Upgrade Your Teaching With a New Master’s Degree

By Sponsored, April 24, 2021

Since 2012, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has offered an MA TESOL for English teachers looking to boost their teaching, and the qualification has grown to be one of the most popular postgraduate offerings at the University.

However, this track may not suit everyone and finding the right postgraduate program is important in shaping the future you want.

In addition to the already-popular MA TESOL and MA Global Education programs, XJTLU has unveiled two new master’s degrees in its recent crop of offerings that could help teachers in China bolster their teaching credentials or get out of a rut.

These qualifications are awarded by both XJTLU and the University of Liverpool, which means students will be earning a UK degree that’s recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Understanding Children

As part of its soon-to-be-launched Academy of Future Education, the Department of Educational Studies has designed a master’s program in Child Development and Family Education. This CDFE program focuses on giving educators more insight into children’s development as well as their family life.

“This is the only MA program in CDFE that combines educational and developmental psychology with family educational therapy,” says Dr. Yan Rong, program director. “We planned this MA around four essential relationships that shape a child’s growth: the relationship between children and their teachers, children and their families, children and their peers and children and the virtual world. By understanding these, an educator can healthily enhance all-around development.”

This program is aimed at helping educators, especially those focusing on early childhood, become better equipped to help children in all stages and to help parents as well.

“We want to help educators enhance communication with parents, to positively impact a child’s home life,” he says.

This program is aimed at both teachers who intend on continuing their studies through to a Ph.D. and those who plan to go straight into working. “We have two tracks,” Dr. Yan explains. “For students who want to further their studies, we have an optional module on advanced educational research methodology. For students who want to go straight to work, we have practical internship-based modules, as well as some on classroom design.”

The program is offered both full-time and part-time, allowing teachers to get their masters while working a full-time job.

Understanding Language

For some educators, the language aspect is where their interest truly lies. The Department of Applied Linguistics, in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, will be accepting students to its new MA Applied Linguistics with a Specialization in Multilingualism in the fall.

“Multilingualism is one of the strongest research areas within the Department of Applied Linguistics,” says program director Dr. Li Songqing. “It’s on this basis that we developed the MA. And I’m very proud to say it’s the first one of its kind on multilingualism in China.”

Dr. Li says in addition to language use in China, the program takes a global perspective by exploring case studies from multilingual societies across the world, delivered by an international staff.

“When I designed this program, I had a global vision in mind. That means several case studies such as in Europe, South Africa, Canada and Singapore,” he says.

“This is an important topic because it seems quite natural for us to acquire more than two languages in the current era of globalization. So by taking this program, I believe English language teachers, whether they are native or non-native English speakers, will get a good background in the concepts surrounding multilingualism. They’ll learn how to enhance learners' multilingual abilities and multilingual literacy.”

He says that this program would not only help those who take it to become better language teachers, but that it also allows them to take a different language-related role down the line. “In the future, they could work in other sectors, such as business or government offices related to language planning and policy.”