discussion or e-mail correspondence.
D4. Lectures and classes are ‘‘problem driven,’‘ i.e.
They follow a structure whereby a problem is posed and a variety of alternatives are pursued in seeking to throw light on it.
It is made clear to students that their dissertation must have this overall character.
D6. Essay and exercise topics avoid the formulaic, encouraging students to begin from a starting point defined by a module (reading list, lectures, etc.) but then to embrace a topic as their own, pursuing it via their own devices (library and internet searches) with whatever guidance is appropriate.
The dissertation represents the apogee of this strategy.
Assessment methods
D1. For some choices of core domain(s) for the program, there is the opportunity for limited assessment of oral presentations or contributions to discussion.
D2. The standards of bibliographies and the resourcefulness displayed in compiling them is a factor in the assessment of all work for which extensive consultation of sources is expected.
D3. Different aspects of numeracy are assessed in different ways.
Statistical competence is a factor in reviews of existing studies, in some exercises and in many dissertations.
More formal symbol manipulation is assessed via exercises and within the structure of certain types of dissertation.
D4. All exercises involving novel materials see the assessment of problem solving.
The dissertation provides an opportunity for a student to investigate a high level problem and develop a set of lower level problems in the context of this investigation.
D6. 'Disciplined' originality is assessed very positively in the context of all types of written work; some measure of it is expected in the dissertation.