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Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Master in

Applied Linguistics

Do you want to learn how to describe a language or a dialect, directly from the voice of the native speakers? Do you want to know how to use language technologies to analyse large amounts of language data? Do you want to understand how to design interventions to promote and protect languages and cultures?

Course description

The programme will not be offered in the 2024/25 academic year.

In this master programme, you will learn that linguistics represents a set of knowledge that can be applied to a wide range of professional and research situations.

Studying languages first means learning how they work through the theories and methods of linguistics. However, knowing about linguistics is not enough to fully understand the role of a language in human communication. On the one hand, in fact, it is necessary to know how to "read" the social and cultural context in which languages are used, while on the other hand knowing the digital tools provided by modern language technologies is necessary as well.

At the end of your studies, you will be able to apply your knowledge to document, describe and analyse languages and dialects in very different social and cultural contexts. You will also be able to use and create language resources for professional and research purposes.

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At a glance

Degree class: LM-39
ECTS credits: 120
Duration of the course: 2 years
Courses will be taught in: Italian, German and English (trilingual)
Places available: 20 EU + 5 non-EU
Campus: Brixen-Bressanone
Tuition fees: ca. €1350 per year

Course structure

The study plan includes a first common part that allows you to combine three complementary disciplines: linguistics, computer science and statistics, and social-anthropological subjects.

The programme then divides into two paths that allow a greater specialisation. In the curriculum "Language policies and promotion of languages" you will learn more about the acquisition of language and the rights and protection of minorities, while in the curriculum "Automatic language analysis" you will be able to further develop your computational and technological skills.

Language diversity is not only the subject of study, but is an intrinsic part of the student and academic life at unibz. Our courses are held in three languages (Italian, English and German) to effectively stimulate communication between students and lecturers in an international multilingual and cultural environment.

The study plan includes workshops, field study experiences, case studies, guest lectures and seminars with the aim of refining the skills of analysis of linguistic and sociolinguistic phenomena. 

The course organisation, divided into compulsory-attendance workshops and optional-attendance lectures, supplemented by Blockseminare and remote teaching, meets the differentiated needs of today's students.

People

Degree Course director: Prof. Silvia Dal Negro (photo)
Student Representative in the Course Council: to be defined

Exchange programmes and internships

During studies, it is possible to spend time abroad, taking advantage of the exchange network with partner universities, e.g., in Marburg or Mannheim to explore (among other things) topics in the areas of dialectology, psycholinguistics and multilingualism.

To complete the training, there is a mandatory internship, lasting at least 150 hours, in public or private companies. For example, several students did their internship at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, later transforming their internship project into a thesis project. Others have been accepted by EURAC for projects on multilingualism, language policies or corpus linguistics. Other internships have been activated at publishing houses, schools, specialized libraries, institutes for the protection and documentation of minority languages, and even at a hospital.

Career opportunities

The Master trains specialists in linguistics with job prospects in the fields of communication (audio-video, web, publishing), protection and promotion of languages and multilingualism (cultural institutions, public administrations), language technologies (software companies), language teaching (language schools) and scientific research (PhD).

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Veronica Schmalz

PhD Researcher at ITEC | imec Research Group at KU Leuven

This master programme provided me with solid knowledge and methods for language analysis under multidisciplinary and multilingual perspectives. Two internships, one at the FBK SpeechTeK Unit in Trento and one at the eurac Institute of Applied Linguistics in Bozen-Bolzano introduced me to hands-on research. These, combined with the knowledge acquired attending the courses of the programme, led me to the decision of pursuing a PhD in Linguistics and AI. I am currently working at ITEC, a research group of the University of Leuven on a fully operational model of language acquisition in artificial agents in collaboration. All this would not have been possible without the knowledge and skills acquired in this master programme.

Eleonora Rodegher

Intership at KulturInstitut Lusérn

I had the opportunity to do my internship at the KulturInstitut Lusérn (TN). My tasks were to help with data entry of linguistic data for a spellchecker, provide translations, and update materials on the online platforms of the institution. I also had the opportunity to take part in activities organized by the Institute, such as the project “khlummane lustige tritt” in the local kindergarten. This experience has been a opportunity not only to observe the reality of a minority language but also to understand how the job of linguists is interconnected with the ones of experts in many different fields.

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