PhD English Language Teaching at University of Essex

Programme overview

The PhD English Language Teaching is a research degree in the School of Language, Literature, and Media at the Colchester Campus. Supervision covers vocabulary teaching, reading and literacy development, writing pedagogy and academic writing, corpus-based pedagogy, teaching English to young learners, task-based language learning, language testing, classroom interaction, materials design and evaluation, teacher beliefs and identity, English for Academic Purposes and computer-assisted language learning.

Department: Language, Literature, and Media (School of); Department of Language and Linguistics | Duration: 3-4 years full-time | Intake: January 2027 | Study mode: full-time; part-time | Location: Colchester, England, United Kingdom

What you will study

Study covers the Language and Linguistics: Research module and the Professional Development for Research Students module alongside the independent thesis (maximum 80,000 words). Progress is reviewed every six months by a supervisory panel.

Career pathways

Many former PhD students work in higher education institutions worldwide as teachers or academic researchers, and in teacher education, educational advice and management, programme evaluation and syllabus design.

Official programme page

Application information

Entry requirements

A good Masters degree, or equivalent, in a related subject and a well-developed research proposal. Applicants may be required to attend an interview (including by video call), and acceptance depends on research expertise in the department. International applicants: IELTS 7.0 overall with 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in the remaining components.

Domestic applicants: GBP 5,238 a year. Fees increase for each academic year of study. Source

International applicants: GBP 20,625 a year. Fees increase for each academic year of study. Source

Intake: January 2027

Duration: 3-4 years full-time

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