The Centre for English Language Studies (CELS) is a postgraduate unit that runs a variety of courses. We are part of a larger affiliation of colleagues in the Department of English who work in the area of English Language Research.
At present we offer MA programmes in TEFL/TESL (also by distance learning), Special Applications of Linguistics (SAL), Applied Linguistics (also by distance learning), Translation Studies (also by distance learning), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Language and Lexicography, Literary Linguistics, Critical Discourse Culture and Communication, Applied Corpus Linguistics, and an MRes in Corpus Linguistics.
We also offer facilities for further research leading to MA by Research and PhD. Links have been established with academics and institutions in many countries, and we often receive overseas academics who come here to work on their research projects.
CELS is situated in an attractive nineteenth century house called Westmere, next to the main university campus. It houses teaching rooms, offices, recreational space and photocopying facilities. It is surrounded by its own traditional English gardens and a nature reserve. The library, computer facilities, bookshop, canteens and other facilities are a few minutes' walk away on the main University campus. Many students who come to study full-time at CELS choose to stay in modern university flats close to Westmere; others find private self-catering accommodation in the area around the University.
International
CELS is a very international unit. Over the years we have welcomed students and visitors from: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, P.R. China, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, USA, and probably other countries too! Being able to share professional experience with colleagues from around the world is one of the benefits of working with a unit such as CELS, whether you come to Birmingham or enrol on one of our distance programmes.
Like the rest of our colleagues in English Language research at Birmingham, we have a strong interest in applications of computational linguistics, such as corpus lexicography, data-driven learning, the lexical syllabus and parallel concordancing for translation. Students and researchers working with CELS have free access to the Cobuild Direct corpus, and where necessary, training in how to use this. In addition, our research and teaching strengths are enhanced by contributions from our Modern English Language colleagues within the Department of English, whose research interests, in addition to those listed on our home page, include discourse analysis, forensic linguistics, phonology, ESP, genre analysis and lexicography.