Program overview

Empirical Linguistics and Language Documentation
Degree program for an MA in Applied Linguistics

2 years (four semesters), 870 contact hours, 120 ECTS credit points. Start: every year, winter semester.

Documents to download for students starting in 2023 or 2024:

Documents to download for students who started in 2022:

Overview of modules

Number of teaching hours and ECTS credits according to the plan of 2023

Obligatory classes

  • Documentary linguistics, first and second semester, 60 contact hours, 12 ECTS, 1 exam
  • Spoken Language Analysis, first and second semester, 60 contact hours, 10 ECTS, 1 exam
  • Statistics for Linguistic Analyses, second semester, 30 contact hours, 6 ECTS, 1 exam
  • Language Typology and Descriptive Linguistics, first semester, 30 contact hours, 5 ECTS
  • English for Academic Purposes, first, second, and third semester, 90 contact hours, 10 ECTS, 1 exam
  • MA seminar, first, second, third, and fourth semester, 120 contact hours, 28 ECTS, final exam (after submission of MA thesis)

Elective classes

  • Methods and Applications, choose 3 classes of this module, each with 30 contact hours, 6 ECTS and an exam (sum: 90 hours, 18 ECTS, 1 exam). Attention: these classes are only offered in the winter semester
  • Additional lectures, choose 5-7 classes with a total of 120 contact hours and 19 ECTS. You can choose classes offered at the Institute of Applied Linguistics or by other institutes of our university – in the latter case you should consult your choice with the ELLDo coordinator. We can only offer 1 or 2 lectures per year that are specially designed for ELLDo students.
  • Foreign Language, take classes with a total of 120 contact hours, 12 ECTS, and 1 exam.

Module descriptions

  • Documentary Linguistics introduces principles of language documentation and archiving and teaches techniques and tools for gathering, annotating, storing, and managing linguistic data;
  • Spoken Language Analysis focuses first on theoretical and technical aspects of speech analysis (phonetics), and in the second term on the grammar of spoken discourse, the structure of conversations and oral narratives;
  • Language Typology and Descriptive Linguistics explains how to capture cross-linguistic similarities and differences and how to describe structurally diverse languages;
  • Statistics for Linguistic Analysis makes students understand the role of statistical analyses in a variety of linguistic disciplines and enables them to use the proper methods and tools in their own research;
  • Methods and Applications is a module comprising classes which introduce methods of empirical research in various subfields of linguistics (especially: sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, corpus linguistics), and classes teaching applications of linguistics, for example, in lexicography, preparing of teaching materials, language planning and language revitalization.
  • Additional lectures provide further possibilities to acquire knowledge and skills in topics chosen by the student;
  • Foreign Language other than English is taught over the whole cycle and can be chosen from the offer of the Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature (after obtaining consent from the teacher; some classes may have restricted access). Students are especially encouraged to study a lesser taught language.
  • Classes in English for Academic Purposes help students better understand academic texts in English and provide them with the necessary skills to present their own research in speaking and writing.
  • The MA Seminar accompanies the students through the process of doing research and writing a thesis. In the first semester students are introduced to research methods in linguistics and learn how to design a study and find a topic for their thesis. After that, students will develop their research in small groups with a supervisor.