These include bilingual and multilingual education, language planning, lexicography, literacy, second language acquisition, translation, and the development or modification of writing systems.

The M.A. in Applied Linguistics at Biola goes beyond the certificate courses by providing Christian professionals with advanced training in various areas of language analysis and by developing a multidisciplinary approach within which to seek appropriate solutions to real-world problems. Students may pursue either a generalist track or a specialized one by concentrating their electives in language surveys, linguistics, literacy, TESOL or translation. Students satisfactorily completing the TESOL concentration will also receive the Biola University graduate Certificate in TESOL.