Speech, Language and Sociolinguistics (Taught)

This Masters will enable you to explore the links between producing and processing speech and language as part of everyday social interaction. The range of courses available for this programme provide the key linguistic, technical, and research skills to investigate different aspects of spoken and written language, to carry out your own sociolinguistic studies, and to design and implement speech and language experiments of your own.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME

• This programme is suitable for students who have little or no background in linguistics and also for students with some background who wish to carry out more sophisticated independent research in a particular area.

• You'll be taught by expert academic staff who have directed and are currently directing research projects in speech, language and sociolinguistics (e.g. Seeing Speech, Sounds of the City, One Speaker Two Dialects, the Scots Syntax Atlas (SCOSYA), Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech (SCOTS), and SPeech Across Dialects of English (SPADE)).

• Our facilities include the Glasgow University Laboratory of Phonetics (GULP), which includes a speech recording studio, eyetracker and portable ultrasound, and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH), providing you with relevant training courses for graduate students in speech, language and sociolinguistics.

• English Language and Linguistics is currently within the Linguistics pathway for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Doctoral Training Partnership, which is based at the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science (SGSSS). The SGSSS offers excellent additional training courses for graduate students working in the social sciences in Scotland.

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

You will take:

• Two core courses

• One topics course in Phonetics or Sociolinguistics

• One methods course in Phonetics or Sociolinguistics

• Two optional courses

You will also produce an independent, small-scale research project.

Semester 1: September to December

Core Course
Research Training Course 1: Introduction to Research

Topics course
Choose one of the following:
Introduction to Phonetics (PGT)
Quantitative Sociolinguistics
Topics in Phonetics
Qualitative Sociolinguistics

Optional course
Choose one optional course. Recommended courses include:
Introduction to Phonetics (PGT)
Quantitative Sociolinguistics
Topics in Phonetics
Semantics of English (PGT)
Forensic Linguistics
Social and Individual Variables in Language Learning and Teaching
Qualitative Sociolinguistics

Semester 2: January to March

Core Courses
Research Training Course 2: Dissertation Preparation
Experimental Design and Data Analysis

Methods Course
Choose one of the following:
Methods in Phonetics (PGT)
Methods in Sociolinguistics (PGT)

Optional course
Choose one optional course. Recommended courses include:
Methods in Phonetics (PGT)
Methods in Sociolinguistics (PGT)
Corpus Linguistics (PGT)
Onomastics
Contemporary Issues in Semantics (PGT)
Critical Approaches to Language and Communication
Multilingualism: Individuals, Institutions and Society

Summer: April to September
Speech, Language & Sociolinguistics Dissertation

CAREER PROSPECTS

Some students take our programme as a secondment from an ongoing teaching or professional education position. Others continue into employment in language teaching, journalism, or other kinds of industrial or commercial research. The programme is also an excellent foundation to doctoral research, and/or further training in speech and language therapy.