Humanities and Social Sciences

Linguistics Program

Postgraduate Studies

Postgraduate Information

Postgraduate Study

We have about 30 senior students (Honours, MA Prelim, MA and PhD) at any one time and this provides a stimulating and supportive research environment. In addition, we regularly attract leading academics from overseas to give seminars and to spend time with our program.

Postgraduate students are expected to participate in the linguistics research seminars, and are in charge of editing the La Trobe Papers in Linguistics.

A supervisor is provided for each student on the basis of area of expertise and expressed preferences. Students and supervisors are required to maintain regular contact, meeting about once a fortnight. Students are also advised to audit courses relevant to their area of interest. Prospective students interested in working with a staff member MUST make enquiries to the Program or to the individual staff member before applying for admission or for a scholarship.

Facilities

• shared room in the linguistics area
• computing
• fax
• internet
• photocopying facilities
• own pigeon-hole for receipt of mail and newsletters

Research Support

Research grants are available for staff and postgraduate students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and occasionally from the School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry. In addition, some supervisors provide funds for fieldwork or research work from their research grants.

Teaching

Postgraduate students in linguistics are given the opportunity to tutor and to have professional teacher training and feed-back through the Academic Development Unit. In some cases limited lecturing experience may be possible.

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MA by Thesis

Students who have completed an Honours degree in Linguistics or an MA (preliminary) course are eligible to apply for the MA degree. Students must have demonstrated their ability to write a thesis either at Honours or MA (preliminary) level. The MA course consists of a minimum of one year of full-time study or two years part-time. The examination requirement consists of a thesis on an approved topic, though in some instances coursework may be prescribed as a co-requisite. All masters students are expected to attend research seminars.

After satisfactory completion of several chapters of a thesis of PhD standard, an MA student may apply to convert to PhD candidature.

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Doctor of Philosophy

The normal entry into doctoral candidature is from the MA degree or via the conversion of masters candidature to doctoral candidature. The doctorate is normally awarded solely on the basis of a thesis, but in some instances a candidate will be expected to pass certain prescribed courses. Doctoral candidates are expected to participate in the Program's research seminar series. The candidature generally requires a minimum of three years. The Program is able to provide informed supervision in a wide variety of fields.

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