Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching

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.

The course is taught over two academic years, preceded by a week’s residential module in Oxford. Numbers on the course are kept low, to ensure quality of teaching and learning.

There are three distance-taught modules per year, spread over two eight-week terms from October to April. The assessment for each module comprises a take-home examination. In the third term of each year (May to July), students work on a dissertation project, under the supervision of a member of the applied linguistics group.

For this course, the allocation of graduate supervision is the responsibility of the Department of Education and it is not always possible to accommodate the preferences of incoming graduate students to work with a particular member of staff. Under exceptional circumstances a supervisor may be found outside the Department of Education.

The most recent Oxford University Destination of Leavers from Higher Education Survey made contact with 635 master's course students who graduated from the Department of Education between 2012 and 2014. Fully 90.2% of alumni were in work and 5.8% in further study with only 2.0% looking for work, ranking the department in the best 3 of the 20 departments in Oxford's Social Sciences Division.

Past students from the Department of Education have gone on to academic and research careers at universities in the UK (eg Oxford, Edinburgh, Warwick, UCL, King's College, St. Mary's, Liverpool) and across the world (eg Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Hong Kong, Chile), or are employed across a wide range of other sectors such as policy for government departments or NGOs, international organisations such as OECD, think tanks and administration at local and national levels. The department’s ‘Conversations with Alumni’ feature includes interviews with two DPhil alumni on their career paths after Oxford.

Changes to this course and your supervision

The University will seek to deliver this course in accordance with the description set out in this course page. However, there may be situations in which it is desirable or necessary for the University to make changes in course provision, either before or after registration. In certain circumstances, for example due to visa difficulties or because the health needs of students cannot be met, it may be necessary to make adjustments to course requirements for international study.

Where possible your academic supervisor will not change for the duration of your course. However, it may be necessary to assign a new academic supervisor during the course of study or before registration for reasons which might include sabbatical leave, parental leave or change in employment.

For further information, please see our page on changes to courses.

Other courses you may wish to consider

If you're thinking about applying for this course, you may also wish to consider the courses listed below. These courses may have been suggested due to their similarity with this course, or because they are offered by the same department or faculty.

Courses suggested by the department

Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics MSt
Modern Languages MSt

All graduate courses offered by the Department of Education

Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition MSc

Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching MSc

Education DPhil

Education (Child Development and Education) MSc

Education (Comparative and International Education) MSc

Education (Higher Education) MSc

Education (Research Design and Methodology) MSc

Educational Assessment MSc

Learning and Teaching MSc

PGCE PGCert

Teacher Education MSc

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Entry requirements