Online Masters in Applied Linguistics and TESOL – University of Leicester

This module focuses on contemporary approaches to English Language Teaching (ELT) and key aspects of ELT methodology. You’ll study the principles underlying a wide range of approaches and techniques for the teaching of language, and will have the opportunity to relate these to your own professional context.

This module critically explores theoretical approaches, models and debates within the field of second language learning and acquisition. This will include learning strategies and learner autonomy, second language motivation, foreign language anxiety and how classroom language learning is achieved.

This module provides an introduction to the description of English grammar, based on pedagogic as well as descriptive models. The aim of the module is to improve your awareness of form-meaning relationships and the choices available in English grammar, and to enable you to apply this knowledge to your teaching contexts.

You’ll have plentiful opportunities to practise grammatical analysis in areas such as phrase and clause structure, tense, aspect and modality. You’ll also consider approaches to the teaching of grammatical form and their suitability in a variety of teaching contexts.

This module will provide you with an introduction to the formal description of the English sound system, based on pedagogic as well as descriptive models. You’ll learn about consonant and vowel sounds in isolation (segmental phonology) and sounds in connected speech (supra-segmental aspects), to improve your awareness of how the English sound system works, and to enable you to apply this knowledge to your own teaching.

During the module you’ll look at key concepts, terminology and approaches in phonology and pronunciation teaching, and discuss contemporary issues and debates within the field. You’ll learn how to conduct phonological analysis of English native and learner languages, including phonemic transcription, and how to analyse and assess your learners’ pronunciation difficulties and needs.

In this module you’ll investigate how and why the way we use English varies according to social, regional, and other dimensions (for example, age, gender or social class). You’ll explore how and why language use becomes more standardised over time, and how this process influences attitudes to different varieties or dialects. You’ll also look at how the status of English as a global language has been described and theorised, and at the methods used to collect and study sociolinguistic data.

In this module you’ll discover how we recognise and use distinctive types and styles of language in different situations and across different media, whether spoken, written, digital or multimodal. You’ll explore how factors such as communicative intention, politeness and indirectness affect our use of language. You’ll also explore how power is conveyed (explicitly or implicitly) through language, and look at the methods used to collect and study discourse data.

This module aims to introduce you to some basic considerations in Language Teacher Education. The aim is to provide you with some guiding principles that can offer a foundation for becoming a language teacher educator. The key to teacher education is considered to be the bringing together of theory (abstract, de-contextualised, collective thought) with practice (individual, contextually bound, constrained action) in a productive conversation.

Language testing is endemic to 21st century society. It is used to screen students for entry to educational institutions, employ professionals such as pilots and health professionals, and restrict immigration. The results of language tests can enhance your career or restrict your life chances.

This module therefore explores how we test English language with specific reference to validation theory (the justification for score use in decision making), while looking at the process of test design and the principles that underlie good practice. It is important to consider how we develop and build good language tests, as we continue examine the impact that their use will have on individuals and society.

This module will help you to understand the place of course and syllabus design in ELT and to review the underlying principles that govern the classification of syllabuses. It examines and evaluates the types of syllabus that are currently in use and aims to enable you to design a course and syllabus fit for a particular purpose.

This option aims to provide a clear overview of the theoretical, pedagogical and commercial issues related to the development of language teaching materials. You’ll focus particularly on the development of English language teaching materials, although the underlying principles are relevant for languages other than English. The option also aims to help you develop the necessary skills and knowledge to create, adapt and evaluate language teaching materials.

This option module looks at key areas of management theory to see how these might be applied in practice in specific ELT situations. You’ll consider the role of the manager in ELT contexts and analyse the management of a variety of academic programmes. You’ll also explore key issues involved in managing people, resources and change, to develop an understanding of the fundamentals of financial management and marketing.

This module aims to explore the key areas of ESP and examine their applications to specific learning contexts. It will consider the development and status of ESP, and its sub areas, within the teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). It will also explore the role, methods, application and evaluation of needs analysis within ESP and the importance of course evaluation and  material design within ESP.

The module will allow you to examine the roles and relationships of teachers and learners in ESP settings. You’ll examine the specific domains of English for business purposes (EBP) and English for academic purposes (EAP) while considering their importance within ESP and TESOL.

Although there is still currently a wide difference in access to and uptake of technology in education, both within the UK and from country to country, the use of technology in learning and teaching is developing rapidly, not only in language learning but across the curriculum in general.

This general move towards ‘e- learning’ means that, even if teachers are not yet in a position to use technology in the classroom immediately, an understanding of their potential and how to integrate them effectively into language learning is an important aspect of teacher development. This module therefore aims to help language teachers move more confidently in the direction of using technology to enhance their students’ language learning experiences.

This option module looks at the major issues connected with the teaching of young learners and English language teaching. You’ll have the opportunity to consider a range of relevant educational principles, where you’ll be examining a variety of teaching materials and textbooks. You’ll be considering classroom teaching and experiences of young children learning, and relating approaches and methods for teaching children to social, cultural and educational contexts. You’ll also explore the value of story-based language teaching.

A corpus is a carefully designed collection of written or spoken texts, stored on computer. In the last few decades, a corpus ‘revolution’ has allowed users of all kinds – researchers, teachers, even language learners – fascinating insights into how language is used, in ways that previously would have been impossible.

Using a corpus you can identify and explore an enormous variety of patterns in English (and other languages) that even language textbooks rarely cover: for example, which words typically ‘go together’ with other words (e.g. which with almost and which with nearly)? Which language features are particularly important in academic texts and casual conversation, respectively, and how are they used? What features of language are changing in English today? What are the most frequent differences of language use between learners of English and L1 speakers in written essays, for example?

The module provides opportunities to explore such issues hands-on (in a computer lab), and to think about how corpus linguistics can support language learning and teaching.

In this module you’ll build on the Block 2 module, Discourse Analysis, to investigate critical approaches to the analysis of discourse, in particular Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and its main branches (e.g. the approaches of Fairclough, Wodak, and van Leeuwen). You’ll explore key theoretical and practical issues, such as how social situations impact on language use and how language use constitutes social situations.

Through a range of practical activities you’ll have opportunities to develop and apply CD analytical skills to authentic written and spoken texts. In addition you’ll explore the relevance of CDA in educational and language learning contexts, and consider the implications of critical approaches for language teaching and language learning.

In today’s world of globalisation, multicultural contact and interaction, effective intercultural communication is increasingly important for social harmony. While a range of disciplines can offer insights into the issues that arise in this context, the field of Applied Linguistics and language education is particularly well placed to analyse the real-life problems and challenges of communication across and within cultures.

This module aims both to examine theoretical perspectives on intercultural communication, and to explore how teachers can be more effective in developing in themselves and in their learners a critical approach to intercultural communicative competence.