Program and courses Research Master in Linguistics and Communication Sciences

In the first year you will take 6 mandatory courses (27 ECTS):

• Foundations of Language & Communication (6 ECTS)
• Statistics and Experimental Methods 1 (3 ECTS)
• Statistics and Experimental Methods 2 (3 ECTS)
• Research Orientation (3 ECTS)
• Lab Rotation 1 (6 ECTS) or Lab Rotation 1 (@LOT) (5 ECTS)
• Term Paper ReMa (6 ECTS)
   

In the second year you will take 3 mandatory courses (21 ECTS):

• Lab Rotation 2 (6 ECTS) or Lab Rotation 2 (@LOT) (10 ECTS)
• Grant Proposal Writing (6 ECTS)
• Societal Impact (6 ECTS)

Lab Rotation

Lab Rotation (1 and 2) gives you the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a researcher by immersing yourself as a research intern in a research group or research project within Tilburg University or Radboud University Nijmegen. You will carry out an individual research project within the context of a larger project, or within the context of a research program. You will be supervised by one or more experienced researchers. 

You need to obtain a total of 15 ECTS for these courses. If you choose to do Lab Rotation 1 (@LOT) for 5 ECTS, you either do Lab Rotation 2 (@LOT) for 10 ECTS or Lab Rotation 2 with an extra investment of 1 ECTS. 

The Research Master's thesis (30 ECTS) is a research project in which you  demonstrate 1) disciplinary knowledge, 2) methodological expertise and 3) research skills.

• You will be supervised by two senior researchers.
• In the assessment of your thesis, the quality of your literature review, originality, clarity and feasibility of your research questions, appropriateness and quality of the methodology applied, quality of the analysis and discussion, and the clarity with which you present the research and results will be considered.
• In many cases, the thesis results in a conference paper, a paper for an academic journal, or a proposal for PhD research.

Examples of previous thesis topics include:

• I post therefore I am alive: Mutual aid and social media activism during the war in Ukraine
• Say mama: Evaluating the relationship between parental input frequency and age of acquisition
• Watching Others Gamble: The effects of watching influencers gamble on gambling urge
• Mind the map! The interaction of language and graphics in communicating route information
• Emerging knowledge of word order and the acquisition of word meanings: An artificial language learning study
• Children’s interpretation of overspecified information in a persuasive context: An experimental study into the effects of overspecified modifiers in referring expressions on purchase intention
• The impact of communicative behavior on doctors’ and patients’ satisfaction: A comparison between computer-mediated and face-to-face consultations
• Modeling child-adult interaction: a computational study of word learning in context

About Cognition and Communication 

People use communication in many ways and for various purposes: we interact socially with each other, gather and disseminate information, try to convince others, use communication to entertain others, and we express our emotions by, for example, laughing or crying.

Within this domain, you will study a wide range of communicative processes from a cognitive approach. Topics include linguistic framing of information, computational models of language acquisition, nonverbal communication, and visual communication.

Choose 5 core electives out of (for example):

• Cognition and Process
• Non-verbal Communication
• Cognition of Visual Narratives
• Negotiation Strategies
• Multimodal Communication
• Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality
• Language Technology & Cognition
• Interactive Storytelling
• Intercultural Communication Online and Offline
• Persuasion and (Dis)agreement
• Creativity and Innovation
• Risk Communication
• Emerging Technologies for Learning
   

Choose 4 Research Skills electives out of (for example):

• Research Skills: Programming
• Research Skills: Annotation
• Research Skills: Analysis of Variance
• Research Skills: Eye Tracking
• Research Skills: Rapid Prototyping

• Research Skills: Survey Design

   

About Linguistic Anthropology 

Within this domain, you will study the ways in which globalization affects the way we build our communicative repertoires.

Choose 5 core electives out of (for example):

• Usage Based Approaches to Knowledge
• Non-verbal Communication
• Intercultural Communication Online and Offline
• Digital Health Communication
• The Normal and the Abnormal
• Discourse Analysis and Digital Media
• Knowing Language (taught in Dutch)

Choose 4 Research Skills electives out of (for example):

• Research Skills: Research Interview 
• Research Skills: Anthropology and fieldwork
• Research Skills: Online Data Collection
• Research Skills: Ethnography and Interview
• Research Skills: Survey Design
• Research Skills: Narratology and Discursive Analytical Strategies

About Business Communication and Persuasion

Within this domain, you will study the factors that determine whether companies and organizations' communications with their customers and other stakeholders are successful or unsuccessful. You will look at processes such as negotiation, conflict management, public relations and marketing communication.

Choose 5 core electives out of (for example):

• Multimodal Communication
• Negotiation Strategies
• Social Media Marketing
• Online Public Relations
• Roles in Networked Organizations
• Psychology of Business Communication
• Digital Food Marketing
• Social Media: Risks and Opportunities
• Resistance and Persuasion
• Social Media at Work
• Webcare

Choose 4 Research Skills electives out of (for example):

• Research Skills: Programming
• Research Skills: Online Data Collection
• Research Skills: Analysis of Variance
• Research Skills: Eye Tracking
• Research Skills: Survey Design

About Digital Media and Communication

Within this domain, you will study the implications of using digital media for both interpersonal communication and communication within the context of businesses.

• How does the way we communicate with each other online differ from the way we communicate with each other offline?
• How does the use of digital media affect social and communicative processes, such as self-representation, collaboration, and the formation, maintenance, and termination of relationships?
• What challenges and opportunities do digital media bring, both in social and business contexts?

Choose 5 elective core courses out of (for example):

• The Human Mind in the Digital World
• Digital industries and infrastructures
• Social Media Marketing
• Roles in Networked Organizations
• Digital Health Communication
• Language Technology & Cognition
• Interactive Storytelling
• Responsible UX Design
• Discourse Analysis and Digital Media
• Design Research
• Social Media at Work

Choose 4 Research Skills electives out of (for example):

• Research Skills: Annotation
• Research Skills: Analysis of Variance
• Research Skills: Online Data Collection
• Research Skills: Rapid Prototyping
• Research Skills: Survey Design

About Online Culture

Within this domain, you will study the implications of digitalization for our everyday lives. You will combine different perspectives: cognitive, social and anthropological.

Choose 5 elective core courses out of (for example):

• Digital Media and Everyday Life
• Discourse Analysis and Digital Media
• The Normal and the Abnormal
• Social Media: Risks and Opportunities
• Intercultural Communication Online and Offline
• Online Public Relations
• Social Media at Work
• Intimacy, Privacy and Authenticity
• Sublime: Art and Ecology
• Attention Economies

Choose 4 Research Skills electives out of (for example):

• Research Skills: Annotation
• Research Skills: Online Data Collection
• Research Skills: Research Interview 
• Research Skills: Anthropology and fieldwork
• Research Skills: Ethnomining
• Research Skills: Using digital literacies
• Research Skills: Ethnography and Interview
• Research Skills: Survey Design