General provisions

The course is given within the Master's Programme in Language Technology and as a freestanding course.

Entry requirements

30 credits at Master's level in language technology, including Advanced Programming for Language Technologists and Language Technology: Research and Development.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the course, the student should have shown that he/she is able to carry out a scientific study in the field of language technology and present it in the form of an academic thesis, i.e. 

1. independently take responsibility for the planning and time management of the thesis work

2. define a research problem in the field of language technology and state the corresponding research questions

3. produce an overview of previous research in the form of a chapter providing necessary and relevant background to the other parts of the study

4. decide on, describe, and motivate a setup of specific methods and materials to be used to address the research questions, and, if relevant, discuss ethical issues raised by the design of the study

5. apply appropriate evaluation techniques to the methods and materials

6. present and analyze the results using a combination of text, tables, and figures as approporiate to support the reader's understanding

7. discuss and highlight the most important conclusions that can be drawn from the outcome of the work in relation to the specific research questions, as well as in the wider context of the research area, including making a critical assessment of the strength of the conclusions

8. produce scientific writing with a well structured and coherent argumentation, stringent and appropriate terminology, and for the genre appropriate style, respecting relevant conventions

9. defend the thesis in a public seminar and critically discuss a similar work (act as opponent) in another seminar, in both cases addressing an audience of student peers.

Assessment

The assessment of the degree to which the student has reached the intended learning outcomes is based on (1) an assessment of all relevant aspects of the thesis, which is the main "product" of the course project, and (2) the report by the supervisor(s) on how the student has managed the thesis project and to what extent the thesis text actually demonstrates the student's individual abilities. Furthermore, the assessment will also take into consideration the student's performance (in a seminar setting) (3) defending his/her own thesis and (4) leading a critical discussion of another thesis.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.