Psychology: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Resolving the Bilingualism Language Change Paradox

Swansea University; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 21,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent educational institution in the United Kingdom is offering a fully funded PhD position aimed at understanding bilingual language switching within a bilingual society. Ideal candidates will have an undergraduate degree of at least 2.1 level and a master's degree. The scholarship supports the full cost of tuition and offers an annual stipend at UKRI rates along with additional research expenses. This project offers a unique opportunity to explore bilingualism and its impacts in Wales.

Benefits

Fully funded tuition fees

Annual stipend at UKRI rate

Additional research expenses available

Qualifications

• Applicants must hold a relevant undergraduate degree.
• A master's degree is preferred but not mandatory in some cases.

Responsibilities

• Conduct research on bilingual language switching.
• Investigate linguistic behaviors of Welsh-English bilinguals.
• Document findings related to bilingual communication.

Education

Undergraduate degree at 2.1 level

Master's degree

UK first class honours degree (or equivalent)

Job description

Organisation/Company Swansea University Department Central Research Field Psychological sciences » Psychology Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions PhD Positions Country United Kingdom Application Deadline 12 Jan 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/London) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Offer Starting Date 1 Oct 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

With Wales being a bilingual society, it is common for many people to use both Welsh and English when interacting with other people. When a bilingual is communicating with another person who speaks the same languages (e.g., Welsh and English), bilinguals switch languages interchangeably, often midsentence. The fact that bilinguals voluntarily switch when communicating appears at odds with much laboratory based research suggesting that switching language comes at a cognitive cost. Which begs the question: why do bilinguals choose to keep switching language types in conversation, despite apparent information processing inefficiencies? A phenomenon we have dubbed the bilingual communication “paradox”. It is clear that understanding how and why people voluntarily switch languages remains a key issue in studying the bilingual experience – and evidence suggests such switching behaviour can be influenced by many different factors. This can include cues present in the context (e.g., visual information associated with one of the languages, de Bruin & Martin, 2022; Vaughan-Evans, 2023) as well as the language behaviour of the conversation partner (Kootstra et al., 2020). Currently, such emerging evidence has not been studied in detail with Welsh-English bilinguals, despite Welsh speakers being an ideal population for investigation. It is our view that Wales and Welsh speakers constitute an untapped ‘living laboratory’ of bilingualism research, and we are keen to demonstrate this untapped potential to the wider research world relevant to this topic.

PhD: Applicants for PhD must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level and a master's degree. Alternatively, applicants with a UK first class honours degree (or non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) not holding a master's degree, will be considered on an individual basis.

Additional Information

This scholarship is funded jointly by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaetholand Swansea University's Postgraduate Research Office through its central equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) funding for three years and commences in September 2026.

This scholarship covers the full cost of tuition fees and an annual stipend at UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025/26).

Additional research expenses of up to £500 per year will also be available.

Eligibility criteria

PhD: Applicants for PhD must hold an undergraduate degree at 2.1 level and a master's degree. Alternatively, applicants with a UK first class honours degree (or non-UK equivalent as defined by Swansea University) not holding a master's degree, will be considered on an individual basis.

Selection process

Please see our website for further information.