MA in Applied Linguistics: Graduate Profile - Marta Fortes Saez

What did you learn on the course?

The course was very interesting because it wasn’t only focused on teaching. We also learned linguistic analysis skills. We learned many things like how to use different technology in our teaching and how to analyse language.

We learned many things like how to use different technology in our teaching and how to analyse language

Can you take us through a typical week on the MA programme?

We had classes some mornings and some evenings. We had different modules and we could do modules related to teaching. We got the opportunity to do practice workshops to prepare us for our thesis. My class was a very international group, we were all from so many different countries. It was lovely because we met every day for lunch. We were doing so many activities after our classes and meeting at the weekends. We studied each other's accents because we were all from different countries, which was a great experience to have in this MA.

Which was a great experience to have on this MA

Can you tell us about your own personal experience of the course, the benefits/challenges, etc?

I am from Spain so I learned a lot. I realised this course helped me to understand my language more and the use of different dialects. It helped me to understand my heritage and helped me learn more about my own native language and its linguistic style. One challenge I found was in writing the dissertation but we always had huge support from the lecturers, they were always available to help us whenever we needed it which was a great support at the same time. It was a challenge, but it was a challenge which was possible to overcome with the support from all of the faculty.

I realised this course helped me to understand my language more and the use of different dialects

Would you recommend the MA to others?

Yes, of course I’d recommend the MA to others. If you like languages and you are interested in learning a lot about not only how to teach a language but how language works, how it works in politics, in society, the power of language. It’s just amazing. This MA is open to the importance of language in society, more than I ever could have imagined. Yes, I would recommend this MA, it was a really good MA.

What do you plan to do/have done post-graduation?

At the moment, I am having a break after the MA. I am working now, I am teaching Spanish in UL because my undergrad is in teaching and I did my MA in Linguistics. Maybe in the future I would love to continue with a PhD and continue in the same direction that I already took before my dissertation.