SLA; Phonology; Syntax: PhD Student, University of Iowa, USA

Institution/Organization: University of Iowa
Department: Linguistics
Web Address: http://www.uiowa.edu/~linguist/index.html

Level: PhD

Duties: Teaching

Specialty Areas: Applied Linguistics; Phonology; Syntax
Second Language Acquisition

Description:

Teaching Assistantships Available for Students Interested in M.A./Ph.D. in
Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Iowa solicits applications
for 5 positions for graduate students interested in obtaining a Ph.D. in
Linguistics with focus on second language acquisition (SLA), phonology or
syntax. A limited number of assistantships are also available for students
interested in pursuing an M.A. degree in Linguistics. The Department administers
all ESL teaching and testing on campus, and applicants who have the requisite
experience or who are interested in training to become ESL instructors are
especially encouraged to apply. Teaching assistantships are also available
within the Department for a variety of courses, including Language and Society,
Language and Formal Reasoning, Introduction to Linguistics, Articulatory and
Acoustic Phonetics, Swahili, and Languages of the World.

For Ph.D. students, support for the academic year (2008-09) is $16,575 (for a
half-time assistantship). M.A. students usually receive quarter-time
assistantships ($8,287). All students with financial support receive tuition
fellowships of $2,477 per semester (based on enrollment in 9 hours of
coursework) and pay in-state tuition of $3,518 per semester (based on enrollment
in 9 hours of coursework).

To ensure consideration for these awards, applications should be completed no
later than March 1 Notification of awards is made in early April,
http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/applications/grad-general/gradaward.pdf

30 Presidential Fellowships are awarded annually by the Graduate College
Fellowships guarantee financial support for 5 years, including summers
Candidates must be extremely well-qualified and may only be nominated by the
Department. To improve the possibility of Graduate College funding, applicants
should have their complete application for admission submitted by January 1.

The Department of Linguistics at Iowa has particular strengths in SLA, phonology
and syntax.

Second Language Acquisition: The SLA curriculum includes courses for students
interested in first and second language acquisition. Courses provide an overview
and analysis of current SLA research conducted within the generative framework,
with emphasis on explaining the linguistic competence of second language
learners in terms of Universal Grammar, the innate language acquisition device.
Work focuses on experimental research investigating the influence of the first
language, theories of UG access, and related topics.

Phonology: The phonology curriculum emphasizes current theoretical
perspectives, including Optimality Theory, along with the collection,
description, and interpretation of novel phonological and phonetic data. Courses
feature extensive work in data analysis and problem solving, focusing on the
construction and evaluation of phonological theories, particularly in light of
new empirical data.

Syntax: The curriculum in syntax includes the dual emphases of empirical and
theoretical perspectives through a variety of foundational courses that build
analytic and argumentation skills, as well as more specialized course work on
current issues in syntactic theory. The courses consist of intensive work in
problem solving, and combine discovery and description of new linguistic data
with exploration of the implications of such facts in testing and constructing
syntactic theories.

Faculty in the Department have current research interests and expertise in
Austronesian languages, Slavic languages, Germanic languages, Bantu languages,
South Asian languages, Finnish, Hungarian, and Turkish.

Application Deadline: 01-Mar-2009

Mailing Address for Applications:
Attn: Professor William Davies
Department of Linguistics
553 EPB, University of Iowa
Iowa City IA 52242
USA

Web Address for Applications: http://www.uiowa.edu/admissions/applications/grad-general/grad-app.pdf

Contact Information:
Professor William Davies
william-davies@uiowa.edu
Phone:319-335-0215