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Language and Communication Studies Courses

MA Communication and Language Studies

  • Course Code DNT1RQLO101
  • Duration 1 Year
  • Attendance Full Time
  • Award Degree of Master of Arts
  • Overview
  • Why Choose Us
  • Requirements
  • Course Profile
  • Fees and Funding
  • Apply
Overview
MACLSGlobalisation has broken down barriers of time and space and led to the ever greater centrality of knowledge and information. The increased contact between different linguistic communities (through migration, tourism, education, and information and media flows) has not, however, resolved the problem of linguistic and cultural barriers, quite the opposite. As language and cultural exchanges become ever more frequent and diverse, so does our need to comprehend the nature of intercultural communication and how it may best be promoted. These are the central concerns of the various MA programmes in the School of Language and Communications Studies at UEA.

New Module for 2011-12: Intercultural Communication in Practice
This module explores how students can become more effective communicators in international settings, by developing their intercultural competence. It is relevant to those wishing to pursue careers in international management and multilingual business. Invited speakers will introduce students to how intercultural communication operates in specific government and business organisations. 

In the interdisciplinary MA in Communication and Language Studies, our focus is firmly on language, as a crucial key to comprehending the world today and participating in the world of tomorrow. We are also particularly interested in exploring today's increasingly complex and varied networks of communication and culture from different perspectives, and this makes what we offer very distinctive. The course provides a broad-based approach to the study of language both as a cultural resource and a cultural practice and makes use of a variety of analytic approaches from Discourse Analysis and ethnolinguistics to semiotics and cross-cultural pragmatics. Options dealing with communication in media and cultural products from the completely different standpoints of, for example, film and television studies or political, social and international studies, provide opportunities further to diversify and compare approaches, methodologically and interculturally.

The course is intended specifically for international students and integrates English proficiency and skills training into the overall programme of study. It will be of interest to students who are seeking to deepen their knowledge of language as a cultural object and of its uses across communicative contexts and media, as well as a range of professionals concerned with issues of interpersonal and intercultural communication across different fields.


MA Degree Programmes Postgraduate Diplomas 
(MA in Communication and Language 
Studies only)
Four taught modules assessed by coursework 
(six for Communication and Language Studies)
Six taught modules assessed by coursework
Obligatory core elements and options Obligatory core elements and options
Year Long Research Method module Two-semester 100% taught courses (no dissertation)
15,000 word supervised dissertation 
(8,000 for MA in Communication and Language Studies) 
Easter to early September
 

Multi-disciplinary environment, wide range of options from across the Faculty

Full time and Part time programmes


View Course Handbook


MACLS Course Handbook 2011-12


Why study Communication and Language Studies at UEA?

Several factors combine to make the choice of the MA in Communication and Language Studies at UEA particularly exciting and appropriate.

UEA has a long-established reputation for interdisciplinarity and the MA builds on this tradition: you explore issues from the point of view of language with specialists in language and cross-cultural communication, but you also have the opportunity to work with specialists in Politics and Social Sciences or Film and Television Studies, for example, and to diversify and compare approaches, methodologically and cross-culturally.

Research within the School itself focuses on cross-cultural communication, with all staff sharing an interest in the cross-over of language, translation and media in a multilingual framework. The different standpoints from which they approach the interaction between language and forms of communication constitute complementary and mutually enriching perspectives.

The wide range of linguistically diverse students enrolled on both this and other MA programmes in the School provides a rich environment in which to study differences in intercultural communication.

The School provides a friendly and stimulating environment in which to study. The size of the School allows for more personal staff-student contact and individual academic support than in many larger institutions.

The James Platt Centre for Language Learning which is housed within the School provides an extensive range of language resources including live satellite broadcasts, CDs and DVDs in various foreign languages, as well as a wide variety of foreign language printed matter. These materials complement the excellent holdings of the UEA library. IT facilities are excellent throughout the University.

Course Content and Structure 

The MA in Communication and Language Studies is a one-year, full-time taught course but it can also be taken part-time over two years.
The course provides students with a high level of theoretical and practical training, combined with the opportunity to focus on issues of particular individual interest. Teaching is mainly through the media of seminars and individual dissertation supervision.
The course consists of six taught modules, three compulsory and three selected from a range of options from within the School or the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. There is also a compulsory Research Methods module taken by all LCS MA students.

Example of modules: English, Communication, Culture; Language Issues in a Global Multilingual Context; Textual Interactions and Ideology; Linguistic Communication among Cultures; Cultural Representations and Language; Politics and Popular Culture, Politics and Mass Media, European Media and the EU, Japanese Film: National Cinema and Beyond.
The final compulsory element is an 8,000-word dissertation on a subject chosen by students in consultation with members of academic staff. Work on the dissertation starts at Easter for submission at the beginning of September.
Assessment is on the basis of coursework, (seminar papers, oral case studies, essays, for example), and the dissertation.


Transferable Skills:

Students who successfully complete the MA will have developed to a high level their awareness and understanding of issues of culture and communication against claims of globalisation. They will have become familiar with different approaches to these issues, and gained the ability to assess these approaches critically and to evaluate their usefulness to their own needs and circumstances.

They will also have honed their practical and analytical grasp of English language and culture and achieved the level and range of skills consonant with the requirements of study at postgraduate level in a British academic environment: ability to read and utilise research literature, independent research, with a focus on appropriate methodology, data collection, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, presentation skills (oral and written), IT skills required to achieve these goals.

The programme will provide a suitable foundation for further postgraduate studies at MPhil and PhD level.


Course Organiser
Dr Marie-Noelle Guillot    
Programme Specification
Course Brochure
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