MA SprInK (English)
The MA programme "Language – Interaction – Culture" is an interdisciplinary programme that brings together several linguistic disciplines in a research-oriented curriculum involving the following fields: African Studies, Anglophone Studies, Arabic Studies, Romance Studies, German Studies, Intercultural German Studies and the didactics of German language and literature. The programme accords primordial importance to empirical linguistic methods and research, and how these can be applied to intercultural interactions.
The MA programme distinguishes itself from other MA programmes in Germany in three ways:
The programme studies German, French, English, Arabic and African Languages in their specific cultural, interactional and multilingual contexts. This makes it possible to combine linguistic analyses supported by empirical methods with comprehensive investigations of intercultural aspects in a highly interdisciplinary manner. The integration of African Studies into this master’s programme is unique across Germany.
Linguistics at the University of Bayreuth offers a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches, and expertise on several regions of the world. Students will, therefore, be able to specialise in one of the following special interest areas: (i) intercultural communication, (ii) African languages and cultures, (iii) multilingualism and language contact, and (iv) discourse analysis. The chosen special interest area could, if necessary, be mentioned on the MA degree certificate.
The programme has two international orientations: (i) Selective Students will be able to integrate the Eurocampus’ intercultural communication programme into their studies. Eurocampus is offered by ten European partner universities (among them, Cambridge, Paris, Lugano, Tartu and Jyväskylä), taking place in one partner universities rotationally. (ii) A dual-degree program with the “Moskauer Städtischen Pädagogischen Universität” gives Students the opportunity of spending the second year of their studies in Moskau and obtain a Dual Degree.
The programme has a modular structure. Detailed information on the structure and content of the modules can be found under the link: Module Handbook "Language – Interaction – Culture" (pdf)
Graduates of the programme will be qualified for jobs that require practical application of language-based skills and research competence in their approach to problem-solving. These include areas such as:
Language in public domains: e.g. press, PR, media consulting, language and culture, language and comprehension, text optimisation.
Language and globalisation/regionalisation: e.g. language policy and planning, European integration, international aid and development agencies, and European institutions concerned with multilingualism and language contact.
Language and communication: e.g. trainings, counselling, consultancy, and intercultural communication, especially in companies and international organisations. Included also are the domains of knowledge transfer, media communication, professional research, personnel management in and beyond companies or corporate organisations.
In addition to the above, the M.A. programme could serve as a good base for further studies (e.g. PhD) or a research career in the field. This is because students are introduced to practical and theoretical approaches to linguistics that could enable them to successfully conduct independent or collaborative empirical research in the future. They would, therefore, be qualified for various doctoral programmes and research training groups (Graduiertenkolleg), especially those that focus on sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. In this respect, the University of Bayreuth offers two international postgraduate programmes:
"Kulturbegegnungen – Cultural Encounters – Rencontres Culturelles" PhD-programme in the Faculty of Languages and Literatures
"Research Area B: Culture, Concepts and Communication in Africa" of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS).
Promotionsprogramm "Kommunikative Konstruktion von Wissen"
Registration:
Registration (new students) in the Winter Semester; for exceptional cases, also in the Summer Semester
Registration for the Winter Semester: August 17th – October 15th
Prospective students are advised to go the registration office (Studentenkanzlei).
For questions related to admission requirements (e.g. foreign language competence, etc.), please, contact the programme coordinator Prof. Dr. Karin Birkner: karin.birkner@uni-bayreuth.de