Research on language acquisition -whether native or nonnative- is an expanding field in the Humanities and Social Sciences that has evolved from early descriptive studies highly related to language teaching and pedagogy toward work focusing on learner language (interlanguage) as a system with unique characteristics. Researchers in language acquisition adopt multiple perspectives to analyse interlanguage, but all of them aim at describing and explaining it with the goal of improving our knowledge about the cognitive processes and mechanisms responsible for language acquisition.
This MA program emerges in a multilingual environment and responds to a social demand in as much as both training and research in language acquisition are considered primary in our context. Apart from promoting research in the different disciplines that make up the academic program, this MA intends to benefit from the experience accumulated in the Basque society on bilingual and multilingual education in order to boost high quality research.

SKILLS

Analyze data from oral and/or written production and comprehension in first (L1), second (L2) and consecutive (Ln) languages and discuss those data within the assumptions of a specific theoretical framework.
Critically judge and synthesize theoretical and empirical literature on a specific topic in the field of language acquisition and language teaching or learning.
Design and carry out experimental work on the acquisition of a specific component (phonological, morphosyntactic, lexical or pragmatic) in a particular language or on any aspect of language teaching or learning.
Develop a deep knowledge of one or more of the sub-areas in the studies on language acquisition (L1, L2 and Ln) and of the basic theoretical concepts of each area.
Develop and improve techniques for oral presentation of research papers in front of an audience.
Establish links between language acquisition research, syllabus design and teaching practice in order to improve these two and, consequently, identify new areas of action research.
Evaluate, compare and contrast different theoretical perspectives about a specific aspect in language acquisition or in language teaching and learning.
Promote autonomous learning and identification of research topics in the field that can further student's individual development in their PhD studies.