We are delighted to offer a fully funded PhD studentship available to both UK and international candidates. CASS has been awarded a prestigious North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) PhD studentship, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), to begin in October 2026.

We are seeking outstanding candidates with experience in corpus linguistics, language testing, or quantitative applied linguistics. Applicants should demonstrate strong analytical skills in areas such as corpus design, statistical analysis, or the use of tools such as R, Python, or #LancsBox X.

The successful candidate will be expected to relocate to Lancaster and work regularly on campus as part of the CASS team.

The PhD, delivered in collaboration with Trinity College London, will explore communicative competence in English language tests, and what this means for fairness, accessibility and social mobility.

Application deadline: 10th April 2026

Expected interview date: 24th April 2026

Start date: 1st October 2026

About the project

Communicative competence in action: A corpus-based analysis of speaking and writing tasks for the next generation of English language assessment

This project looks at what successful communication actually looks like in spoken and written English across informal, semi-formal and academic contexts. Using large-scale corpus methods and discourse analysis, the research will examine which test tasks best capture genuine communicative ability, and how linguistic patterns relate to candidates’ social backgrounds.

English language tests play a major role in decisions about education, employment and migration. By combining questions of test validity with social equity, this project addresses issues that sit at the heart of applied linguistics and social science.

Research Questions

RQ1: What linguistic and discourse features characterise successful spoken and written communication in informal, semi-formal and formal (academic) contexts?

RQ2: Which test tasks elicit the richest range of these features?

RQ3: How do these linguistic patterns correlate with candidates’ social background, indicating overall fairness and accessibility of tests?

Supervision and training

The project will be supervised by Professor Vaclav Brezina and Dr Dana Gablasova. The studentship offers advanced training in corpus linguistics, quantitative and qualitative analysis and applied research in high-stakes assessment contexts.

Funding and eligibility

The studentship covers full tuition fees and includes a tax-free maintenance stipend (currently £20,780 per year). It is open to UK and international applicants.

How to apply

1. Submit an application for a PhD at Lancaster University

Fill in the application form and indicate Prof. Vaclav Brezina and Dr Dana Gablasova as your proposed supervisors.

Instead of a full PhD project proposal, applicants should:

• Describe their experience with corpus linguistics/quantitative methods,
• Include concrete practical examples of their skills (eg, corpus design, annotation, statistical analysis, discourse analysis, use of tools such as R, Python, #LancsBox X, etc.),
• Clearly state in the proposal that the application involves a North West Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) studentship on the topic of ‘Communicative competence in action’.

2. Complete the motivation form

All applicants must complete the motivation form as part of the funding application process.