Showing you how language tests are developed and validated, from classroom progress tests to high-stakes proficiency examinations, this module will equip you with knowledge and skills to design tests and to write and critically evaluate test items yourself.

Measuring the language proficiency of individuals and groups of learners is vital in second language education. Assessment must focus on what matters in the context of use and be carried out carefully, to impact positively on teaching and learning, and provide meaningful data to inform further development, and potentially life-changing decisions for learners.

The module provides an overview of fundamental concepts in language assessment and the test development cycle. You will use practical statistical methods to analyse test scores and test items and consider how to interpret these results. You will be encouraged to reflect critically on the application of language tests in education and contemporary society more broadly.

Pursuing a postgraduate degree requires a range of advanced study and research skills. These include selecting and critically engaging with relevant literature, adopting effective reading strategies, identifying a research gap, formulating answerable research questions. These steps will guide you in developing an independent research project.

With the support of a supervisor, you will consider the ethical dimensions of data collection, conduct your analysis, interpret the results and reflect on the wider implications of your findings. You will develop an academic writing style appropriate to your discipline, following relevant conventions, addressing issues such as referencing and plagiarism.

This module aims to enhance your academic practice and guide your dissertation project through a programme of compulsory and optional lectures, workshops, writing retreats and self-study resources. What you learn will underpin your success in your MA coursework and the final dissertation, providing the tools and strategies to do research with confidence and academic integrity.

This module reviews the principles, thinking and history underlying contemporary second language teaching practices.

You will explore what we know about the processes involved in language production and reception in a second language and uncovers implications for teaching of the language skills. It also reviews the developments in the teaching of the grammar and vocabulary of a foreign / second language and outlines the methods of language learning monitoring and provision of feedback in second language classrooms.

The lecture sessions will equip you with the necessary input on the principles and ideas associated with contemporary language teaching methods. The seminar sessions will give you space to discuss in small groups issues and concepts introduced in the lecture sessions, opportunities to critically engage with scholarly literature and opportunities to participate in experiential learning tasks.

As part of this module you will also learn about core techniques used in qualitative research, namely: interviews, focus-groups and classroom observation. You will have an opportunity to practise designing data collection instruments, collecting and analysing small samples of data.

How do we learn an additional language after childhood? Or maybe the question is how we learn after infancy? Because while we’re certain that learning a second or third or fourth language is different from learning languages in which we’re immersed at birth, we are constantly discovering more about learning an additional language. With this module, you join the exploration.

We probe dominant theories of second language acquisition, their relationship to linguistics, psychology and sociology and their connection to language learning and teaching. We explore language learning as both a cognitive and social process—developing an understanding of grammar and syntax, while also learning to communicate and participate within communities and societies.

We read seminal works, theoretical overviews and current research papers to sharpen your understanding and add concepts such as agency, identities, individual differences, awareness, mediation and implicit and explicit knowledge to your professional vocabulary.

This module will support you in becoming a language educator, helping learners develop their language skills in a range of settings. Increasingly, English language learners work with academic language, use technically precise registers to negotiate with suppliers and clients and/or collaborate with international stakeholders in government and non-profit settings. We find English in high school science classrooms in Hong Kong, mainstream classrooms in Africa, and university classrooms across Europe. This module will prepare you to support learners in these settings.

We use well-established frameworks to identify the linguistic challenges of academic and professional contexts, use related research to plan units and lessons and consider the implications of continuing change for classroom practice. We discuss professional identities, collaboration with content educators and the needs of diverse learners in these settings. We read recent research but also research that has stood the test of time. Through theory, research and practice, you develop the professional knowledge base for meeting the challenges of content-based approaches.

Grounded in evidence-based research, informed by second language acquisition and learning theories and driven by practical considerations, this module will introduce you to the key principles and procedures of language curriculum design.

This module specifically focuses on the following:

• An examination of factors that inform course construction
• An exploration of the course’s key components and ways in which they are structured, sequenced and assessed
• An examination of methods used for curriculum evaluation
• Developing understanding of ways in which change can be introduced to an existing course, including considerations given to teacher beliefs and teacher training provision

Language and other forms of communication are instrumental in defining social issues, identities and relations. This module presents the latest topics and methodological developments in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) – a field that aims to identify and expose the precise semiotic means by which power and inequality are enacted and challenged through discourse.

You will be introduced to foundational ideas concerning the relationship between texts, discourse practice and society, as well as a range of analytical frameworks employed in contemporary CDS to deconstruct texts and reveal their ideological and persuasive properties. Reflecting changes in the political and media landscape, you will explore communicative modes beyond language, including gestures and images.

Through practical textual analysis, you will use the tools of CDS to consider some of the most pressing issues currently facing society, such as right-wing populism, the right to political protest and the role of digital activism in effecting social change.

Explore how multilingualism and language policy intersect with broader social, political and economic structures in this fascinating module.

You will investigate how language is shaped by power structures and, in turn, shapes society across different domains such as the state, institutions, corporations and families. Topics include:

• Language and social justice
• Governmentality
• Commodification
• Policymaking

Through the discussion of current applied research, you will develop critical thinking skills and gain insight into the methodological approaches used in this field. A key focus will be understanding how language practices and policies contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities, and how they could also serve as tools for resistance and change.

By the end of the module, you will be equipped to critically engage with multilingualism and language policy debates, assess relevant research and consider the ethical and political implications of language use in diverse contexts.

Explore how the human mind processes, acquires and uses one or more languages in this engaging module.

Drawing on ideas from linguistics, cognitive science and psycholinguistics, we focus on the key mechanisms behind language learning and real-time language processing. You’ll build a strong foundation across disciplines and develop skills in analysing how language relates to cognition.

Alongside the core focus, you may explore topics such as multilingualism, cognitive development and individual differences, depending on the emphasis each year. We bring in the latest research to show how studying language can reveal broader cognitive abilities and connections across fields.

Assessment is through a mix of coursework and a final project, giving you the chance to apply your knowledge in practical and creative ways.

Lancaster is a world-leading centre in Literacy Studies, an approach to the study of reading and writing in authentic contexts. In this module you will learn about how and why Literacy Studies evolved and how it contributes to researching practices in workplaces, education and all domains in which reading and writing activities occur.

You’ll be interested in people, texts, materials and technologies. A particular focus for you will be artificial intelligence, from its beginnings with early computing, through to the current societal upheavals, opportunities and challenges presented by Generative AI. This is not a technical module and whatever your experience or stance towards GAI, you will become excellently equipped to carry out your own study.

You’ll gain confidence from engaging with recent world-leading research in Literacy Studies approaches to AI. You will give a conference-style small group “roundtable” presentation of your initial idea and receive plenty of support in methodology, ethics and everything else you need for completion of your coursework.

Examine meanings in communication and discover some core areas of pragmatics in this fascinating module. How do people mean more than they literally say? How do people understand those implied meanings? What is the role of culture? You will explore these questions and more.

The module is organised around four communicative areas:

• The first examines speaker intention and frameworks for describing speech acts or pragmatic acts
• The second examines hearer inferencing and comprehension, including frameworks such as Gricean implicature and Relevance Theory
• The third examines the interpersonal dynamics of interaction, especially politeness and impoliteness theories
• The fourth examines context, particularly the role of culture

Throughout the module, emphasis is placed on the application of pragmatic theory to 'real' data, and how that application affords insights into both the data and the theory. Data will mainly include spoken interactions, but other data types will be encountered too. The module concludes with a consideration of method in pragmatics and interaction.

Join us as we introduce you to variationist sociolinguistics, where you’ll explore how and why speakers choose among different forms in language — across pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary — based on social factors.

You’ll see how age, gender, social class, ethnicity and community networks shape the selection of linguistic variants. We’ll work with the concept of variables, examining both external influences (such as speech style or social demographic) and internal constraints (like position in the word or phrase) that govern variation, and you'll learn how to collect speech data in the Labovian style. You will also learn to code phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical variables and apply quantitative analysis techniques using sociolinguistic software.

By conducting your own research project, you’ll connect patterns and processes of language change, gaining practical experience in data-driven sociolinguistic methods and discovering how social life and language evolve together. This hands-on approach ensures you graduate confident in using quantitative sociolinguistic tools and interpreting variation in everyday language.

The possibilities of GenAI and LLMs excite language educators everywhere. But did you know applied linguists have researched chatbot use in language education since the 1980s? Or that language educators developed on-line tasks, writing tools and collaborations in the 1990s?

This module covers the future, present and past of teaching language online: what people claim, what research shows and what contributes to your students’ language development.

Equipping you with up-to-date knowledge and skills to use corpus resources with confidence in your language teaching practice, this module examines how new technological advances play an important role in current approaches to language learning and teaching.

You will explore how these advances are driving the development of major language teaching resources such as textbooks, dictionaries and grammars. This will lead you to discover different ways in which corpora and new technologies can assist language teachers and materials developers in effective language teaching and teaching materials development.

In a series of lectures and practical tasks, you will gain an understanding of the principles of integrating corpora into language teaching, discussing topics such as discovery learning, data-driven learning and authenticity in language teaching materials. We will also consider the advantages and challenges of integrating GenAI tools with corpus methods to support language learning.

Hands-on sessions in a computer lab will provide you will ample opportunity to develop skills in the practical use of corpus methods relevant for pedagogical research and practice.