Page 35 - ELG2102 Feb Issue 474

FEATURES & COMMENT

the MEd is likely to be more practical, while the other will be more
focused on theory.
The actual name of the course tells you very little unless it’s a
specialist course, like the MA in English Medium Instruction at the
University of Bath. Courses referring to EFL/ELT/TESOL or another
name for English teaching tells you it only applies to English language
teachers (and not, for example, to French language teachers). Degrees
just in applied linguistics may cover a broader spectrum of students.
The balance of theory and practice depends more on the nature
of the university and the department than on the content of the
actual degree.
The name of the department can tell you a lot. Departments of
education are more likely to be teaching-focused than departments of
linguistics. Masters based in university language centres (marked with
a * in our grid) are likely to be the most teaching-focused of all and the
most likely to offer teaching practice.
In the UK we differentiate between research universities, for
example, Sheffield or Manchester, and newer teaching universities,
such as Edge Hill. However, this is a little simplistic, as the newer
universities may have research strength in a particular area. The
University of East London, for example, ranked in the top 300 for
educational research in the 2020 QS University rankings.

Research departments
For those students looking to focus on research, it’s important to
establish what field of research the department offering the course
concentrates on: education, linguistics or English language (which
tends to cover areas like corpus linguistics and philology). Also find
out the department’s reputation in that field.
To help you do that, in our list on the following pages we’ve put
all the globally ranked departments in those three fields according
to the QS World University rankings by subject for 2020. Edinburgh
University, for example, has education and language sciences
departments, which both offer relevant courses and rank in the QS
top 50 in their subjects.
What’s in a name?
There are four different names for master’s degrees: Master Teaching excellence
of Arts (MA), Master of Science (MSc), Master of Education For universities in England and Wales, the UK government awards
(MEd) and Master of Philosophy (MPhil), but they are not four scores from bronze to gold for teaching across all subjects and at all
different degrees. The MPhil is significantly different because it’s a levels on its Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). This can give you
research degree with some taught elements, while the others are all some idea of the quality of teaching and also how much emphasis they
taught degrees with some research. are likely to give to teaching on their master’s.
In the UK, an MA or an MSc is basically the same degree. The We’ve marked these scores under the column marked TEF.
use of MSc may signal that it’s in a department of science or social It’s important to remember, though, that the TEF is only compulsory
science, but it’s up to the university to choose. In Scotland, however, for universities in England and Wales. Universities in Scotland and
where some first degrees are awarded as MAs, the second degree is Northern Ireland can choose to enter, but seldom do and the Republic
usually an MSc. of Ireland is a separate country, so not part of the UK system.
The University of St Andrews, for example, is one of the four
ancient Scottish universities which are entitled to award a Master’s English language teaching
of Arts to humanities students who have completed a four-year How do you know if a university is good at English language teaching?
undergraduate degree. All its master’s degrees in TESOL are The way we measure that is to check the results of the language
MScs. Similarly Oxford and Cambridge award master’s to their centres who are inspected by the British Council. It’s worth noting that
undergraduates – the Oxford course in our master’s listings is an MSc, BC inspection does not cover the Republic of Ireland.
while the Cambridge course, which is a research degree, is an MPhil. If you look under the column headed BC on the chart, you will see
An MEd can only be awarded by a department of education, but it’s the universities which choose to be inspected. Those whose inspection
not a teaching qualification, and is usually similar in content and level results are in the top 25% in the country, for example, are marked
to an MA or MSc. When a university offers both an MEd and an MA, COE because they are an EL Gazette Centre of Excellence.

MA Teaching English to Speakers

of Other Languages (TESOL)

1 year full-time, 2 years part-time For More information
Available in September 2021 visit our website:
ehu.ac.uk/tesol

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