Advanced English Studies

Advanced English Studies

English is nowadays one of the languages that have more speakers throughout the world. There are approximately 75 territories where English is the first or second official language. It has an approximated total of 350 million of mother tongue speakers and around 1500 million if we include those who speak it as L2 or LE, i.e., English speakers as second or foreign language, which since the 90s are also known as English speakers as international language or as English speakers as lingua franca. In other words, English language has become the preferred language of communication between groups of speakers without a common language and it has become the most internationally recognised foreign language of the EHEA. The estimated global demand of international students will increase from 2,1 million in 2003 to 5,8 million in 2020 and the demand of international students in English-speaking countries will increase from 1 million to 2,6 million in the same period, according to the report “Vision 2020:Forecasting International StudentMobility” of the British Council, published on April, 2004.

The importance of English as the most widely used and most competitive language in the international context of higher education and research is indisputable. This superiority is linked, also, to the dominating role played by the cultural background of the English-speaking world. Heterogeneity, diversity and cultural complexity are the defining aspects of the English-speaking linguistic communities, which have helped to define the discourses of our global world. As recommended in the White Paper of Humanities research, it is necessary, to promote interdisciplinary research, even if we have to overcome organisational boundaries between the different areas of knowledge. In contrast to the fundamentalist and exclusionary views, without historical perspective, the design of the Master’s Degree in Advanced English Studies makes possible the understanding of the many facets that form the linguistic and literary identities, and its relation with social and cultural factors such as gender, social class or race, its complexity and dynamism. The Master’s allow the understanding of the configuration of identities as open processes, in which is essential diversity and cultural crossbreeding. The design of the Master’s Degree in Advanced English Studies by combining different disciplines deals with very complex and socially relevant issues: relationship of identity and citizenship with education, articulation between individual and collective identities, gender identities, and social influence of the creation of collective imaginations, etc..

The Master’s Degree in Advanced English Studies is designed for training researchers of excellence and professionals in the field of English Studies, who want to specialise in the following professional careers:

• Professors of English Language and Linguistics (postsecondary teaching)

• Professors of Literature and Culture of English-speaking countries

• Researchers in English Language and Linguistics

• Researchers in Literature and Culture of English-speaking countries

• Counselling and linguistic mediation professionals

• Publishers and publishing assistants