Study location	United Kingdom, Colchester Campus
Type	Master courses, full-time
Nominal duration	1 year
Study language	English
Awards	MA

Tuition fee	To be confirmed

Entry qualification

Undergraduate diploma (or higher) A bachelors degree in the following disciplines: English Language Studies, English Language and Literature, Teaching(English), Linguistics, Modern Languages. The entry qualification documents are accepted in the following languages: English. Often you can get a suitable transcript from your school. If this is not the case, you will need official translations along with verified copies of the original.

Language requirements	English Accepted proof of proficiency: Cambridge English, IELTS, TOEFL or other equivalent IELTS: 6.5 overall (with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.0 in writing) CAE: CAE: 176 (with a minimum of 162 in each skill except 168 in writing)

Other requirements	At least 1 reference(s) must be provided. Reference should be written on official letterhead, signed and dated. Please upload it in the Documents section. A motivation letter must be added to your application. CV

More information	Expenses, accommodation, working etc. essex.ac.uk/..tercourse=PG00815&subgroup=1

Overview

This is a Masters course that can take you into employment anywhere in the world.

If you are enthusiastic about teaching English as a foreign or second language, then our course offers you vocationally-relevant, research-led training of the highest quality, taught by academics known for their teaching excellence.

You explore teaching methods and the description of English used in the investigation of language learning and teaching, and study additional topics according to your needs. These might include:

How second language learners acquire vocabulary, and how vocabulary can be taught
Computer-assisted language-learning
Literature and language-learning
Materials design and evaluation
Teaching Writing in EFL/ESL

You also gain hands-on teaching experience through our Teaching Practice I and Teaching Practice II modules.

Whether you have no prior teaching experience or are already an English language teacher, this course can be adapted to suit you. If you have little or no previous teaching experience, you receive ‘hands on’ teaching practice throughout the course via TEFL, while if you already have more than two year’s full-time teaching experience, you can undertake specialist study through TESOL instead.

You’ll be part of our Centre for Research in Language Development throughout the Lifespan (LaDeLi), a unique research centre specialising in all aspects of language learning and development.

We are a leading UK university for language and linguistics research (REF 2014), a place where talented students become part of an academic community in which the majority of research is rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014), placing us firmly within the top 10 departments in the UK and ranked among the top 150 Linguistics departments in the world according to the QS World University Rankings (QS, 2018).

If you want a global outlook, are interested in human communication, and want to study for a degree with real-world practical value in a world-class department, welcome to Essex.

This course is also available on a part-time basis.

Programme structure

Year 1

Teaching Practice I
Description of Language for TEFL/ELT and Applied Linguistics
Language Learning and Teaching
Research Methods I
Assignment Writing and Dissertation Preparation
Research Methods II
MA Dissertation
Advanced Phonology (optional)
Second Language Vocabulary: Learning, Teaching and Use (optional)
Topics in the Psychology of Language Learning and Teaching (optional)
Second Language Acquisition and Linguistics Theory (optional)
Sentence Processing (optional)
Syntactic Theory I (optional)
Approaches to Language in Society (optional)
English in the British Isles (optional)
Analysing Language in Society: Research Methods (optional)
Teaching and Learning Grammar (optional)
Teaching Practice II (optional)
Reflective Practitioner (optional)
Language in Context: From Pragmatics to Conversation Analysis (optional)
Teaching, Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening (optional)

Career opportunities

Takers of our MA TEFL and other courses in English Language Teaching come with the specific intention of entering the ELT/TESOL profession, which they duly go on to do.

Students on these courses often join us after a career in English teaching, to update their expertise and return to the classroom with a career enhancement.

The specialist knowledge you gain enables you to take senior or specialist roles (for example in computer-assisted language-learning, ESP or teaching young learners), not necessarily only in the classroom but also in educational advice and management, programme evaluation, syllabus design and teacher education.