Theoretical and Applied Linguistics by thesis

Entry requirements

Applicants for this course should have achieved a UK First class Honours Degree.

Months of entry

October

Course content

The MPhil by Thesis is offered by the Linguistics Section within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) as a full-time or part-time period of research and introduces students to research skills and specialist knowledge.

The full-time course runs from October to June, with a submission date of early June.

It is also possible to take a part-time route, and the expected timeframe would be 21 months, with a thesis submission date of early June in the second academic year of study.

The course aims:

to prepare students for the next stage in a potential research career, whether they are pursuing a further research programme or entering research-based employment; or to enable those undertaking the programme to contribute towards research in the subject area;

to give students with a strong background in linguistics the opportunity to experience the kind of independent, focused research they would pursue in a PhD;

to provide students with the necessary background in linguistic theory and related topics at an intermediate and advanced level using a range of approaches and methodologies;

to give students the opportunity to acquire expertise in their specific research interests;

to provide foundations for continuation to PhD research;

to offer the opportunity to participate in research culture within and beyond the Faculty, by attending and contributing to postgraduate seminars and reading groups; and

to develop the research skills required to conduct independent study such as:

formulating a realistic research proposal, with suitably delineated aims, objectives, methods, scope and expected outcome;

preparing written work based on the proposal;

mastering the construction of a valid theoretical argument;

selecting and mastering suitable research methods;

collecting relevant bibliography;

using computer databases and corpora;

using the relevant software, including statistical packages where appropriate; and

presenting well-argued academic material to the wider research community.

Information for international students

Language Requirement

IELTS (Academic)

Element Score

Listening 7.0

Writing 7.0

Reading 7.0

Speaking 7.0

Total 7.5

TOEFL Internet Score

Element Score

Listening 25

Writing 25

Reading 25

Speaking 25

Total 110

CAE

Score: Grade A & B (overall score of 193, with no element lower than 185 plus a Language Centre assessment)

CPE

Score: Grade A, B, or C (with at least 200 with no element lower than 185).