Doctor of Philosophy [Ph.D] [Phonetics and Phonology] From Newcastle University

The Integrated PhD has a substantial taught and assessed component, as well as a supervised research element. The foundation is a common core of modules dealing with essential theoretical issues and research methods. You are also offered specialised modules which act as the basis for your thesis.

You will have an individual course of study based on your needs and sponsor's requirements.

The research phase of the programme offers supervision in:

• phonetics and phonology in second language acquisition and bilingualism
• phonetics and phonology in first language acquisition
• sociophonetic perspectives on speech perception and production
• phonological theory and phonological patterns in various languages
• phonetic and phonological characteristics of languages and language description

One of the strengths of the course is that it brings together the teaching and research expertise of staff belonging to three schools that make up the Centre for Research in Linguistics and Language Sciences (CriLLS). These are:

• School of Education, Communication, and Language Sciences (ECLS)
• School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics (SELLL)
• School of Modern Languages (SML)

This widens the pool of modules that are available and enables you to interact with staff and students from a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise. Our particular areas of strength are in:

• first and second language acquisition
• speech production and perception in multilingual contexts
• sociophonetics
• phonological theory

The cross-cutting theme within these areas that we are all interested in is the link between perception, production and learning.

Our perception research looks at the role of speakers and listeners in shaping linguistic systems and sound change.

Work on production and learning covers our interest in investigating meaningful sound patterning, including how it is acquired, stored, and produced within a social context. Our work also investigates categorical and graded aspects of speech and the role of language-specific factors in shaping these categories.

Recent graduates of phonetics and phonology at Newcastle have worked on a variety of languages and dialects, including:

• Arabic (a range of dialects)
• Chinese
• English
• German
• Japanese
• Malaysian
• Malayalam
• Polish
• Serbian
• Thai

Our graduates go on to work in academic institutions across the world, and in public and private institutions specialising in health sciences, media and communication, speech technology and forensic science.