The MA introduces students to the core areas of the study of English Linguistics, including morphology, syntax, phonetics, phonology, pragmatics, and corpus linguistics. The course develops students’ critical thinking skills through interactive class discussions based on authentic linguistic data to explore how the English language works, facilitating students’ growth as researchers.
The course is of interest to those who wish to continue to a research degree in English language or linguistics, those who wish to become teachers or lecturers of English, or those intending to pursue a career in writing, publishing, editing, or communication.
This course will equip you with expert knowledge of a wide range of topics in English Linguistics. It will develop your awareness of how the language choices we make can have an impact in our professional and personal lives, and thus improve your communication skills. It also teaches you to carry out research projects independently, critically analyse data, and consult primary and secondary materials, and therefore become adept at consolidating and presenting information from a variety of sources.
The theoretical and practical knowledge acquired about the English language also greatly helps teachers and educators by giving them a more solid foundation in the subject matter. These are all relevant transferable skills for a wide variety of career destinations.
The course provides an ideal foundation for those wishing to continue to a research degree in English language or linguistics; students who obtain good results in their MA examinations may be considered for the MPhil/PhD course at UCL, subject to places being available.
Graduates may also become teachers or lecturers of English, or pursue a career in writing, translation, editing, publishing, or marketing and communications.
In the Graduate Outcomes Survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of UK and EU graduates in the 2018–2024 cohorts, 88% of our graduates were in either highly-skilled work or postgraduate-level study 15 months after graduation.