Entrance requirements:
BA degree with either Linguistics, a language or Language and Communication Studies as a major. Normally, students should have attained an average of 68% in their third year.Module Descriptors:
This interdisciplinary programme offers students the opportunity to deepen their understanding of areas of their undergraduate degree in Language and Communication, as well as to specialise in areas of interest to them and their future profession. This course consists of one core (compulsory) module and three elective modules. The range of modules offered each year is subject to student interest and staff availability.Students will have one core module:
| CODE | DESCRIPTION |
| LIN 701 |
Research Essay (Year Long) For this module, students will be allocated a supervisor with whom they will work with on a research project. This entails identifying and formulating a research problem, preparing a literature review, collecting and analysing the data and presenting the results of the research in a research essay of 10 000 words. Students will need to attend compulsory workshops as additional support for this module. |
Students will have to choose three elective modules:
| CODE | DESCRIPTION |
| LIN 731 | Business and Organisational Communication (1st semester) This module considers linguistic and communicative features of theories of mediated communication (newspapers, television, radio, internet, magazines, advertisements, brochures, sales and promotional material, etc). The aim is to explore the multimodal/multisemiotic, hypertextual, textual, intertextual and contextual aspects of design, production and consumption in newspaper, radio and TV advertisements; influencers and multimodal/multisemiotic social media design, branding, corporate marketing and organisational communication, as well as how to manage multimodal corporate discourse and communication. |
| LIN 743 | Literacy Studies Inactive in 2025 (1st semester) This module takes a social practice perspective on literacy and includes a deeper study of everyday literacy events and practices, both in the home and in schools. It explores topics such as indigenous, decolonial and multimodal literacies, as well as literacies in both school education and academia. It unpacks what is meant by transformative literacy for social justice and how we can think ‘differently’ about literacy in our educational contexts. In keeping with its social practices and decolonial approach, the module will be assessed in a range of ways, including more creative, arts-based, non-traditional ways. |
| LIN 735 | Multilingualism (Cognitive, Societal and Educational Aspects) Inactive in 2025 (1st semester) This module aims to foster an understanding of the cognitive and other effects of multilingualism on the individual as well as the main theoretical issues relevant for multilingual societies. In addition, the module examines issues (e.g. typologies, models, policy frameworks, practices) relevant to multilingual education against the backdrop of societal factors, new meanings of multilingualism, and changing conceptions of learners and how learning takes place. |
| LIN 737 | Formal Language Studies (1st semester) This module will investigate the emergent properties of subject-verb agreement systems in World Englishes and local English varieties (e.g. New Zealand English, Indian English, Singaporean English, Hong Kong English, Norwich English, and of course Capetonian English), using the theoretical framework of generative grammar. Subject-verb agreement is a grammatical rule that requires the verb in a sentence to agree with its subject in person (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural). In Standard English, this is typically marked with an -s inflection on the third person singular present tense verb. However, World Englishes and colloquial varieties often exhibit variations from this standard pattern. Students will learn to use a mixed methods approach to data analysis, investigating subject-verb agreement in local varieties. Ultimately, students are asked to investigate the subject-verb agreement system of their own local variety of English. By the end of the course, students will have a sophisticated understanding of the complexities of subject-verb agreement systems, and how they evolve and adapt across different varieties of English. They will be able to apply the theoretical tools of generative grammar to analyse real-world language data, and contribute to ongoing research in this field. |
| LIN 741 | Critical Media Studies (2nd semester) This module introduces students to critical media theories and to ways in which media communication is structured, produced and interpreted. It considers biases and how information is represented and disseminated in traditional newspapers, journals and magazines, radio and television, and new social media platforms such as twitter, Instagram, YouTube. The devices and methods of persuasion used by journalists and (social media) Influencers will be critically analyzed. News texts from current publications will be chosen for specialized, in-depth analysis. |
| LIN 744 | Discourse Analysis (2nd semester) This module introduces you to Discourse Analysis and some of its branches, e.g. Critical Discourse Analysis, Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Narrative Analysis, and how to use these to analyse real life texts. In the seminars, we introduce you to different tool kits (theoretical frames and concepts) for critically analysing a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts, and the ways in which these are shaped by and shape the contexts in which they occur. This module also introduces you to useful research methodologies, such as approaches to transcription, and thematic analysis. |
| LIN 732 |
Inter- and Cross-cultural Communication (2nd semester) This module considers theories and practices in inter- and cross-cultural communication in contexts of cultural diversity. It includes a detailed analysis of the nature of communicating across cultures in multicultural business |
| LIN 739 | Language Pathology (2nd semester) This module provides an in-depth exploration of first and second language acquisition theories; language pathology; neurolinguistics and clinical linguistics. Students will develop a comprehensive understanding of how language is acquired and learnt, as well language breakdown, its causes, and its relevance to linguistics and the parts of the brain associated with language. Amongst the objectives of the course, students will be expected to show an understanding of the relevance of traditional and contemporary theories of language and how these are key in assessing features associated with typical language development and with language disorders. Ultimately, students will be expected to use these theories to analyse language acquisition and learning in various contexts. And eventually, examine different conditions leading to language breakdown and describe the main physiological and linguistic features characterising each condition. |
| LIN 751 | Sociolinguistic Theory (2nd semester) The course is an advanced introduction to the history and foundation of sociolinguistics as a field of linguistics. It includes a broad overview of the key notions, debates and theoretical and methodological developments that gave shape to the social study of language and multilingualism from the perspective of the ethnography of communication, variationist sociolinguistics, interactional sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, sociolinguistics of globalization, and decolonial sociolinguistics. |
Students may choose to do either a full master’s dissertation or a structured master’s programme which includes three coursework modules (first year) and a research component or mini-dissertation (second year). The master’s students sit in on the Honours modules offered in the Department for which they may complete additional assessment tasks.
Students write a full research thesis on a topic within any field of study for which there is expertise within the Department. Students wishing to register for these postgraduate programmes should apply to the Faculty of Arts, UWC, as well as contact the Linguistics Department’s Chairperson.
