About This Course
Bangor University’s MSc in Language Acquisition and Development course aims to develop your understanding of monolingual and bilingual development and acquisition in typically-developing children, and adults, as well as children with language impairments.
The course curriculum includes modules in typical and atypical language development in both monolingual and bilingual (simultaneous and sequential) populations. The purpose of the MSc programme is to provide you with the necessary theoretical and methodological skills to undertake research in this field.
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 MSc in Language Acquisition and Development 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 language acquisition and development topics using applied, theoretical, experimental, corpus-based or ethnographic methodological frameworks. These include are not limited to: psycholinguistics, child language acquisition, 2nd language acquisition, discourse analysis, SLA and language teaching, corpus linguistics, language and communication, phonetics & phonology, morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics, language variation and change, language and communication, bilingualism and multilingualism and Welsh linguistics.
Students on our Language Acquisition and Development 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:
- 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.
Course Duration
1 year full-time, 2-3 years part-time.
Course Content
What will you study on this course?
Compulsory Modules
Child Language Acquisition - The main objective of this module is to introduce you to central questions in language acquisition research (e.g. How do we learn the meaning of words? What are the advantages of bringing up a child bilingually? Are children better language learners than adults?). The focus will be on first language (L1) acquisition.
Linguistics Research Methods - This module provides the necessary foundations, training and tools to design and carry out qualitative, quantitative, experimental or ethnographic research within linguistics, as well as the training and experience to develop, design and carry out an independent Master’s level research-based dissertation project employing the usual conventions in linguistic / applied linguistic literature.
MA/MSc Dissertation - In this module students will conduct a small-scale, yet significant piece of individual research to an advanced level and write a 15-20,000-word dissertation on it. Students are assigned a member of staff whose research interests best and/or most closely connects with the topic as a supervisor. The supervisor will assist the student to focus the scope, methodology and content of their dissertation, as well as giving advice throughout the project. Under the guidance of the supervisor, students will focus and fine tune their research question, survey relevant literature, plan the project, decide on a methodology, consider the need for ethical approval and act accordingly, collect and analyse data (depending on the nature of the research) utilizing an appropriate analytic framework, and write up the project to form the dissertation which will address the research question in light of the findings
Optional Modules
Modules vary from year to year, they include:
- Language and Communication
- Historical Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Language Change
- Language Contact & Bilingualism
- Language Disorders & Bilingualism
- Bilingualism and Acquisition Issues
- Speech Science
- Phonology in Bilingual Acquisition
- L2 Speech Learning
- Welsh Linguistics
- Cognitive Discourse Analysis
- Using Corpora: Theory & Practice
- EFL Theory
- SLA and Language Teaching
- Teaching EFL
- Language Technologies/Technolegau Iaith
Non-native English speakers may be asked to take zero-credit courses with ELCOS to help with their English, unless exempted by their tutor.
Course content is for guidance purposes only and may be subject to change
Modules for the current academic year
Module listings are for guide purposes only and are subject to change. Find out what our students are currently studying on the Language Acquisition and Development Modules page.
Course content is for guidance purposes only and may be subject to change.
Entry Requirements
A 2.ii undergraduate degree or equivalent in linguistics or a related area (e.g. Modern Languages, Translation, Psychology, English Language/Literature, English Education/English Language education).
Applicants with equivalent qualifications or experience and applications from working professionals with non-graduate qualifications will be considered on an individual basis. Please contact us for more information.
For students whose first language is not English an IELTS score of at least 6.0 (with no element below 5.5) is required.
Careers
Bangor’s MSc in Language Acquisition and Development will provide you with the requisite skills, understanding, and knowledge to work effectively and increase your employability in organisations working with bilingual populations and second language learners with and without language impairment, such as speech and language therapists and teachers.
After successful completion of the MSc in Language Acquisition and Development you may also decide to pursue an academic career in Linguistics, by applying for a place on the PhD in Linguistics
