Introduction

Why York?

Our expertise covers a very wide range of forms of communication (or communicative contexts). We welcome applications to do doctoral research which will contribute to the rapidly developing and expanding study of language use in all forms of social, educational and political life. We are international in outlook, and currently include in the programme research into African, Chinese, Finnish, Russian and Thai societies, as well as the UK (there's more information below on the range of projects and national contexts in which research has been conducted within Communications at York). Furthermore, each of us in the programme has an international reputation for innovative, cutting edge research (both basic and applied).

This is an outstanding place to study - and the programme in Communications Studies offers flexible, interdisciplinary and individualized support for research in a field of the utmost importance. Because the university is still relatively small, graduate students are given personal attention, and meet their supervisors on a frequent and regular basis (usually weekly).

The programme in Communications Studies is available to full and part time research students, and also to Visiting Research students who would like to come here for short periods (usually between one term and a year) for specialist training.

Research

Recent projects

Research within the Communication Studies programme has been conducted in areas such as:

• lawyer-client interaction
• verbal and non-verbal behaviour in political communication
• classroom interaction in Italian primary schools
• medical (doctor-patient) interaction
• repair in one-to-one EFL classroom talk
• broadcast debate interviews
• language and interaction in ordinary conversation
• second language acquisition in the classroom
• co-constructing understanding in second language conversation
• calls to emergency services in a Russian city

PhD theses current or recently completed

• Lawyer-client consultations, in preparing cases for court
• Pedagogic interactions in Italian primary school classrooms
• Second language acquisition in the classroom
• Negation in Danish conversation
• Story-telling in multi-party (Italian) conversation
• The examination of witnesses in Italian criminal trials
• Calls to the emergency services in a Russian city
• Doctor-patient interaction in diabetes/ENT oncology clinics
• Doctors' interactions with patients who are 'frequent attenders'
• Homeopathic consultations
• Laughter in (Finnish) doctor-patient (primary care) interactions
• AIDS counselling in Thailand
• Industrial (management-employee) negotiations
• Controversy and argument in radio call-in programmes
• Answering indirectly in broadcast news interviews
• Service encounters between native and non-native speakers of a language, in Finnish universities, hotels etc

Supervision

Supervisors

In most cases, students are assigned two supervisors from the Faculty. Wherever possible, each supervisor will be from a different Department within the University: in all cases the supervisors will be experts in the topic on which the thesis is being written. This system of joint supervision is intended to reflect the inter-disciplinary nature of the programme and to provide input from different but complementary disciplinary perspectives and methodologies.

When making an application, you are welcome to indicate which disciplines you feel your research topic are relevant to (see applying for study). You may even be able to identify individuals who you feel would be appropriate supervisors for your research. The list of staff on the programme and the information on individuals' web pages may help you to identify these disciplines and individuals. However, it is not essential that particular disciplines or individuals are identified at this stage: these can be identified through discussion with the programme co-ordinator once the application process has begun.

Staff on the PhD in Communication Studies Programme

• Gerry Altmann (Psychology)
  psycholinguistics; sentence processing; implicit learning of grammar
• Peter Bull (Psychology)
  Microanalysis of interpersonal communication; social psychology of health
• Ian Davies (Education )
  citizenship education, global education, global citizenship education, history education, social studies education
  
• Paul Drew (Sociology)
  the analysis of conversation; language and communication in institutional settings and in the workplace; interaction and language in medical care; the interface between Conversation Analysis and linguistics
• Paul Foulkes (Language and Linguistic Science)
  phonetics; phonology; child language acquisition; sociolinguistics; forensic phonetics
• Celia Kitzinger (Sociology)
  gender and sexuality in talk; conversation analysis; help lines; feminist and LGBT issues; childbirth; trauma
• John Local (Language and Linguistic Science)
  phonetics; phonology; conversation analysis (particularly with respect to phonetic aspects)
• Emma Marsden (Education)
  second language acquisition (especially of French, Spanish and English); foreign and second language education (especially grammar pedagogy and implicit learning); the role and design of experiments in educational research
• Richard Ogden (DPhil York) (Language and Linguistic Science)
  Phonetics; phonology; conversation analysis; cross-linguistic research
• Danijela Trenkic (Education)
  pragmatics and discourse comprehension (with particular reference to definiteness); input and metalinguistic knowledge in second language acquisition; prosody and segmentation in second language listening comprehension
• Robin Wooffitt (Sociology)
  language and consciousness; identity and authority in interaction; the relationship between conversation analysis and critical movements within social psychology, such as discursive psychology

Applying

Entry Requirements

Candidates should have a strong background (e.g. an undergraduate or masters degree) in linguistics, psychology, sociology, education, communication, or a related area.

You are welcome contact the programme co-ordinator, Professor Paul Drew, (email: paul.drew@york.ac.uk) if you are in doubt about your suitability for the programme because of your previous experience.

Applying for study

Application for Research degrees are made online. Please follow the link below to access the online form:

• MPhil in Communication Studies
• PhD in Communication Studies

Application Procedures

If you are applying for a research degree (i.e. not for a taught one-year Masters' course) you are asked on the application form to provide a brief outline of your proposed research area. This, together with the other information you provide on the form, will be reviewed by the proposed supervisor, in consultation with another specialist in the relevant research area. If you have not already visited us informally, to meet and talk to the person with whom you are interested in working, and if it seems that your proposed field of research is one in which we are able to offer appropriate supervision, then you will normally have the opportunity to come and talk to us about your plans, and see the university.

Applicants from overseas are encouraged to visit the department, wherever possible, so that you can get a clear, first-hand impression of the department, the university and the city of York.

The main basis for the decision will be the availability of relevant expertise within the existing Faculty to supervise the proposed research. Potential applicants are free to contact the programme co-ordinator Prof Paul Drew, email: paul.drew@york.ac.uk) to enquire whether there are faculty members whose research interests and expertise are likely to match your own and are more likely to be able to provide appropriate supervision for your project.

Please note that the University and the Department pursue a policy of equal opportunities in offering places to read for postgraduate degrees, as in all appointments.

Fees & funding

Fees

• Up to date information on tuition fees is provided by the University Registry Services.  Fees for 2011 entry are available on their web site
  

Funding

• There is no departmental funding available for this degree but University and International Office do offer scholarships to applicants. This information is provided centrally by the University Registry Services on their Funding Information Page