NILE’S MA in Professional Development for Language Education (MAPDLE) is offered in partnership with and validated by the University of Chichester. It is a flexibly delivered, modular postgraduate programme designed for professionals involved in ELT or in other sectors of language education who wish to develop their specialist skills. It offers high levels of personal choice and control over the routes followed and the timing of modules.
The MAPDLE has been offered now for over 21 years and includes a team of tutors with internationally recognised expertise in their fields. As well as a core module on Language Teaching Methodology, students choose two elective modules from the following options: Materials Development for Language Education; CLIL; Teaching English to Young Learners; Developing Learner Autonomy; Management in Language Education; Technology Assisted Language Learning; Trainer Development; Testing, Evaluation and Assessment; Teaching English for Academic Purposes. Students also complete a dissertation with a research focus of their own choosing.
Each module consists of a face-to-face or online course followed by a six-month period in which to complete post-course assignments with the distance support of the course tutor. Students are then allowed 60 weeks in which to complete their dissertation, during which time they have the support of a personal supervisor
Students have up to six years in which to complete the MA. This is reduced by one year for those who at the time of entry have the Cambridge Delta or Trinity Diploma in TESOL in addition to an undergraduate degree and can thus request exemption from the core module.