PGRs' development of academic language and communication

Milada (Millie) Walkova (Language Centre) and Alex Ding (Language Centre)

Project overview

Our fellowship focuses on doctoral pedagogy in the area of academic language and communication (ALC). Research so far has identified a number of issues PhD students (PGRs) face when reading the literature, presenting their research, writing the dissertation and responding to supervisory feedback, and it has been argued that a wider university ALC support needs to be part of doctoral programme. However, little is known about how PGRs and supervisors envisage helpful ALC support. This fellowship therefore aims to develop doctoral ALC pedagogy which is informed by PGRs’ and supervisors’ views as well as by theory and research, and which is co-constructed by PGRs as designers of the curriculum, a teaching session and a learning activity.

In our experience, the development of ALC is often misunderstood among PGRs, supervisors and institutions. Some PGRs and supervisors believe that it is useful only for PGRs whose first language is not English and that it focuses on language accuracy at the sentence level. University websites and writing guides tend to present ALC as a set of universal transferrable skills rather than part of knowledge creation, and accordingly provide simplistic prescriptive rules for writing a doctoral dissertation. We want to explore the intricate complexities of the development of ALC and highlight its fundamental role in knowledge creation and dissemination.

The research approach

Questionnaires for PGRs and for supervisors, interviews with supervisors, text analysis of samples of PGR writing and supervisory feedback, and design workshops with PGRs.

If you would like to find out more about the project contact Milada (Millie) Walkova or Alex Ding

Connect with Milada (Millie) and Alex on LinkedIn

Each fellowship has a project sponsor that helps the fellows achieve impact across the institution. The sponsor for this fellowship is Luke Windsor.

Project start date: September 2025