The MA specialization track (szakirány) in English Applied Linguistics is one of the three specializations offered in the Institute’s MA program in English Studies.
Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary social science in the broadest sense incorporating fields such as linguistics, psychology, gender studies, sociology, anthropology and education. It provides an area of expertise for anyone wanting to do further studies concerning the relation between knowledge about language use and decision making in any of these fields or wanting to work where knowledge of these fields is required.
The MA specialization in English applied linguistics is aimed at deepening students’ understanding of the role of language in everyday face-to-face communication, in people’s strategic use of language, and the multilingual context that we live in in Europe. Another goal of the program is to increase awareness of and sensitivity to cross-cultural differences in language use, to explore the relationship between language use and power relations as well as help develop unprejudiced thinking about and attitudes towards languages, dialects, and minority groups.
The MA specialization provides excellent background for anyone going into a language-related area of work such as teaching, translation, language education administration, or any program where language-related polices are implemented or considered.
An overview of the required coursework and main other requirements is found here. Studies in English Applied Linguistics can be pursued further on the PhD level in the PhD program in this field.
Faculty
- Barát, Erzsébet
Barát Erzsébet Associate Professor, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Szeged, Gender Studies Department, Central European University, Budapest. She earned her MA in Applied Linguistics from The University of Queensland, Brisbane in 1993; her PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK in 2000. Her research interests include critical studies of discourse, language use and identity, the ideological investments of meaning. She is founding editor-in-chief of TNTeF: Interdisciplinary E-journal of Gender Studies.
- Doró, Katalin
Katalin Doró is a senior assistant professor and teaches applied linguistics, methodology and language courses. She holds a PhD in English applied linguistics with focus on L2 vocabulary studies. Her research interests include first- and second language acquisition,language users with special needs, psycholinguistics, language learning strategies, academic writing and the lexical choices of Hungarian L2 English learners.
- Fenyvesi, Anna
Anna Fenyvesi is Associate Professor of English linguistics at the University of Szeged, Hungary. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (1998). She is co-author of Hungarian (Descriptive Grammar series, Routledge, 1998) and editor of Hungarian language contact outside Hungary (Benjamins, 2005). Her areas of specialization are language contact, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and language attitudes.
- Kontra, Miklós
Miklós Kontra is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the PhD Program in English Applied Linguistics. His main areas of research are sociolinguistics, Linguistic Human Rights, and educational linguistics. Among other volumes he has (co)edited Hungarian Sociolinguistics (=IJSL #111, 1995), Language Contact in East-Central Europe (=Multilingua 19-1/2, 2000), and Language: A Right and a Resource, Approaching Linguistic Human Rights (1999). His latest Hungarian book is Hasznos nyelvészet (=Socially Useful Linguistics, 2010).
- Peckham, Donald W.
Don Peckham is an associate professor at the University of Szeged. His teaching and research interests are in second language acquisition and language teaching, specifically in cognitive approaches to language learning and teaching, vocabulary acquisition, informal learning, and English as a lingua franca. He is currently involved in an Erasmus network project concerning multilingual and multicultural learning in European higher education institutions.
- Suszczyńska, Małgorzata
My research interests lie in linguistic (im)politeness and cross-cultural pragmatics. I am particularly interested in elucidating the connection between language use and culture. So far, I have focused on the analysis of apologies in English, Polish and Hungarian, researched (im)politeness revealed in language use at the time of the socialist regime in Poland and Hungary, and investigated language users’ conceptualizations of (im)politeness.
- Szabó-Gilinger, Eszter
Eszter Szabó Gilinger is a junior assistant professor with teaching interests in sociolinguistics, World Englishes, language policy and Canadian studies. Her recent research interest has been language policy (multilingual education in minority settings and linguistic landscape), currently she is finishing her PhD dissertation on code-switching in Hungarian Hip Hop and has a cursory interest in online social media and TEFL.