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Academic Practices in Applied Linguistics

Academic Practices in Applied Linguistics is a non-credit bearing, but compulsory, module that is developed in order to provide academic help and support to post-graduate students in DELAL. The module is offered online.

Dissertation

Drawing on the content of other relevant modules on the programme and the work done for the Research Design module, this module enables students to design, conduct and write up an original research study.

Optional modules

Second Language Learning Principles

This module aims to review and evaluate general theories of learning; to consider the implications of learning theories for second language (L2) learning and teaching; to outline the development and relationship of different theoretical accounts of the first and second language learning process; to review and evaluate research into important factors in second language learning connected with the learner and the circumstances of learning; and to consider the practical implications of this research into factors in second language learning.

Approaches to Discourse Analysis

This module aims to introduce and apply the key methodological frameworks for the description and analysis of discourse, including spoken and written language in use. We will consider a range of analytical approaches in the description of authentic language, relating features of text to the context in which the language is produced and understood. We will also consider the applicability of these approaches to study discourse in a variety of social and educational contexts.

Child Language Development

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of language development in normal children, together with the experience of encoding child language data and using a computer program to analyse it. It thus affords a benchmark and a system of analysis for interpreting abnormal language development.

Intercultural Communication

In this module, students will explore how people of different discourse systems or groups communicate with one another in various face-to-face and digitally-mediated contexts. Specifically, students will gain an understanding of how assumptions and values that have been constructed or adopted within a specific culture group influence the ways in which people successfully communicate with each other as well as experience miscommunication. Students will become familiar with a variety of topics in intercultural communication as they engage in hands-on analyses of intercultural encounters.

Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

Corpus-based approaches have had an enormous impact on the description of language in use. The analysis of language patterning and frequencies across large quantities of text can reveal features of language use that may not be easily accessible otherwise. The module aims to introduce students to the tools and methods of Corpus Linguistics (CL) and the application of CL as a tool for the analysis of language use in a variety of registers and discourse contexts. Students will be offered a comprehensive training in the use of specialist software for the analysis of language in corpora (large electronic text compilations), and will gain a hands-on experience in creating, annotating, analysing and summarising corpus-data for their own research purposes.

Language Curriculum Design

This module aims to: review the principal approaches to the design of language curricula; examine relevant factors in specifying a syllabus; analyse teaching materials in the light of syllabus requirements; consider the processes involved in implementing curriculum innovation; and contextualise language curriculum design within the educational system and philosophy of which it is a part.

Language and Migration

In this module students will explore the role of language in migration by focusing on the multiple and complex ways that migration has been sustained and constrained through language use for centuries. Students will be introduced to a range of theories from sociolinguistics, sociology and education studies and learn to apply these theories to different contexts of migration across the world. Among the topics covered in the module are multilingualism and mobility, globalization and language policy etc. 

Issues in Language Skills Teaching

This module introduces the processes involved in the development of the oral/aural (i.e., listening and speaking) and literacy (i.e., reading and writing) skills in a second language. The module also provides an overview of current and effective methods of teaching in ESL/EFL contexts, focusing on listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Through using a highly interactive skills-based approach, students will experience in practice the academic and pedagogic ideas during the modules. 

Language Testing Principles

This module familiarises students with the basic concepts, issues and methods of language testing and help them realise the significant power of language tests in educational, professional, employment and immigration fields. The module evaluates key characteristics of good language tests, considers the usefulness of different tests for educational and non-educational purposes, and provides opportunities for test evaluation and test design.   This module provides the students with the skills needed in their professional careers, as language teachers and/or testers, to identify and employ suitable tests and assessment practices.

Multilingualism and Impairment Across the Lifespan

This module introduces key concepts on the development and use of language in bi- and multilingual individuals across the lifespan, with specific reference to clinical practice. The focus of the course is both on healthy children and adults, and on children with developmental speech and language communication difficulties and adults with acquired language disorders. A significant component of the course is devoted to understanding the theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications of the latest research evidence on the crosslinguistic assessment of bi and multilingual children with developmental language disorder and of bilingual adults with aphasia. 

Neuroscience of Language

This module aims to provide students with in-depth knowledge of current research in the cognitive neuroscience of language. Topics covered will include brain structure and function as related to the neuroanatomy of language in typical and atypical populations. Different neuroimaging techniques, such as event-related brain potentials (ERP) and functional/structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) will be discussed in relation to linguistic representation and language processing in different populations of speakers. Students will examine contemporary research covering a range of research areas in neurolinguistics and the cognitive neuroscience of language, and gain familiarity with the research methods used in these fields through tutorial.