PhD in TESOL is an innovative graduate degree program that will cater for participants’ individualized needs to understand and implement scientific research skills essential for an academic career in TESOL. This doctoral degree program consists of six full-time English-medium courses studied in two semesters to provide and build the theoretical foundation of candidates. To pass a qualifying exam after the preliminary oral defense of their PhD dissertation in their last semester, they need to demonstrate a significant knowledge about the content of courses, which mainly focus on qualitative and quantitative research methods in education, Applied Linguistics and particularly TESOL methodologies. To be eligible for the doctoral degree, candidates have to complete a pedagogical and a research practicum at a higher educational institution; publish seven articles, one of which is published in an international research journal indexed by Scopus or Thomson Reuters; visit a university abroad where it is possible to get consultancy from an international academician – a professor with similar research interests with the candidate and agrees to review the final version of the dissertation; provide external review and defend the doctoral dissertation orally in English in front of an authorized Dissertation Committee three months after the pre-defense and qualifying attestation. The faculty promote excellence in research activities of the doctoral students, highly value the intellectual efforts that focus on genuine ethical research with significant impact on language education.

1. Research Methodology in Foreign Language Education – 5 ECTS;
2. Trending Approaches in TEFL: CLIL and PBL – 5 ECTS.

   Total: 10 ECTS.

   Elective Course – TFL 549 Advanced Grammar of English (C1-C2) / TFL 553 English Toastmaster (C1-C2):
   Candidates with IELTS 7.0 or who comleted the MA degree in a fully English – medium university are exempt from it.

   Elective Course – TFL 547 Assessment of Foreign Language Proficiency / TFL 551 Intercultural Communication Research in EFL Classes

   Candidates with IELTS 7.5 are exempt from it.

   There is no need to study prerequisite subjects if your Master’s degree (major) is a relative specialty.

• The program provides a strong pedagogical basis and encouragement to quench the intellectual thirst of doctoral researchers in TESOL.
• As an essential qualification for those who wish to teach English at university level, this PhD program empowers you with professionalism and competitiveness as well as with genuinely practiced critical thinking and problem solving skills.
• Enhances your career prospects in ELT by enabling you to obtain more senior or specialized positions such as a senior teacher, teacher trainer, consultant, materials developer or program coordinator, head of an educational department, a candidate for top management positions.

You can undertake new areas of professional activities, make quite frequent international academic visits, enjoy the publicity of authorship for significant research papers, work in culturally diverse educational settings, which demand the intercultural knowledge and competence of English as a global language.