Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching (Taught)

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2025). For complete and up-to-date information about this course including information about course components or research areas, please visit the course page on the University of Oxford website.

The MSc Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching is a part-time course, taught mostly online, that offers a cutting-edge introduction to the linguistic and pedagogic knowledge needed for teaching language.

The course is aimed at professionals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) or modern foreign languages. While the concepts covered in the course can be applied to all languages in most contexts, there is a strong opportunity for students to specialise in the teaching of English language in university settings.

A low-residency course, it is characterised by intense online interaction and feedback, using a range of communication media. Its small-group teaching format pursues the Oxford tradition of demanding much of students and giving them much in return. Numbers on the course are kept low, to ensure quality of teaching and learning.

The course is taught over two academic years, preceded by a one-week induction residential in Oxford during which your academic writing will be formatively assessed.

Course structure
An overview of the course structure is provided below. Details of the compulsory elements of the course are provided in the Course components section of this page.

You will take six assessed modules (two modules in term one, and one in term two of each year). You will also take a formatively assessed module on Research Methods in term two of the first year to help prepare you for your dissertation project.

At the beginning of term three of the first year of the course, you will begin working on your dissertation project under the supervision of a member of the applied linguistics research group.

You will be expected to spend up to 20 hours per week on the course during term time, engaging in independent reading, online discussions, group work, listening to webinars, and writing review and reflection papers.

In addition, you will be given access to recorded lectures from the department's graduate modules on Research Methods in Education and Statistics. These are non-compulsory and non-assessed.

Research in the department is organised around three major themes:

• Language, Cognition and Development

• Policy, Economy and Society

• Learning: Pedagogy, Learning and Knowledge

Within each of these themes there are several research groups and centres. All staff and doctoral students belong to one or more of these research groups, each of which has its own seminar programme to which graduate students often contribute. In addition, the department sponsors regular seminars and public lectures which attract distinguished national and international speakers. These seminars are often provided online as well as in person, and recordings are made available for students unable to attend due, for example, to time differences.

For the full description, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas