The Department of Applied Linguistics makes every effort to support graduate study and all students are encouraged to apply for grants and awards. Grants and awards come in two main categories: internal (funded by the university) and external (funded by other granting institutions).

Departmental Support

Graduate Assistantships:

The department offers two kinds of graduate assistantships, both on a competitive basis:

• Teaching Assistants (TA) teach two courses per semester, generally in ESL. There may also be opportunities to teach languages other than English. Excellent oral and writing skills in the teaching language are required.
• Research Assistants (RA) are assigned to work 20 hours per week, either assisting a professor in a particular research capacity or working in a research center or institute.

Graduate Student Travel Funding:

Funding for travel to present papers or posters at nationally and internationally recognized academic conferences is available on a competitive basis.

All students on departmental funding, i.e., TAs and RAs as well as those on Humanities Release, RGSO release, and the Gil Watz Fellowship, are required to take part in administering the American English Oral Communicative Proficiency Test (AEOCPT) and Interactive Performance Test (IPT) which are given before and at the end of each semester. Students who fail to meet this responsibility are ineligible to receive travel funding.

College and University Support

The College of the Liberal Arts and the University have several awards that recognize academic excellence and provide research support to graduate students.  Each year, a departmental committee nominates eligible students for awards.

The College of the Liberal Arts: Graduate Funding and Awards

The Graduate School at The Pennsylvania State University in addition provides a number of informational links that will help to identify a host of opportunities.

The Graduate School: Overview of Graduate Student Funding of Prospective Students