History

The Department of Applied Linguistics is one of the three departments in the Faculty of Foreign Languages Education. The Department was established in 2003, as a postgraduate department with the Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in Applied Linguistics. Today, the Department runs three postgraduate and fourteen undergraduate programmes. The M.Phil. Applied Linguistics Programme was the first postgraduate programme to be established in the University of Education, Winneba. At the time of its establishment, the University of Education was awarding only bachelor level degrees.

In the following year (2004/2005 academic year), the Department started the Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) sandwich Programme to prepare teachers for the basic and senior high school levels.

The Department again introduced a third postgraduate programme, the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Applied Linguistics in the 2005/2006 academic year. The primary aim was to offer students with relevant skills, knowledge and competencies in Language and Linguistics in response to the growing need for researchers to be trained to investigate issues of Language and Linguistics across Ghana and the world. In fact, the first PhD graduate from the University of Education, Winneba graduated from this programme.

In the 2018/2019 academic year, the Department started a new undergraduate programme, Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Linguistics and English, French, and Ghanaian languages. The programme is designed to give training in Linguistics and Language (English, French, Ewe, Ga, Dangme, Fante, Nzema, Twi, Dagaare, Dagbani, Gonja, Gurene, Kasem, Kusaal) analysis such that graduates will be well-equipped to serve as language specialists in institutions in the country and abroad. Graduates from the programme will also be able to teach the grammar and use these languages in our Basic and High schools.

In the 2020/2021 academic year, the Department introduced the Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) degree in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) to provide students with unique education, knowledge, and the pedagogical skills required to teach the English Language better at all levels of education in Ghana and beyond.