EXPERIENCE OF PREPARING DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS AT THE U. S. UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Summary. The article highlights the content and organizational features of prepearing doctors of philosophy in linguistics in the United States of America. It is noted that the training of future doctors of philosophy in linguistics at the U. S. universities, aimed at developing students’ analytical and research skills, is a comprehensive system implemented through a wide range of compulsory disciplines of basic linguistic and special linguistic orientation as well as disciplines of free choice, and the preparation and defense of the dissertation. The specifics of functioning the dissertation committee and its role in the doctoral training of PhD students and their preparation for defense are considered. It is outlined that in the first stage of the study, within two or three years, a PhD student is supposed to master the recommended linguistic disciplines and to pass a qualifying exam, and in the second stage of the PhD study – to conduct research, and write and defend a dissertation. The pedagogical component in the study of PhD students in linguistics, in particular pedagogical internship, indicates a practical approach to their involvement in academic careers in general and teaching in particular. It is emphasized that the peculiar feature of the American universities is their openness to new approaches to research and encouraging PhD students to interdisciplinary research, which is realized through cooperation of each PhD student with professors from different departments of a university, who are members of a dissertation committee. Special attention is paid to the procedure of dissertation defense, which takes place in the presence of the examination commission, which, in addition to the members of the dissertation committee, involves two professors-experts in the field of the conducted research, who are opponents of the dissertation – “external” (from another university) and “internal” (from the same department where the dissertation was performed).