English Language and Linguistics

Entry requirements

A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or equivalent, in an appropriate discipline (e.g. English Language, Linguistics), is required. Applicants may be asked to provide evidence of written work or be invited for interview.

Months of entry

October

Course content

Advanced knowledge of grammar and phonology coupled with practical application and exploration of English in context – e.g., language and identity, discourse analysis, English in education – forms the core of our MA course. You will be given expert supervision and guidance in completing your own research-based thesis on a specialist topic of your choosing.

Our cutting-edge MA course is delivered by a dynamic team of linguists, each with their own research specialisms. Our range of expertise includes corpus linguistics (computer-assisted discourse analysis), phonetics and phonology (useful for sociolinguistic research), historical linguistics (e.g., history of surnames and placenames) and critical discourse analysis (e.g., ideology in the media). Students can also explore conflicts and controversies in the discipline and contribute to our online blog.

Our up-to-date English Language research facilities will allow you to undertake data-based projects using some of the latest specialist software (e.g., for acoustic phonetics and corpus linguistic analysis).

Our team are currently involved in the innovative Cestrian English project which surveys and analyses local accents and dialects (‘Talking Chester’) and representations of Chester - past and present – in written texts (‘Changing Chester’). MA students will have the opportunity to join us in this research.