PhD in Language and Communication
Director of Postgraduate Studies: Dr Joanna Thornborrow
The Cardiff Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) is one of the foremost international departments for research, research training and teaching in social, applied and interactional areas of human communication, mass media, language and linguistics. A funded research base for health communication has also been established within the Centre.
The Centre carries excellent ratings for its research from the most recent (2007) Research Assessment Exercise, in which the research environmnent was classified as 'world class' (4*). The very high quality of the environment and of our research training provision means that we are now part of the new Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Wales Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), and can offer 1 + 3 ESRC-funded PhD studentships. In pursuing your postgraduate research at the Centre you will become an important part of this excellent research environmnent.
Please go to the following link for information on the ESRC Doctoral Training Centre http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/for/prospective/pg/funding/esrc/
Following the 1 + 3 structure of the doctoral training programme, full time PhD candidates normally start by taking our 1 year postgraduate research training scheme: MA/Postgraduate Diploma in Language and Communication Research, before progressing to the 3 year PhD.
Primary Research Areas
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Linguistic Description and Linguistics Applied
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Socio-cultural approaches to language and communication
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Health Communication
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Forensic Linguistics
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Multimodality
Applications for PhD are especially welcome in any of our key areas of research:
sociolinguistics (language variation, language attitudes. multilingualism, minority languages, English and Welsh in Wales, dialect stylistics, dialectology);
discourse analysis (critical linguistics, social interaction, literary pragmatics, language and social theory);
media communication (media discourse, social interaction and the media);
language in legal settings;
professional and workplace communication (health and medical discourse, bureaucratic, commercial and service encounter communication);
interpersonal and intergroup communication (lifespan communication, gender and language, cross-cultural and interethnic communication, communication in disability, human relationships);
systemic functional linguistics (lexicogrammar, semantics, language modelling) phonetics and phonology (instrumental phonetics, contrastive phonetics, intonation);
computational linguistics and the Cardiff Grammar;
language education (language awareness, language learning and testing, multi-lingual acquisition)
non-verbal communication, visual pragmatics
formulaic language (in language learning, communication disorders, grammatical and lexical theory).
CLCR also regularly hosts scholars from other institutions for short periods of collaboration or independent research. Through the Cardiff Language and Communication Seminar Series, and the Postgraduate Research Seminars, the work of visiting speakers and members of the Centre, staff and students, is presented and discussed in a supportive and informal setting.
Research Activities
The Centre for Language and Communication provides a focus for research and research training in social, applied and interactional areas of language, linguistics and human communication. Staff specialisms cover an exciting range of interdisciplinary research areas, and PhD students are encouraged to join small teams of individuals already collaborating on specific projects or research themes. Please see the Centre's page regarding current research projects. The Centre has a strong international reputation and is home to several international journals.
Research Training
The Centre is recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as a postgraduate research training centre. The MA in Language and Communication Research is an advanced postgraduate training course, and as part of the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), PhD students in the Centre will receive progressional training and development throughout the 3 years of their doctoral programme.
There is also a full programme of seminars and workshops for PhD students which run alongside their individual research work with their supervisors.
Individual Research Profiles
You can find out more about the research interests CLCR staff on the School's Academic Staff page.
Applying
We welcome enquiries from prospective students, whether you wish to talk about your own possible projects and areas of interest or to obtain further information about PhD programmes in Language and Communication.
Please note: we advise you to make contact with the admissions tutor before you submit a formal application, to provide an opportunity to discuss your research plans with us. Contact encap-pg@cf.ac.uk for further information.
You can apply online or download an application form from Cardiff University's Apply section. Paper applications should be sent to the University Registry and should be accompanied by an outline PhD research proposal. The proposal should be around 1,000 words.
Objectives
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Research questions
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Research methods
- Some indicative references to pertinent literature
PhD applicants either have to complete the MA/Dip in Language Communication Research, or provide evidence of relevant equivalent research training gained elsewhere.
The School welcomes applications from students from outside the United Kingdom. More information is provided on our International Students page.
Funding
There is AHRC funding available for this subject area for the academic year 2012/13. If you wish to apply for an AHRC award you must first apply for and be accepted onto a PhD programme within the School by Friday 24 February 2012.
For further information about the AHRC and the competition deadlines please go to
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/funding/postgraduate.html
The funding competition for President's Scholarship awards is now open for the academic year 2012/13. If you wish to apply for a President's Scholarship award you must first make a formal application via the University's Online Application Service for a place on a PhD programme by Friday 24 February 2012.
For further information about the President's Scholarship awards and the competition deadlines please go to
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/funding/postgraduate.html
See this course on the University's Coursefinder website.