MA in Instruction of English as a Foreign Language

This program is recommended to applicants who:

• Have already completed their BA studies and wish to obtain professional knowledge and skills through an MA degree in a one-year full-time postgraduate program;
• Wish to gain practical knowledge and skills they can immediately apply to their teaching practice;
• Wish to study at a prestigious Hungarian University on-campus in the centre of Budapest.

Strength of program

• The lecturers involved in the program are internationally recognized experts with international teaching experience who regularly give talks, presentations, and teacher training courses at universities and conferences around the world in the field of ELT.
• Besides the hands-on teaching practice, the program includes a high proportion of face-to-face teaching, with a combination of tutor and student input, including various group activities and students’ presentations and a low number of course participants on the course to ensure the quality of teaching and learning
• The program collaborates with local and international ELT experts to ensure that students develop their professional skills, share best practices, and can network.

Structure

• Methodology of English language teaching
• Descriptive linguistics from a pedagogical perspective
• Language for the teacher
• Classroom studies
• Intercultural communication
• Testing and assessment
• Materials design
• Information technology in ELT
• Teaching practice

Plus a selection of elective courses offered by the School of English and American Studies.

The program enables participants to:

• Explore relevant subjects in-depth, reaching a high level of specialist knowledge and skill;
• Develop and expand their understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of current principles and practices of English language teaching, focusing particularly on theories of language learning and teaching, the English language as a system, and general pedagogy;
• Use appropriate language for setting up and managing classroom activities, to interact with students smoothly in the classroom, to use complex and rich language to engage in professional discussions, and to display proficient presentation skills at professional events;
• Develop their learners’ language skills effectively, use authentic materials and ICT tools, respond to individual learner differences, and adopt methods of differentiation accordingly, use traditional and alternative ways of assessment, select and apply effective error correction techniques, give constructive feedback, adopt principles of reflective teaching and, based on their own reflections, to start planning their own professional development;
• Benefit from access to seminars across the wider university in optional courses.

Career prospects for our graduates vary depending on their ambition but entrants of our MA English Language Pedagogy courses typically come with the specific intention of entering the ELT/TESOL profession. The specialist knowledge gained enables the participant to take senior or specialist roles (e.g., in CALL, ESP, teaching young learners or testing), not only in the classroom but also in educational advice and management, program evaluation, syllabus design, and teacher education.

For those wanting to take their research interest even further, within our University we run a Language Pedagogy Ph.D. program, where we offer teaching and research supervision in language acquisition, language learning, and language teaching; culture and communication; psycholinguistics; language disorders and sociolinguistics.

Job examples

• English as a Foreign Language teacher at language schools or company courses
• Teacher educator
• Syllabus designer
• Materials writer
• ELT manager
• ELT counselor