Applied Linguistics for TEFL

Bangor University’s MA in Applied Linguistics for TEFL provides postgraduate-level training for students who wish to learn about the about the theoretical, practical, and teaching aspects of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), as well as providing competence and critical understanding of a wide range of aspects of the English language and English linguistics (sociolinguistic aspects of English, the grammar, sound system and semantics of English, the history of English, 1st and 2nd language acquisition, psycholinguistics as well as issues pertaining to English as an international language and bilingualism).

This course is designed for home or international students who wish to pursue a career in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) to non- native speakers of English. And the programme is specifically aimed at students seeking careers in multilingual and international contexts – where an awareness of and ability to deploy different genres of English communicational strategies is of the utmost importance.

We are an accessible, friendly Department whose staff who are passionate about passing on their expertise and subject knowledge and committed to delivering the highest quality learning experience for our students. Our research informs our teaching provision at all levels, with our students benefitting from enthusiastic staff at the cutting-edge of academic enquiry and developments. Our staff is committed to providing an excellent student experience with strong personalized student support throughout the duration of your MA Applied Linguistics for TEFL studies.

Following taught components students on this degree will complete an independent research-based Masters level dissertation project. The staff in our Department provide excellent personalized supervision and academic support for dissertations on wide range of Applied Linguistics for TEFL topics using applied, theoretical, experimental, corpus-based or ethnographic methodological frameworks. These include are not limited to: TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), SLA and language teaching, psycholinguistics, child language acquisition, 2nd language acquisition, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, language and communication, phonetics & phonology, morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics, historical linguistics, language variation and change, language and communication, and bilingualism / multilingualism.

Students on our Applied Linguistics TEFL MA can use state-of-the-art learning facilities which include:

A professional grade sound / recording studio and speech laboratory (with Yamaha, Alesis and RØDE recording equipment)

An eye tracking laboratory (with a Tobii Pro X2-60 eye tracker)

An event-related potential (ERP) laboratory (with an actiCHamp Plus ERP machine)

And dedicated corpus-linguistics software and resources.

Our staff also have expertise in and provide support for the following:

Statistical software such as: SPSS, R-Statistics and Excel

Experimental psychology software such as E-Prime, GORILLA Experiment Builder, Open Sesame and Webexp.

Acoustic and phonetic analysis software such as: Audacity, Praat, and SIL Speech Analyzer

Standardised psychometric /language tests (e.g., EVT, BPVS, NARA, WISC, K-BIT, TROG, CELF)

A wide range of specialized corpora and concordance software including CHILDES and CLAN.

At Bangor you will be part of a vibrant, innovative post graduate research community which is supported through various events throughout the year, ranging from individual talks to informal seminars and workshops to large conferences. Many of these are open not just to academic staff, but also to students and to the general public.