Learning Outcomes and Programme

Learning Outcomes

In this specialization you become a competent linguist who has an understanding of language variation and multilingualism, two central and interrelated topics within linguistics. How can we understand the variation between languages and dialects, how does it affect the multilingual competence of speakers and how does multilingualism in turn affect language variation? Linguistic attention to these questions has significantly grown in a globalizing world where language contact is unavoidable, multilingualism the norm and issues related to personal identity become more profound. This creates the needs for experts who know what the theoretical and empirical issues are explored in the scientific literature and how they relate to societal needs.

Programme

The programme consists of three obligatory components (Methods in Language Research, the internship and the MA thesis) complemented with a free space.

All students without prior knowledge of statistics are obliged to follow the course Methods in Language Research. If you have already taken an introduction to statistics, either in your bachelor’s programme or another master's programme, you can ask for an exemption from the Examination board.

During the internship, you either join a research project (either running on campus or at some other university) or work at an institution or company outside of academia.

Depending on your background in statistics, the programme contains a 25 or 30 EC space that you can fill with the courses of your interest, thereby creating a particular focus for yourself. This space can be filled by courses that we offer and courses offered through the masterlanguage programme. In addition to this there are courses for which you need special permission, either because the language of instruction requires your proficiency in it or because the course is part of a research master. In the first case, you need permission from the teacher of the relevant course, in the latter case you need permission from the programme coordinator (Olaf Koeneman). See below for details.