Language and globalisation

Language and globalisation is a key topic in the Language and Literacies Research Cluster. Globalisation can be understood broadly as a set of major technological, political, economic, technological and socio-cultural changes which have intensified over recent decades and made the world more interconnected, both physically and virtually.

Questions we seek answers to include: How are issues around language and communication affected by processes of globalisation? What role do language and communication play in processes of globalisation? What is the relationship between globalisation and practices such as multilingualism and translanguaging? What discourses – ways of talking and writing about these issues – circulate in the public and private spheres? What can we learn about globalisation by looking at contemporary linguistic and communicative practices, including those involving the internet and social media? What new theories are needed – if any – to account for the complexity of communication in the globalised world?

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and an MA or research methods training at MA level (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

Potential research projects

• The role of English in non-English-dominant contexts
• Language policy and practice in a globalised world
• Language learning and multilingualism
• English for development purposes
• English in global knowledge production
• Language, migration and diasporic tradition
• The role of diverse communicative practices for sustainable livelihoods in the informal economies of the Global South and the Global North.
• Linguistic practices of ethnolinguistic minorities

Current/recent research projects

• The increasing role of English in global higher education, scholarship and science
• English-medium instruction in schools in Ghana and India
• English-Medium Instruction versus Vietnamese-Medium Instruction in Vietnamese Higher Education
• English as a Medium of Instruction in North African Higher Education Institutions 
• Exploring contemporary citation practices of Russian scholars writing in Russian and English 
• Invisible Stories: language teachers’ embodied nomadic identities
• The speech style of young people of Maghrebi origin around Paris, and its links to social exclusion
• Language and translation practices in the production and reception of global medical evidence

Potential supervisors

• Dr Lina Adinolfi
• Dr Korina Giaxoglou
• Professor Kristina Hultgren
• Dr Philip Seargeant
• Dr Prithvi Shrestha
• Dr Caroline Tagg

Fees and funding

PhD fees

Professional doctorate fees

Some of our research students are funded via the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership or The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• School of Languages and Applied Linguistics