MA in Applied Linguistics (TESOL)
Bedford, United Kingdom
MA
DURATION
1 year
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
28 Nov 2025
EARLIEST START DATE
31 Jan 2026
TUITION FEES
GBP 18,000
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Fast-track counseling
By contacting the school, you'll get access to free priority counselling for any study and application questions.
Key Summary
This Master’s is designed for both native speakers and non-native speakers with a high level of English. You explore the relationship between linguistics and second-language learning; the methodology and techniques of language teaching; and current issues in English language teaching. The course provides practical classroom experience with observed and assessed teaching practice. On successful completion, you gain TEFL Q status, signifying you are fully qualified in British Council terms.
Student experience
- Study at our Bedford campus, a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well and provide individual academic support.
- Learn from an academic team who are from the education sector, offering a wide range of professional expertise; all hold TEFL Q status.
- Explore your research interests in applied linguistics and TESOL including second-language acquisition, materials development, and language assessment and testing.
- Our Centre for English as a Foreign Language (CEFL) has been accredited by the British Council for their work in teaching English.
- Benefit from the expertise of our Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA) whose research is recognised as world-leading by the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021.
Industry links
We work in partnership with local councils, schools and colleges to support refugees and asylum seekers with free English classes; our students also support parents of school children with free ESOL classes.
Course accreditation
We have designed this course to follow British Council regulations, enabling you to gain a TEFL Q status when you graduate. TEFL Q status indicates you are a fully qualified TESOL/TEFL teacher.
Why choose the School of Education
| Practical classroom experience with observed and assessed teaching practice using up-to-the-minute simulation technology. | Opportunities to put your skills into action supporting refugees and asylum seekers with free English classes. | 95% of our education students were satisfied with the learning opportunities their course offered and how well it developed knowledge and skills for the future (NSS, 2024). |
Postgraduate Scholarships
You can find all of our Postgraduate scholarships listed below.
- Postgraduate Global Subject-Specific Merit Scholarship
- Postgraduate Global Merit Scholarship
- Vice Chancellor's Scholarship for Postgraduate Students
- Chevening Scholarships
- Alumni Scholarship
Prompt Payment Discount
A discount of £500 is available for prompt payment of each year’s fees in full, before or at the point of registration, for both undergraduate and taught postgraduate programmes.
Postgraduate research students who pay their full tuition fee before or at registration will receive a £1,000 discount on that year’s fees.
The tuition fee pre-payment of 65% will be calculated on the full, published tuition fees and will not take into account any scholarships, bursaries or awards. These will be applied to the remaining balance of your fees.
Sport Scholarships
Our sports scholarships are designed to develop and support talented students at the University of Bedfordshire.
Our sports scholarships on offer provide financial and performance support services that utilise the University’s outstanding facilities.
Please contact us for more information.
What will you study?
Studying our Applied Linguistics (TESOL) MA course will equip you with in-depth knowledge and skills around applied linguistics and teaching English to speakers of other languages. Language is heavily dependent on context and situations, to deepen your understanding of this, our unit in The Language System and Language Teaching will allow you to examine key systems such as phonology, grammar and lexis and examine how they make context meaningful. At the same time, you will learn to prepare lesson materials, and teach and observe classes in our Teaching Practice unit, which provides an opportunity to gain teaching experience in the classroom and online, and will help you to develop your understanding of the language-teaching process and language-classroom practice.
To expand on your teaching approaches, our unit in The Methodology of Language Teaching will allow you to develop your critical understanding of language teaching methodologies by using your personal initiative to implement innovative ideas for language teaching and learning. To support this, you will be exposed to a wide range of language-teaching methods, approaches and techniques and their possible applications in relation to Second Language Acquisition (SLA). To prepare these teaching plans, our Materials Development for Language Teaching and Learning will cover content based on evaluating, adapting and creating learning materials for various purposes and various groups of learners. Furthermore, you will also deepen your understanding of the link between theoretical Issues in Second Language Acquisition and English Language Teaching (TESOL) as preparation for your dissertation research.
To sum up your learning in this course, you will complete a Dissertation in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching where you will carry out a significant piece of research into an area of applied linguistics and TESOL relevant to your field of study. Under the guidance of a supervisor, you will apply your knowledge and skills independently while developing key academic and investigative skills within an area of academic practice that is relevant to your future career. To help you in conducting your research project effectively, our unit in Exploring Research: Concepts and Methods will introduce you to various research strategies and ethical considerations in social sciences research. With all the above units focusing on SLA research and TESOL teaching experience, this course will enable you to gain a TEFL teacher status following the British Council regulations. Depending on your TESOL qualifications or your teaching experience prior to this course, you will be enabled to gain either an initial TEFL teacher status (TEFLi) or a fully qualified TEFL teacher status (TEFLQ).
How will you be assessed?
The purpose of assessment is to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge and skills at a given point. The outcomes are as important to the provider as it is to the student. To provide accurate, global readings, therefore, the course takes an incremental and varied approach to the assessment of the course content, culminating in the dissertation. This is a substantial piece of original research on an aspect of Applied Linguistics TESOL, but whose precise focus is determined by each student, and according to their anticipated career plans. Here, the ability to plan, execute and evaluate independent research is assessed and represents the apex of a student's postgraduate studies.
To complement and lead up to the dissertation, there are different types of assessment on the course, each designed to relate to the content and the cumulative body of knowledge upon which the research plans of the dissertation are based. The types of assessment include: essays and reports, in-class tests conducted underexamination conditions, practical tasks (eg questionnaire design, test item construction) case studies, assignments, and presentations.
The assessment methods have been selected to support the pedagogical development of research skills and subject knowledge and to satisfy individual unit, and global course learning outcomes. The details of each assignment task are provided in the unit handbooks and individual Unit Information Forms. The overall assessment map is available in the course handbook. Each point of assessment provides opportunities for valuable feedback from teachers but also from peers to enable students to review and improve their work.
On successful completion, you achieve Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Q status meeting British Council standards and meaning you are qualified to teach EFL in the UK and internationally.
The course could also be a route to progression for developers of educational materials; assessment and examination/test paper writers; and researchers in applied linguistics.
A considerable number of our graduates have gone on to follow a PhD project with our staff and with the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA) and some are currently employed by the University as visiting lecturers in EFL.
Graduates of this course have shown themselves to be highly competent and professional in whatever they have gone on to do.