Master in Applied Linguistics (MPhil) - Trinity College

​​The discipline of applied linguistics investigates a range of issues around language in contemporary society. Among these, the most prominent issues — and the central topics of the Master in Applied Linguistics (MPhil) — are those surrounding second and foreign language education.

It is often said that globalisation has made the learning of additional languages an essential goal in education, but in truth, language learning has been important in most places at most times. In spite of this, language education in its various aspects was under-researched until the 1960s, so applied linguistics is a relatively young but increasingly important field.

There are two central strands in the applied linguistics of language teaching and learning. One, usually called second language acquisition, investigates the psychology of language learning, which is a phenomenon that is not confined to the classroom or other instructed contexts. The other, second language pedagogy, focuses on instruction at various different scales: language education policy, curriculum, teaching methods, and learning tasks.

Given this educational focus, applied linguistics draws not only on linguistics, but also on educational psychology, educational philosophy, social psychology, and cognitive psychology, among other disciplines.