This course gives you the opportunity to pursue research in the field of linguistics. It comprises independent research, and a course designed to develop knowledge of key research skills and practices.

You will join a thriving postgraduate community of researchers in Linguistics, and a unique student support structure with a dedicated team of tutors and supervisors. Linguistics has a proud record of excellence in research. Our colleagues are leading authorities in their respective research specialisms. They contribute actively to the School’s research ethos, produce journal articles and books, and present at national and international conferences.

What you'll study

This course offers a broad range of degree topics, aligned with the specialist areas in which our academic team publish research.

Research in the following topics could be supervised:

• clinical Linguistics;
• language, gender and sexuality;
• media discourse;
• sociolinguistics;
• discourse analysis;
• pragmatics;
• language and identity;
• forensic linguistics;
• corpus linguistics; and
• computer-mediated communication.

Recent dissertation topics have included:

• analysis of political speeches;
• theories around bilingualism; and
• language variation in the East Midlands.

Assessment

The majority of the marks awarded for this course are for the dissertation. You will have an individual supervisor allocated when offered a place on the course. Dissertation tutorials will take place between you and your nominated supervisor. The supervisor will offer advice on developing appropriate study methods and provide feedback on drafts of the dissertation. You will also be encouraged to publish your work and present at conferences.

Careers and employability

At NTU we believe in providing education and research that are directly relevant and beneficial to your career. We place particular emphasis on helping students to develop transferable skills that are useful in all walks of life, such as problem-solving, analysis and confident communication. We also seek to provide an atmosphere that encourages initiative, innovation and entrepreneurship, alongside academic excellence.

This course provides excellent preparation for undertaking a PhD, and gives you the freedom and support to shape your own work in the area of linguistics.

This course does not currently offer placements however students benefit from extensive contacts in the field of linguistics offered by our academic team.

Contacts include experts in the fields of clinical linguistics, social linguistics, forensic linguistics, media discourse, gender and sexuality and languages.