English Language and Applied Linguistics

Become an expert researcher at the forefront of your field. With an international reputation as a centre of excellence, our Department of Linguistics and Communication offers campus and distance-learning PhD supervision across a broad range of research areas.

We offer research supervision in a variety of fields in English Language and Applied Linguistics. These include: corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics and psycholinguistics, and stylistics and discourse analysis.

Specific research interests include second language acquisition, sign language and gesture, figurative language and quantitative linguistics.

You'll conduct research at a world top 50 department for Linguistics (QS World University Rankings 2024). Our expertise covers Corpus Research, Cognitive Linguistics and Psycholinguistics, and Discourse Analysis and Stylistics.

At Birmingham, we offer a campus PhD and flexible distance learning PhD options for Linguistics and Communication. You can study in Birmingham or anywhere in the world.

Whether you come to Birmingham or opt for distance learning, you'll keep in contact with your supervisors by email, on campus or via video call.

Flexible research options: choose the standard PhD on campus or by distance learning, or a modular programme by distance learning.
Access the Linguistics Research Laboratory, a 450 million word Bank of English corpus, plus electronic journals and e-books.
Academic expertise across a range of English Language and Applied Linguistics specialisms.