Applied Linguistics

The Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics helps prepare scholars who will conduct systematic examinations of individual and societal multilingualism in order to build and test theories of how linguistic systems develop, are acquired, used, and taught in global contexts. The Ph.D. degree program includes the foundational theory and research of linguistics, applied linguistics, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. It will prepare doctoral students to utilize a range of research perspectives, both qualitative and quantitative, e.g., sociocultural, historical, linguistic, stylistic, discourse analytical. Overall, the purpose of the research undertaken in graduate study in Applied Linguistics will be to illuminate, in all its complexity, the multiple dimensions of the study of language as a mode of social existence, communication, and cognition.