Language Education (MSc)

The courses draw on a robust theoretical foundation to develop knowledge and critical awareness of practical issues in how we teach, learn and use languages in a context that’s both global and locally minded. We aim to enable and inspire future-thinking, evidence-informed practitioners as agents of change. 

This highly flexible programme encompasses all languages and is suitable for both experienced and novice language teachers. Capitalising on the University of Edinburgh’s unparalleled research expertise, you will have access to a wide breadth of research themes to cater for your academic interests and career aspirations.

We aim to create an inclusive teaching and learning environment that sees linguistic and cultural diversity as a resource. Taught courses usually include: 

• Lectures:  A member of the teaching team presents key theories and practices on a given topic. Lectures are attended by students from the whole programme and remain interactive. 
• Workshops: Students meet in smaller groups with a tutor to check their understanding of key theories and principles, and explore creative ways of applying theories to practice. 
• Pre-workshops: Students meet before workshops, without a tutor, to engage in independent learning with peers. 
• Autonomous learning: The weekly schedule allows students to critically read course materials and journal articles as well as prepare tasks relevant to each course. 

The MSc Language Education offers a variety of assessments, including essays, presentations and reflective diaries. Students receive regular verbal feedback from their tutor and peers throughout the course, as well as written feedback on a piece of assessment at the end of the course. We also value students’ feedback on all our courses, which helps us improve our programme. 

This programme enables you to gain intellectual and practical skills to engage with Language Education and Applied Linguistics research to improve practice or as part of interdisciplinary research. Besides offering cutting-edge teaching informed by the latest developments in the field, our academic staff members include internationally renowned researchers actively publishing in the areas of:

• Bi-, Multi-, and Plurilingualism and complex literacies
• Corpus linguistics, data-driven learning, conversation and discourse analysis
• Intercultural Communication, intersectionality, and inclusive language education
• Psychology, Sociology, and the Science of Language Education
• Vocabulary learning, teaching, and assessment
• Language learner strategies and evidence-based strategy instruction
• Heritage language education
• Language Assessment
• Research methods in Language Education and Applied linguistics
• Spatial Literacies and Plurilingual pedagogies
• CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning and other holistic methodologies

Visit the Language(s), Interculturality and Literacies research hub

Language Education staff

Students also benefit from the unique opportunity to observe real language classes and visit schools in Scotland.

With a strong foundation in Language Education, our graduates are well positioned to transition into a wide range of academic and professional careers, including but not limited to:

• further development as an academic in Language Education through PhD or other relevant positions
• language teaching with analytical, critical and future-thinking mindsets
• work or research in teacher education, course and material development, language and discourse analysis, language assessment and policy
• opportunities to investigate languages in a variety of professional settings, such as media, policy and culture