Future students

The course explores the language demands of written and spoken genres at school, as well as how the teacher can meet these demands. The course considers the language of schooling and the learning and teaching of languages across cultural contexts.

Context influences the way we use language, whether choosing one language over another to signal our group membership or the linguistic style we use to display our identities. This course introduces students to ways of analysing language in social co...

This course introduces students to the study of interpersonal communication from a linguistic perspective and within an organisational communication framework. Interpersonal communication between people of different cultures and genders in different ...

This course introduces students to the way language is represented computationally. The course will cover applications such as lexical associations, part of speech tagging, and sentiment analysis. Students will learn how to use the Python programming...

Every language is a system that conveys thoughts and meaning through a set of grammatical rules. Learning to break down the construction of words and sentences, you’ll discover the universal grammar behind human language. This course introduces stand...

This course introduces important phenomena and types of analysis in phonetics and phonology, i.e. speech sounds and sound systems found in the world’s languages. Students will learn how to carry out acoustic analysis of speech using speech software, ...

This course aims to develop an applied understanding of principles for language teaching and learning. It explores materials selection and design, and procedures and techniques for teaching language lessons, focusing on teaching the skills of listeni...

This course explores the ways in which a second language curriculum is designed and developed to provide relevant learning goals, effective learning opportunities in different contexts, and assessment of how well the opportunities have been taken up ...

The content for this special topic is yet to be confirmed.

This course critically evaluates the concept of creativity and its role in language learning, language teaching, and intercultural communication. The course addresses why speakers use creative language and how creative language can be applied to lang...

This course surveys how concepts in linguistic structure are applied to the analysis of sign language, at the levels of phonology, morphology, lexicon and syntax. Sociolinguistic issues in the use of sign language use will be explored, including vari...

When we talk we create meaning with other people. In this course we cover different approaches to exploring interaction (discourse analysis) as well as ways to explain the intricacies of social meaning-making (pragmatics). In particular we consider l...

The course will provide a linguistic and sociolinguistic discussion of the origins and current features of the English of New Zealand, including a description of its structures, use and how it has related to Māori and Pacific languages over time.

An examination of the psychological processes involved in producing and understanding language, including topics such as the representation of meaning in the mental lexicon, syntactic parsing and the use of speech error data as evidence. The course i...

This course analyses how languages evolve through time and split into multiple varieties through human migration. It introduces two standard methods in Historical Linguistics, the comparative method and internal reconstruction. With these two methods...

This course will introduce major concepts in sociolinguistics as they relate to signed languages and deaf communities. Topics will include variation, multilingualism, language contact, discourse analysis, issues in sign language policy and planning, ...

This course covers advanced topics in Syntax, with a special focus on (i) the syntactic typology of the world's languages, and (ii) recent refinements in theoretical syntax. For (i), we will study several cases of syntactic variation across the Indo-...

Sociolinguistics, the study of language use in social context, is ripe with real world applications. In this advanced course we consider how theory and research methods have developed to meet the interests and needs of researchers, focusing in partic...

The course surveys recent and classic work in language and gender from a sociolinguistic perspective. It covers issues such as: how the category "gender" has developed over time in sociolinguistics; what the relationship is between gender identities ...

An intensive course that surveys foundational issues in the core areas of linguistics (semantics, syntax, phonology and phonetics). An advanced introduction to the scientific study of language for post-graduate students without sufficient prior lingu...

TBA.

Special topic to be advised.

Students will become familiar with a range of key qualitative and quantitative research methods used in modern linguistics. This will include data analysis skills and the ability to apply these skills to linguistic and interdisciplinary research.

Advanced study of topics in theoretical and cognitive linguistics, e.g. phonetics and phonology, syntax, semantics or psycholinguistics. The topics covered will vary from year to year. The course will explore classic and cutting-edge research in rela...

Advanced study in sociolinguistics. Topics will vary year to year, including quantitative sociolinguistic studies of language variation and change through to qualitative sociolinguistic studies in interactional sociolinguistics and discourse analysis...

Advanced study of topics which involve the interfaces between different aspects of the linguistic system, e.g. language variation and change, language acquisition, the development of New Zealand English. The topics covered will vary from year to year...

This course will develop students’ ability to carry out linguistic research through in-depth discussion of literature and methodology in an area of current research in linguistics. The area is to be agreed with a supervisor. This will lead to the dev...

MA thesis in Linguistics. Students cannot enrol on line for theses and should contact the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences offices, or Victoria International if you are an International student.