Studying for your PhD in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies means that you'll become an expert in a specialist area and develop high-quality research skills, which will prepare you for further research projects in addition to pursuing specialist career paths. As a postgraduate researcher, you'll conduct original research work under the guidance of your supervisors. You'll have regular meetings to monitor your progress and develop an initial training plan to make sure you are acquiring the appropriate skills for your research. Your initial priority is refining a research plan and establishing a feasible timescale for your project. During the early part of your PhD, you'll undertake a range of research methods modules to support your research activities. For your first year (or 18 months if you are part-time) you'll be enrolled as a provisional postgraduate reseaarcher, you'll develop a detailed research proposal and write a literature review. This work is submitted to a panel of examiners who will assess it and provide you with feedback and advice on the progress of your research. This is called 'transfer' which is an important means of monitoring the progress of your work and assessing whether your proposal has enough weight to be accurately explored through a PhD research path. After successful transfer, you'll enrol as a full postgraduate researcher, complete your research and write a thesis of approximately 100,000 words. The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is awarded on the basis of this thesis, and your viva voce, where you'll present and discuss the rationale, methods and findings of your original study with an examining panel.<br> <br>Language processing research encompasses language acquisition and the factors affecting speech processing in native speakers. In first language learners, our research investigates: The comprehension of referring expressions, The impact of language processing on the acquisition of adjectives and The processing of anaphoric dependencies in non-local domains. In second language learners, our research seeks to: Disentangle processing effects from language representation differences and Assess the impact of working memory on L2 speech processing and production. In native speakers, our research focuses on: The processing correlates of syntactic violations, The effects of educational attainment and literacy on syntactic processing, Speech perception (eg tempo) and phonological processing, The role of speaker specificity on language processing, The production and comprehension of referring expressions and The effects of sociophonetic variation on speech processing. We are active members of the Language at Leeds research hub, and in particular of the following Language at Leeds research satellites: Language Development and Cognition.