phd in applied linguistics uk

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PhD in Applied Linguistics

The Department is interested in receiving applications in a wide range of Applied Linguistics Areas (please note:   currently we can offer limited supervision in TESOL or ELT topics). Particular research strengths are focused on the study of institutional communication (for example, health and science communication), the relationships between politics, language and culture, and electronic communication. 

Structure of the PhD Programme

The programme is normally a 3-year full time (or 6-year part time) research only PhD programme (i.e., there is no mandatory coursework component and students are expected to immediately start their research). In May of every year of the programme full-time PhD students are expected to pass an annual progress review.

All students are expected to participate in training and research activities organised by the department. Students also have the opportunity to present their ongoing research to the department.

Potential Supervisors

You can choose a supervisor from any one of the following staff members, who between them cover a range of Applied Linguistics topics. It is essential to contact a possible supervisor to discuss your proposed PhD project before you apply for admission.  If you submit an application without having first confirmed a supervisor, we will circulate your application amongst staff to see if there is any interest, but this can lead to delays in processing the application, and is not usually successful.

Agnieszka Lyons

multimodal and intersemiotic communication, translanguaging in electronically mediated discourse, self-presentation and textual representation of the body, expression of location and self-positioning in discourse, storyworld construction in communication

Weronika Fernando

Language and literacy  in academic and professional settings, applications of digital media to language/literacy teaching and learning, social justice in language education, cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis 

Education and Sociology. Teacher Education/ Training, quality of language education, classroom observations, ESOL and EFL, Foucauldian discourse analysis, Education policy, Language teaching and Complexity Theory, Neoliberalism and Education, connections between politics, language and identity.

Nelya Koteyko

Health communication, media discourse, digital literacies and identities, critical metaphor analysis, corpus assisted discourse analysis

Falco Pfalzgraf

linguistic purism; the influence of English on other languages; text book / school books analysis; the relationships between politics language and culture

Leigh Oakes

Language policy and planning; language and nationalism/national identity; language ideologies; language attitudes; French sociolinguistics

Saima Sherazi

Evaluation of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) ; English Language Teaching (ELT)  Multimedia materials evaluation; ELT Curriculum Design; Academic Writing; English for Specific Purposes; English for Academic purposes; Teacher Identity; Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Ernesto Vargas

Education Reform; Language Policy; Language Teacher Education with a focus on Continuing Professional Development practices; Language Teacher Research; Critical Discourse Analysis; Discursive practices and Ideology; Social Justice in Language Teacher Education and Language Education; Research Methodology, particularly concerning in-depth qualitative inquiry approaches in educational settings.

Dylan Glyn Williams

Multilingualism; L anguage Education; EMI (English-Medium Instruction); TESOL; Internationalization in Higher Education; Multilingualism in Higher Education; Social Justice in Higher Education.

Deborah Darling

Discourse analysis, interculturality, language education, language ideologies, language policy, plurilingual pedagogies.  

Luis Carabantes

Application Procedure

Please check the following sections as you begin working on your application:

Entry Requirements

Funding Competition

Prepare your Application

• QMUL’s Research Admission Team:   https://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/contact/ 
• Postgraduate Research Lead in Applied Linguistics:  [email protected]

Alternatively, use our A–Z index

Attend an open day

Discover more about this subject area

PhD Linguistics / Overview

Year of entry: 2024

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• Bachelor's (Honours) degree at 2:1 or above (or overseas equivalent); and 
• Master's degree in a relevant subject – with an overall average of 65% or above, a minimum mark of 65% in your dissertation and no mark below 55% (or overseas equivalent)

Full entry requirements

Apply online

Please ensure you include all  required supporting documents  at the time of submission, as incomplete applications may not be considered. 

Application Deadlines 

For consideration in internal funding competitions, you must submit your completed application by  12 January 2024. 

If you are applying for or have secured external funding (for example, from an employer or government) or are self–funding, you must submit your application before the below deadlines to be considered. You will not be able to apply after these dates have passed. 

• For September 2024 entry:  30 June 2024 
• For January 2025 entry:  30 September 2024

Programme options

Programme overview

• Access expert supervision across an exceptional breadth of research areas in Linguistics.
• Join a vibrant and lively international centre for Linguistics with an active postgraduate research community.  
• Alongside an exceptionally large cluster of experts on English language, we have particular strengths in Romance, Germanic, and Austronesian languages, as well as the languages of Latin America and Africa.
• 92% of our research activity was recognised as 'world leading' or `internationally excellent' REF2021.

We will be conducting our Humanities PGR virtual open week in October 2024. Find out more about future events and postgraduate research sessions by signing up for our email alerts. 

For entry in the academic year beginning September 2024, the tuition fees are as follows:

• PhD (full-time) UK students (per annum): £4,786 International, including EU, students (per annum): £21,500
• PhD (part-time) UK students (per annum): £2,393

Further information for EU students can be found on our dedicated EU page.

Please note for the majority of projects where experimentation requires further resource: higher fee bands (where quoted) will be charged rather than the base rate for supervision, administration and computational costs. The fees quoted above will be fully inclusive and, therefore, you will not be required to pay any additional bench fees or administration costs.

All fees for entry will be subject to yearly review and incremental rises per annum are also likely over the duration of the course for UK/EU students (fees are typically fixed for International students, for the course duration at the year of entry). For general fees information please visit: postgraduate fees . Always contact the department if you are unsure which fee applies to your project.

Scholarships/sponsorships

There are a range of scholarships, studentships and awards to support both UK and overseas postgraduate researchers, details of which can be found via the links below.

To apply University of Manchester funding, you must indicate in your application the competitions for which you wish to be considered. The deadline for most internal competitions, including AHRC NWCDTP and School of Arts, Languages and Cultures studentships is 12 January 2024. 

All external funding competitions have a specified deadline for submitting the funding application form and a separate (earlier) deadline for submitting the online programme application form, both of which will be stated in the funding competition details below.  

For more information about funding, visit our funding page to browse for scholarships, studentships and awards you may be eligible for.

• ESRC North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) PhD Studentships - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• AHRC North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) PhD Studentships - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• School of Arts, Languages and Cultures PhD Studentships 2024 Entry - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• China Scholarship Council - The University of Manchester (CSC-UoM) Joint Scholarship Programme - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• School of Arts, Languages and Cultures New Generation PhD Studentships - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• President's Doctoral Scholar (PDS) Awards - Competition Closed for 2024 Entry
• Trudeau Doctoral Scholarships 2024 Entry
• Commonwealth PhD Scholarships (High Income Countries)
• Humanities Doctoral Academy Humanitarian Scholarship 2024 Entry
• Commonwealth PhD Scholarships (Least Developed Countries and Fragile States)

Contact details

See: About us

Programmes in related subject areas

Use the links below to view lists of programmes in related subject areas.

• Linguistics and English Language

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