The Ph.D. in ELT (English Language Teaching) aims to help Ph.D. candidates acquire theoretical and practical knowledge in contemporary research related to the fields of applied linguistics and language teaching, and to provide them with necessary skills to carry out quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research on language studies and language learning/teaching studies.
The Ph.D. program is open to students holding an M.A. degree in English Language Teaching or Applied Linguistics, but those who have a similar degree in related disciplines may also be admitted provided that they take a certain number of prerequisite courses following their admission. After the completion of 21 credit hours of coursework and the seminar, graduates are required to take a qualifying exam and submit a Ph.D. thesis followed by its oral defense. For the thesis defense, it is a requirement to publish an article related to the thesis topic in an SSCI journal. The successful completion of the program leads to the Doctor of Philosophy in ELT degree.