Department of Linguistics

HOME | NEWS | ABOUT US | CENTRES & GROUPS | UNDERGRADUATE | POSTGRADUATE | STUDENT SUPPORT | RESEARCH

You are here: Department of Linguistics >> About Us >>

Local Navigation

The Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University is one of the Departments, within the Faculty of Human Sciences.

The Department of Linguistics at Macquarie is the largest of its kind in Australia , with substantial postgraduate programs, a full undergraduate program, almost 100 research students, and four research centres of international standing.

The strength of the Department lies in its breadth of coverage of linguistics sub-disciplines, and it has particular strengths in the areas of systemic functional linguistics, speech and hearing and language teaching. Specialisations at postgraduate level include applied linguistics (including TESOL and literacy), clinical audiology, speech pathology, communication disorders, editing and publishing, speech processing, and translation and interpreting. At undergraduate level, the Department supports majors in phonetics and speech and hearing sciences; in lexicogrammar and semantics; and in sociolinguistics, including bilingualism and corpus linguistics.

The Overview of Courses and Students details the numbers of students studying within the Department and the variety of programs on offer from Linguistics at Macquarie . Our Undergraduate and Postgraduate sections on the website provide information on the diverse programs and units that are delivered by the Department.

Accredited vocational programs such as the Masters Programs in Audiology and Speech Pathology provide mentors, laboratory classes and clinical placements that develop the clinical and communication skills required for confident clinical practice. As the staff are members of the Speech, Hearing and Language Research Centre (SHLRC), the sections provide a dynamic and innovative environment for students and staff with many opportunities for cross-functional discussions and research in the speech and hearing sciences.

The research centres exist both to act as a disciplinary focus for academics within and beyond the Department and to promote the research profile of the Department, thereby helping to win competitive funding for research and project proposals.

The Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) Research Centre provides research and Professional Development services to the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP). The AMEP is a nationwide Commonwealth-funded language program that provides basic tuition in the English language to help eligible adult migrants and refugees settle successfully in Australia. The AMEP RC has served the AMEP by providing TESOL research and Professional Development since 1989.

The Applied Linguistics and Language in Education (ALLE) Research Centre draws on a wide range of backgrounds and experience in academic literacy and English for academic purposes, first and second language development, second language teacher education, classroom-based research, migrant and workplace education, professional and organisational communication, and translation and interpreting.

The Centre for Language in Social Life (CLSL) is concerned with linguistic interaction particularly in professional discourse and in communication with non-professionals, such as doctor-patient, lawyer-client, nurse-patient, enterprise bargaining, counselling, medical documentation, and community service reporting.

The Centre for Language Sciences (CLaS) will focus on experimental and computational research in linguistics, psycholinguistics, lexicography, audiology and speech science, as well as related research interests from MACCS, ELS and Humanities. It aims to foster interdisciplinary linguistic research with both theoretical and empirical goals, targeting both human and computer acquisition of language, and the languages of Europe as well as Asia.

The Dictionary Research Centre, which has formal connections with the Macquarie Dictionary, conducts research relating to all aspects of lexicography, lexicology and dictionary use. The Style Council, which is a research group associated with the DRC, deals with issues of style particularly in the Australian context.

The Centre for Translation & Interpreting Research provides a resource and research space for work in all aspects of translation and interpreting: linguistic, semiotic, cognitive and social.

The Department shares with the Department of Psychology the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS), headed by the distinguished cognitive psychologist Professor Max Coltheart. MACCS has had outstanding success in attracting research funding and has several post-doctoral research fellows funded through the Australian Research Council.

The Speech, Hearing and Language Research Centre (SHLRC) has interests in acoustic phonetics, speech physiology and other aspects of speech, audiology, speech pathology and language processing (including speech synthesis and computer processing of natural languages). The Centre has been particularly successful in attracting research funding and has excellent laboratory and clinical facilities, including a mobile all-terrain speech analysis laboratory.

Several postgraduate programs are available entirely by distance, including all of the Applied Linguistics and TESOL programs, the MSc in Speech and Language Processing, the Postgraduate Certificate in Editing and Publishing, the MA in Communication Disorders, and the programs in Communication in Professions and Organisations. The Doctor of Applied Linguistics, launched in July 2001, is only available by distance. The distance programs of Linguistics were chosen by the University as the major component of the Macquarie Borderless University project and many individual units are now available on-line.

Studying and researching at Linguistics at Macquarie provides great opportunities in many disciplines of linguistics, provides access to a dynamic, inter-disciplinary research environment and opens up a rewarding range of academic and career choices.

[Back to top]