Using theoretical linguistics as its foundation, the program combines synchronic, empirically based English linguistic research and Hungarian-English comparative linguistic research. Within the field of applied linguistics the program emphasizes the study of the process of foreign language learning, second language acquisition, sociolinguistics, language contact, discourse analysis, and language planning (with special attention given to the issues of language contact, the planning of language learning, and teaching).
The aim of the program is to train specialists who possess a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of and good research capabilities in English applied linguistics, and who are able to utilize their knowledge and skills in the fields of language policy, second language acquisition, the second language teaching programs, and language contact in the increasing need for trained specialists since Hungary's admission into the European Union. In addition to theoretical training, empirical linguistic analysis is given a special emphasis. The training encompasses a wide range of English-Hungarian language contact situations ranging from instructed acquisition of English through the learning of Hungarian as a second language by native speakers of English in Hungary to the bilingualism of Hungarians living in the English-speaking world. Various other topics also covered include bilingual lexicography, attitudes to language learning, research on motivation, and the acoustic phonetic study of interlanguage phonology.
The specialists trained by the program are able to use their expertise in several fields, such as education administration, various positions brought about by Hungary's European integration which require special language and linguistic training, as well as higher education, and research.
The language of the program is English.
Faculty
- Bakti Mária
is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Szeged. She earned her PhD from Eötvös University, Budapest in 2011. Her research interests include the psycholinguistic aspects of interpreting, interpreter competence, and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning).
- Barát, Erzsébet
Barát Erzsébet Associate Professor, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Szeged, and Gender Studies Department, Central European University, Budapest. She earned her MA in Applied Linguistics from The University of Queensland, Brisbane in 1993, and her PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University, UK in 2000. Her research interests include critical studies of discourse, language use and identity, the ideological investments of meaning. She is founding editor-in-chief of TNTeF: Interdisciplinary E-journal of Gender Studies.
- Doró, Katalin
Katalin Doró is Associate Professor, teaching applied linguistics, methodology, and language courses. She holds a PhD in English applied linguistics with focus on L2 vocabulary studies. Her research interests include first- and second language acquisition, language users with special needs, psycholinguistics, language learning strategies, academic writing and the lexical choices of Hungarian L2 English learners.
- Fenyvesi, Anna
Anna Fenyvesi is Associate Professor of English linguistics at the University of Szeged, Hungary. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (1998). She is co-author of Hungarian (Descriptive Grammar series, Routledge, 1998) and editor of Hungarian language contact outside Hungary (Benjamins, 2005). Her areas of specialization are language contact, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, and language attitudes.
- Lesznyák, Márta
- Peckham, Donald W.
Don Peckham is Associate Professor at the University of Szeged. His teaching and research interests are in second language acquisition and language teaching, specifically in cognitive approaches to language learning and teaching, vocabulary acquisition, informal learning, and English as a lingua franca. He is currently involved in an Erasmus network project concerning multilingual and multicultural learning in European higher education institutions.
- Suszczyńska, Małgorzata
retired Senior Assistant Professor, holds a PhD from the University of Szeged. Her research interests lie in linguistic (im)politeness and cross-cultural pragmatics. I am particularly interested in elucidating the connection between language use and culture. She has focused on the analysis of apologies in English, Polish and Hungarian, researched (im)politeness revealed in language use at the time of the socialist regime in Poland and Hungary, and investigated language users’ conceptualizations of (im)politeness.
- Tápainé Balla, Ágnes
Ágnes T. Balla is Senior Assistant Professor at the Department of English Language Teacher Education and Applied Lingustics, Institute of English and American Studies, University of Szeged. She teaches applied linguistics and language teaching methodology courses primarily to teacher trainees and PhD students. She holds a PhD in English applied linguistics with focus on Third and Additional Language Acquisition. Her areas of specialisation include second, third and additional language acquisition and learning as well as teaching English as a foreign language.
- Williams, Thomas
- Zsigri, Gyula
is Associate Professor, he teaches phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, text linguistics and history of linguistics at the Department of Hungarian linguistics and phonology and syntax at the English applied linguistics PhD programme.
Guest professors
In the English Applied Linguistics PhD Program we have had the following guest professors teach condensed courses to our students:
- J. K. Chambers
May 2002, Variationist sociolinguistics
- Patricia Cukor-Avila, University of North Texas
May 2003, The sociolinguistics of African American Vernacular English
- Norman Fairclough, Lancaster University
May 2004, Critical discourse analysis
- Dennis R. Preston, Oklahoma State University
May 2006, Language attitude research
- Carlos Gouveia, University of Lisbon
November 2006
- Sarah G. Thomason, University of Michigan
May 2007, English in contact with other languages
- Juliet Langman, University of Texas, San Antonio
May 2009, Discourse approaches to understanding language and gender in minority contexts
- Robert Phillipson, Copenhagen Business School
September 2009, Language policy in the EU
- Viktória Papp, Rice University, USA
2008, Forensic linguistics
- Juliet Langman, University of Texas, San Antonio, USA
2009, Discourse approaches to understanding language and gender in language minority contexts
- Juliet Langman, University of Texas, San Antonio, USA
2011, EFL and Applied Linguistics: Considerations of the nature of language and language learning
- Daniel Everett, Bentley University, USA
2016, Language, the cultural tool
- Viktória Papp, University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand
2017, Forensic linguistics
- Daniel Everett, Bentley University, USA
2018, How language began
- Kees de Bot, University of Groningen, Netherlands
2018, Topics in applied linguistics
- Carlos Gouveia, University of Coimbra, Portugal
2018, Academic literacies: Exclusion, emancipation, empowerment
- Silvia Kunitz, Stockholm University, Sweden
2019, Interactional competence in Ordinary and Institutional Settings
- Amos Paran, University of London, UK
2019, Teaching reading in the EFL Classroom: Research into practice
- Silvia Kunitz, Lund University, Sweden
2020, Social approaches to SLA
- Dégi, Zsuzsanna, Sapientia University, Romania
2020, Spaces and places of linguistic landscape research
Students
1st year:
- Burai Andrea
- Püski Gyöngyi
- Tamás Tamara
- Luyu Chen
2nd year:
- Skadra Margit
- Dupák Karina
- Kouraichi Bochra
- Saoud Maya
- Abdelreheem Hasnaa Hasan Sultan
3rd year:
- Aradi Csenge Eszter
- Myintzu Winn
- Sadouki Fatiha
4th year:
- Huber Máté Imre
- Vásári Nikolett
- Mehdizadkhani Milad
Students who are ABD:
- Fűköh Borbála
- Galiere, Mehdi
- Deli Zsolt Pál
- Garzon Duarte, Eliana
- Korpas, Olivera
- Asztalos-Zsembery Eszter
Students with completed course work
- Bozsó Réka
- Tovar Viera, Rodrigo
- Felvégi Zsuzsanna
- Gábrity Eszter
- Kovács Emőke
- Kovács Eszter
- László Paulina
- Molnár Tímea
- Nagy Judit
- Ódry Ágnes
Defended dissertations
- Dégi Zsuzsanna (2019)
EFL classroom interaciton from a multilingual perspective within the Transylvanian school context
- Kiss, Zsuzsanna Éva (2013)
Language policies and language ideologies related to multilingualism: A case study of the Hungarian minority population in Szeklerland
- Doró, Katalin (2008)
The written assessment of the vocabulary knowledge and use of English majors in Hungary
- Rápoltiné Keresztes, Csilla (2010)
Investigation of English language contact-induced features in Hungarian cardiology discharge reports and language attitudes of physicians and patients
- Kalocsai, Karolina (2011)
Communities of practice and English as a lingua franca: A study of Erasmus students in Szeged
- Tápainé Balla, Ágnes (2012)
The role of second language English in the process of learning third language German
- Hardi, Judit (2014)
Assessing Young Learners’ Strategic L2 Vocabulary Learning in the Framework of Self-Regulation
- Balogh, Erzsébet (2014)
Language attitudes towards English accent varieties: Hungarian secondary school students’ labeling, evaluating and commenting on foreign accented Englishes
Admission Requirements
Prerequisites:
1) a university degree and documented proficiency in English based on the following
- a Hungarian 5-year university degree in English or American studies, with an Excellent or Good qualification
- a Hungarian 5-year university degree in linguistics and an advanced level national language certificate in English
- a Master of Arts degree in English or in linguistics from an English speaking country
- a Master of Arts degree in English or in linguistics from a non-English speaking country and 550 points on the TOEFL
2) a successful entrance exam
The entrance examination consists of two parts. The first part covers the material of one of the books from the following list, chosen by the applicant:
- Chambers, J.K. & Peter Trudgill. 1998. Dialectology. 2nd edition. Cambridge: CUP.
- Gass, Susan & Larry Selinker. 2001. Second language acquisition: An introductory course. 2nd edition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Grosjean, Francois. 1982. Life with two languages: An introduction to bilingualism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Kager, René. 1999. Optimality Theory. Cambridge: CUP.
- Katamba, Francis. 1993. Morphology. New York: St. Martin Press.
- Odden, David. 2005. Introducing phonology. Cambridge: CUP.
- Radford, Andrew. 2004. English syntax: An introduction. Cambridge: CUP.
- Schiffrin, Deborah. 1996. Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Wardhaugh, Ronald. 2009. Introduction to sociolinguistics. 6th edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
In the second part of the entrance examination, the examination committee evaluates the applicant’s general knowledge of linguistics. Applicants holding an MA equivalent university degree in general and applied linguistics or in theoretical linguistics are exempt from the first part of the entrance examination.
An application for acceptance into the doctoral program requires the following documents:
- a copy of the applicant’s diploma;
- a 2-page statement of the applicant’s research interests;
- documents certifying the applicant’s foreign language proficiency;
- documents certifying the applicant’s teaching experience, if any;
- 2 recommendation letters.
Course requirements
During the first year of the four-year program, students complete the following 6 mandatory courses:
- Bilingualism and language contact
- Second language acquisition
- Discourse analysis
- Research methods
- Sociopragmatics
- Foreign language learning, teaching and assessment OR Third language acqisition OR Translation studies
For every course, classes meet for one 2 hour period per week, for one semester. Electives are chosen by each student in consultation with their graduate advisor. Courses offered in other programs of the Graduate Schools in Linguistics and Education can also be taken to satisfy optional course requirements with the approval of the program director.
Examinations and other requirements:
Either an examination or a research paper is required for the completion of every course, as appropriate for the given type of course. Students are required to produce two publishable papers by the end of the 4th semester of their studies, one of which is to be presented to the staff and students during the 4th semester.
Students select their topic of dissertation and prepare their dissertation proposal, receiving feedback on the latter from their comprehensive exam committee, and present it to their dissertation committee. Students can write their dissertation only on the topic presented in the dissertation proposal and accepted by the dissertation committee. A completed dissertation is to be defended before the student's dissertation committee.
Students need to defend their proposal and take the comprehensive exam at the end of their second year.