3-Term Pathway - Pre-Master's in Social Sciences - Continue to Master of Arts - English Language and Linguistics

If students hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent, but don’t meet the entry requirements for a master’s, a Pre-Master’s can help them gain a place on a postgraduate degree. For progression to the 1st year of a postgraduate degree at the University of Essex. Course length is determined mainly by students English language level (UKVI IELTS score).

Students on all course lengths take a set of common or similar modules to gain a solid base of skills for university. If their course is longer than 2 terms, students will take additional modules designed to improve one or more of their English language level, academic skills, and basic knowledge of particular subjects.

Conduct an in-depth study of the grammar of English. Learn about dialectal and social variation, language change and the pragmatics of language use, and study varieties of English used around the world.

For students who wish to focus specifically on the linguistics of the English language then the University of Essex MA English Language and Linguistics should interest them. “Grammar” is the body of knowledge that enables a speaker to produce and understand the language(s) they speak. Essex studies that knowledge, taking a practical approach to their research through analysis of English corpora, recordings and texts.

Essex's course allows students to cover a wide range of topics related to English, including: dialectal and social variation, conversation analysis, language change, language rights and pragmatics. Students also have the choice of optional topics including American languages, language and gender, multilingualism and language disorders.

Essex combines a theoretical approach with high-level, qualitative and quantitative, empirical and experimental technique; in particular, they have a strong interest in recent developments in inferential statistics.

Essex is a leading UK university for language and linguistics research, a place where talented students become part of an academic community in which the majority of research is rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. They're also ranked 13th in the UK for Linguistics in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2020).

Essex's course can lead to careers in areas such as academic research, publishing, journalism, administration, public service and teaching. Students develop key employability skills including research design, data analysis, thinking analytically, report writing and public speaking.