Students on the MSc TESOL and Applied Linguistics programme at Queen’s University Belfast recently travelled to the North West as part of the “Contemporary Issues in Applied Linguistics” module, with a visit designed to connect classroom learning to real-world practice.

The group was delighted to visit the North West Migrants Forum (NWMF), where Paul Sceeny spoke about the organisation’s wide-ranging work in advocacy, language support, anti-racist education, awareness-raising training, summer schools and more. The visit offered students a valuable opportunity to see first-hand how language intersects with identity, power and social injustice in everyday contexts.

The field trip is a key part of the MSc TESOL and Applied Linguistics programme, which emphasises preparing students to be future-ready through engagement with socially relevant issues, socio-political approaches to language, and research methods that support meaningful, applied inquiry. From discourse analysis to corpus-based methods and many more, the programme aims to equip students with the tools to explore language in real-world settings.

The Derry day trip also included a visit to The Void, where the group was warmly welcomed in from the rain to view the exhibition “I Find Myself”. The exhibition provided a creative space for reflection and ongoing discussion on multimodality, meaning, and interpretation.

For all of us, the visit highlighted how TESOL and Applied Linguistics extend well beyond university buildings, and that learning is often deepened through encounters with people, places and organisations working at the heart of their communities.

Learn more about the work of the North West Migrants Forum
Discover the MSc TESOL and Applied Linguistics programme at Queen’s