Global Utilities

Linguistics Program

Postgraduate Resources

Resources and information for postgraduate research students is available here to assist students with their studies.

Information for Postgraduates
Research Support

Faculty and School research grants are available for staff and postgraduate students. Research grants are available from the Faculty and School.

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Supervision

Students are of course expected to meet regularly with their supervisors. In addition, there are two other progress monitoring requirements in linguistics:

  • Students are expected to attend a postgraduate meeting, to be held in March of each year. At this meeting, students will report orally to the postgraduate co-ordinator, and to other students, on their research progress. If a student fails to attend the meeting without giving reason (e.g. on fieldwork), this will be noted on the student's academic progress report in August (see below). Students who are currently unenrolled, or who have run out of candidature, are also expected to attend this meeting.
  • The university has a formal academic progress evaluation process held in August of each year. A written report is signed by the student, the supervisor, and the postgraduate co-ordinator, and is then forwarded to the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Committee on Higher Degrees. If a satisfactory report is not submitted, a student may be asked to explain why they should be allowed to continue their candidature.

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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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Seminars

All students will be required to present in the seminar series at least once in each academic year.

For students in their first year of research candidature, this will of course be a short presentation, explaining what their research is about (what is the research problem; who has tried to solve this problem in the past and how; how is the student going to solve it; etc.). Ideally, this presentation will occur 3-6 months into candidature: the purpose of having a presentation so early into candidature is to ensure that the student has a clear idea of their research problem and research goals. A presentation of 20-25 minutes will be expected at this stage.

For students in their second and later years of candidature, a longer presentation, of conference standard, will be expected. Presentation of results and analyses should be preceded by an overview of the existing literature on the subject. The presentation should take 40-50 minutes.

For all presentations, an abstract of 200-250 words will be required.

Presentation dates will be allocated for each student at the start of the academic year. If a student is not able to make a particular date or dates (e.g. due to fieldwork), they should warn the post-graduate co-ordinator or the seminar co-ordinator in advance. If eventually the student cannot make a date that is allocated to them, it is the student's responsibility to exchange a date with another student and to advise the seminar co-ordinator and post-graduate co-ordinator of the change.

Each student's progress will be assessed at the seminar by the post-graduate co-ordinator (or replacement) and/or the student's supervisor(s). If progress is not deemed to be satisfactory (or if the student fails to give a presentation), this will be noted on the student's academic progress report in August, and the student may be asked to explain why their candidature should be allowed to continue.

It is strongly advised that the student discuss the content and format of their presentation with their supervisor(s) well in advance of the presentation date.

Hard copies of the presentation (e.g. any handouts, or printouts of the powerpoint presentation), as well as the seminar flyer, will be placed in the student's file, in order to document that a presentation was given.

This requirement was introduced following feedback received from the faculty's research and graduate studies committee, which is concerned about the progress and completion rates of our students. We hope you will see this not as a chore, but as an opportunity to share your work with others: having to prepare a seminar presentation will help you to clarify your ideas about your research, and will teach you about presenting those ideas in a comprehensible form.

Forthcoming Seminars

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CACE Media Studio

We have access to some excellent recording facilities here at La Trobe in our school, CACE (Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry). If ever you need to do any audio or video recordings, see Ian Armet or Margaret Purdam down in the CACE media studio, at the bottom floor of the HUED building. They can provide you with anything you need to do recordings for your research. Marilyn Quinn staffs the loans desk there, and she should be able to help you out too if your request is simple (although phonetics people tend to have more unusual requests!).

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Reminders
  • If the intended date of your submission is after the expiry date of your candidature, you will need to apply for an "extension of candidature". See the RGSO website for details.
  • If your supervisor is intending to go on leave, make sure that arrangements are in place for your supervision.
Contacts

Postgraduate Coordinator:
Dr Marija Tabain, DMBE room 321
Phone: 03 9479 1521
Email: m.tabain@latrobe.edu.au

Administrative contact in the linguistics program:
Heather Wilkie
Phone: 03 9479 2338
Email: linguistics@latrobe.edu.au

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Content Approved by: Head of School
Page maintained by: Administrative Officer
Last Updated: 27 August, 2008

Resources for current students