Second Language Acquisition and Teaching

Welcome to the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in SLAT at the University of Arizona! SLAT is the largest interdisciplinary program at the University of Arizona in that it is associated with 5 colleges and 19 participating departments. The SLAT Ph.D. Program has been recognized nationally as a superior interdisciplinary program. Several of our participating departments have been ranked in the top ten in the country, including Anthropology, East Asian Studies, Linguistics, and Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. More than 90 faculty members are affiliated with the SLAT Ph.D. program in which more than 80 students, both domestic and international, are currently enrolled.

The SLAT Ph.D. program is designed to provide rigorous advanced training for researchers, teacher-researchers, and administrators whose interests lie in second language acquisition and applied linguistics. We pride ourselves on the support we provide our students both in and out of the classroom. Our students graduate with the expertise that will allow them to make invaluable contributions to scholarship in the field. Since its inception in 1990, the SLAT program has graduated almost 600 students who have gone on to become leaders in their discipline, locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

I invite you to explore the information provided on this website and encourage you to contact us by emailing your questions and comments to SLAT’s program coordinators, Ms. Kelley Merriam-Castro and Debbie Shon. For a quick reference, you may download our 2019-2020 SLAT PhD brochure.

Beatrice Dupuy
Professor of French and Applied Linguistics
Director, SLAT