Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (PGDipArts) in Linguistics

Summary

The Postgraduate Diploma in Arts (PGDipArts) requires two semesters of full-time study. It entails a structured programme of postgraduate coursework and, in some instances, a piece of supervised research that counts for one or two of the required papers. The normal admission requirement is a completed Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in the major of the proposed programme.

Graduates are employed in administration, business, education, government, industry and journalism where their advanced knowledge of an academic area, ability to solve problems, research and writing skills are valued. It is also a recognised qualification for admission as a candidate for the Master of Arts (MA) and, if a dissertation is included, the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Why study Linguistics?

Linguistics does not prescribe grammatical correctness. Instead it describes how people actually communicate and how this changes from one context, situation, culture, geographical domain or even one moment to another.

When you study Linguistics, you will find the answers to a range of questions - How many languages are there in the world? Why and how do languages change, become endangered or die out? Why do some sentences have more than one meaning? How do new words get into a language? Why do different people speak differently, why do they sound different and why do they use different forms of language? How do children acquire language and why do they start to speak? What does it really mean to be bilingual or bi-cultural?

Career opportunities

There are many career options for Linguistics graduates.

The TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), minor equips you to teach English abroad and at home in language schools and other non-state institutions.

Previous graduates are now lawyers, editors, copy-writers, technical writers, journalists, award-winning film directors and producers, translators, interpreters, sign language interpreters, language policy makers, diplomats.

You will find Linguistic graduates as first language teachers, second language teachers, primary school teachers, high school teachers, speech therapists, university lecturers, polytechnic lecturers.

Linguistics graduates have gone on to be newspaper reporters, editors, television producers, television reporters, software designers, actors, comedians, education policy makers, machine voice synthesisers, entrepreneurs, publishers, creative writers, science writers, marketers.