Applied Linguistics and Language Acquisition in Multilingual Contexts

Final project

Characteristics

The Final Project is a research project with a key function in the master’s degree syllabus. Students should use the project to demonstrate their research skills and capacity to work independently, applying the skills acquired during the course, integrating new skills specifically related to the research project, and extending the knowledge acquired in other subjects. The Final Project also provides students with an opportunity to work with research groups with which the master’s degree teaching staff collaborate.

The work should be compatible with one of the research areas covered by the Department of English and and Modern Languages and will be supervised by a PhD holder from the teaching staff. Students must complete a research project configured either as a piece of original research or as a series of critical readings of recent research results.

The tutor will provide advice and guidance on theoretical and methodological aspects of the project, recommend references, and monitor the format of the final document. To ensure the quality of the work and receive approval to proceed to the presentation, students must follow the advice and recommendations of the tutor during the preparation of the project and submit a completed copy as early as possible so that any changes required can be made before the defence.

Projects awarded a grade of Excellent or Excellent with Honours may be published (with the author's consent) in the student assignment collection in the UB’s digital repository.

General guidelines for the Final Project

Structure

Abstract (100-200 words)
Table of contents
Introduction and state of the art (existing knowledge, literature, the need for novel contributions)
Research question(s)
Methodology
Results
Discussion of results
Conclusions (making reference to the project’s contribution to the field)
Appendix (if necessary)
Bibliography

Master's Thesis Guidelines

Length

Projects should have approximately 8,500‒9,500 words for quantitative studies, and 9,500‒10,500 words for qualitative studies (double spaced, 12 point font).

UB regulations

Projects should be carried out as research assignments:

General regulatory rules for University Master's theses of the University of Barcelona (in catalan), approved by the Academic Commission of the Governing Council of 8 June 2011 and by the Governing Council of 19 July 2011.
Regulatory regulations for the final university master’s theses of the Faculty of Philology and Communication (in catalan) of the University of Barcelona, approved by the Commission for official master’s degrees and own postgraduates on May 7, 2024 and by the Academic Commission of the Governing Council on June 26 of 2024.

Assessment and Deadlines

February assessment period

Deadline for submission of an initial research proposal (approx. 100 words) to the master's degree coordinator: 22 September 2023.
Meeting of the master’s degree teaching staff and selection of tutors for each Final Project.
Start of supervision of Final Projects: 2 October 2023.
Deadline for submission of the Final Project to the tutor for final review and confirmation of defence to the coordinator: 19 January 2024.
Deadline for submission of five copies of the completed project (reviewed by the tutor) to the Secretary's Office for Students and Teaching Staff of the Department of English, together with signed authorization from the tutor to proceed to the presentation and defence: 2 February 2024, at 12.00 p.m.
Public presentation and defence: 15-16 February 2024.

June assessment period

Deadline for the submission of an initial research proposal (approx. 100 words) to the master’s degree coordinator: 12 January 2024.
Meeting of the master’s degree teaching staff and selection of tutors for each Final Project.
Start of supervision of Final Projects: 1 February 2024.
Deadline for submission of the Final Project to the tutor for final review and confirmation of defence to the coordinator: 14 June 2024.
Deadline for submission of five copies of the completed project (reviewed by the tutor) to the Secretary's Office for Students and Teaching Staff of the Department of English, together with signed authorization from the tutor to proceed to the presentation and defence: 1 July 2024, at 12.00 p.m.
Public presentation and defence: 11-12 July 2023.

September assessment period

Deadline for submission of the Final Project to the tutor for final review: 2 September 2024.
Deadline for submission of five copies of the completed project (reviewed by the tutor) to the Secretary's Office for Students and Teaching Staff of the Department of English, together with signed authorization from the tutor to proceed to the presentation and defence: 5 September 2024, at 12.00 p.m.

Public presentation and defence: 12-13 September 2024

Oral defense

Students are given 15 minutes to present their work, during which time they should endeavour to display their competence as researchers and to tell the panel about plans for future research, if applicable.

Each examiner then has around 5 minutes in which to comment on the work presented and ask further questions. Students should write down the questions asked by each member of the panel and will then have 10 minutes in which to answer them.