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.

Familiarise yourself with the ways in which language tests and their components are developed and evaluated in this exciting module.

Starting with an overview of basic concepts and principles in language testing, you will then consider how language constructs – what we seek to measure – are defined, and how they may be realised in test tasks. It reviews a variety of common contemporary testing techniques and formats and it addresses current challenges for language test design, relating to developments in technology (e.g., how to utilise generative artificial intelligence) and to improved understanding from the field of second language acquisition of how languages are learnt.

We aim to help you to design language tests, and to evaluate test items critically, through the application and interpretation of descriptive statistics.

Corpus linguistics is a methodology whereby large collections of electronically transcribed texts are used in conjunction with computer tools to investigate language. This module aims to provide you with the skills needed to build, annotate and analyse your own corpora for a wide variety of linguistic projects.

The module centres around three parts:

1) Methods of analysis to explore linguistic variation (concordances, collocations, n-grams, distribution plots, frequency lists, keyness, multi-dimensional analyses)

2) Theoretical aspects of corpus linguistics, including statistical tests and issues around corpus building and annotation

3) Applications of corpus linguistics (language teaching, forensic linguistics, stylistic and discourse analysis)

The module consists of a series of lectures, supplemented by computer-based activities. You will learn how to use the following corpus analysis packages: CQPWeb, AntConc and WMatrix, as well as R. Assessment will involve you carrying out an original piece of corpus analysis.

Prepare for the contemporary culturally diverse workplace by expanding your understanding of core Intercultural Communication theories and concepts.

Culture can powerfully shape communication. Communication, in turn, is central to getting things done in any organisation. This role of culture has been prominently recognised in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, leading organisations to increasingly value culturally competent communication.

You will explore questions such as:

• What do we mean by ‘culture’?
• What are some of the dimensions on which ‘cultures’ are said to vary?
• What makes communication ‘intercultural’?
• What is ‘intercultural competence’ and how can we develop and assess it?
• What are some of the key culturally influenced barriers to communication and what linguistic strategies can we use to overcome them?

You will critically evaluate key theories and concepts pertaining to these questions and apply them to the analysis of a small sample of real data.

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.

Join us as we introduce you to issues in experimental phonetics, as well as the practical skills necessary to undertake a research project in this area.

You will learn how to use acoustic analysis software, such as Praat and also learn to carry out data processing and analysis using R (a statistical programming language). We will also cover appropriate statistical methods and aspects of phonetic and linguistic theory.

This is an advanced phonetics module where you will learn to conduct an original phonetics research project independently. It is suitable for students who already have undergraduate training in phonetics or leads on naturally from Foundations of Speech Science.

This module aims to provide you with a solid foundation in speech science and equip you with key analytical skills in phonetics. It will introduce you to core concepts and theories that underpin speech production and perception, guide you through phonetic descriptions of speech sounds and introduce you to quantitative methods of analysing speech.

Through hands-on activities working on a wide range of speech materials, you will not only develop practical competence in acoustic analysis but also acquire a firm understanding of inter- and intra-speaker variation in speech. Building on this knowledge, this module will explore how human speech and speech analysis interact with the modern digital world, as well as critically examine issues and challenges in practical applications of speech science.

Our societies and workplaces are culturally diverse in many ways - age, disability, gender, nationality, race, religion, socio-economic background and more. Most communicative encounters can thus be seen as ‘intercultural’, and different cultural groups can have markedly different beliefs and expectations around these encounters. This module will explore this in detail.

You will examine questions such as:

• What is the best way to make a point when we negotiate?
• What are acceptable topics for discussion while waiting for a meeting to start?
• What makes a convincing answer to a story-based job interview question?
• Should symptoms be presented in a diagnostic interview?
• What is the most appropriate way to demonstrate interest in a conversation?

Working in small mixed culture teams, you will present a plausible scenario of an intercultural encounter and, drawing on Intercultural Communication theories, analyse what makes it (un)successful. You will also analyse independently how a social issue is presented in the media and identify possible impacts on communication.

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.

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.

Explore the intersection of forensic linguistics and forensic speech science as this module provides you with a combined toolkit for examining language in investigative and intelligence contexts.

The focus of this module is firmly on developing a critical, informed approach to language – whether written or spoken – as a form of evidence and/or intelligence. You will be given the opportunity to analyse textual and audio materials across a range of settings, such as police interviews, courtroom testimony, and covert surveillance. You will also have the chance to consider areas such as giving expert evidence, the viability of deception detection, the challenges of forensic transcription and the issues surrounding interpretation/translation in legal contexts.

Throughout the module, we will critically examine the rise of AI, along with its (mis)use in both criminal enterprises and professional analysis.

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.

This specialist module introduces you to the latest theories, methods and applications of metaphor research.

Metaphor has become a focal point of research in linguistics and cognitive science where, far from an occasional literary fancy, it is recognised as a fundamental cognitive process that shapes our thoughts and actions in almost all aspects of life.

You will be introduced to contemporary theories of metaphor beginning with conceptual metaphor theory but further including the idea of metaphor scenarios, as well as more discourse dynamic and mental simulation approaches to metaphor. Through these frameworks, you will explore both the creative and the cognitive functions of metaphor and metaphorical expression in communicative modes besides language.

You will also engage with issues around identifying and classifying metaphors in discourse. The module will finish by looking at some of the real-world topics where metaphor particularly matters, including in connection with politics, health and the environment.

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.

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.

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.

What is language and how does it work in the mind, in society and in interaction? This module explores major theoretical approaches to language structure and use, comparing formalist perspectives with functionalist and usage-based models.

We will examine how language may emerge from usage, how it evolves over time and how it supports meaning-making in context. You’ll engage with structuralist and generative theories that treat language as an abstract, innate system, alongside cognitive and usage-based approaches—like Construction Grammar—that view language as a dynamic network shaped through interaction. We also explore new trends such as Dialogic Syntax, which looks at the co-construction of grammar in conversation, and Multimodal Construction Grammar, integrating gesture, prosody and visual context.

Through topics such as Language Acquisition, Evolution, Change and Neurodiversity, you’ll rethink language structure not as a fixed code, but as a cultural tool, shaped by experience, reshaped in interaction and revealing of our cognitive processes.