Topics covered include: language and ideology; linguistic performances of identity (particularly language and gender, sexuality, ethnicity and social class); language and the media; talk at work; global English; intercultural communication; multilingualism and code-switching; varieties of English. Students are encouraged to engage with these topics by drawing on their own social, cultural and occupational backgrounds in class discussions and in their written work. Students are also encouraged to collect their own samples of written and spoken language use and learn to subject those to in-depth critical analysis.

This MA will draw on findings, theories and methodologies from: sociolinguistics, semantics, pragmatics, spoken and written discourse analysis, ethnography, semiotics, feminist stylistics; multimodal analysis; interactional sociolinguistics, conversational analysis, membership categorisation analysis, performativity and narrative analysis. The programmes distinct interdisciplinary ethos is also reflected in students opportunity to choose from a selection of relevant option courses in other departments of the College.