Completion of the PhD requires advanced course work, excellent performance on a variety of assessment measures, and evidence of ability to carry out independent dissertation research.
Advanced course work: The PhD program requires completion of a minimum of 81 semester hours. In general, this means 36 semester hours of MA level work plus a minimum of 45 additional semester hours of further advanced study, distributed in this way:
1. Taking 36 semester hours of MA level work in TESL, applied linguistics, linguistics, or related fields.
2. Taking nine semester hours of statistics.
3. Taking at least 21 semester hours of additional graduate course work, including:
- At least three applied linguistics seminars (normally taking a seminar each semester for the first four semesters of study)
- Four other advanced courses in English and/or other departments which further the student's knowledge of the specialization chosen and prepare him or her to do a dissertation;
- Any additional courses required by the dissertation committee as a basis for dissertation research.
4. Taking 15 semester hours of dissertation research credit. These hours can be taken any time during or after the semester in which the student undertakes the PhD qualifying exam.
Other requirements
1. Passing the PhD screening process, which comprises completion of the NAU MA-TESL comprehensive examination plus completion of an original empirical research paper within three semesters of provisional admission. Passing the screening process requires an overall assessment of high pass on the comprehensive exam and empirical research paper.
2. Satisfying the PhD language requirement.
3. Preparation of PhD qualifying exam papers based on questions provided by the student's dissertation committee members.
4. Preparation and oral defense of a dissertation proposal.
5. Preparation and oral defense of a dissertation.
6. Presentation of a public lecture based on the dissertation, preferably immediately preceding the oral defense.
