Students participating in the PhD program must have a strong commitment to research. The Language and Literacies Education (LLE) program offers both full-time and flexible-time PhD options. Degree requirements for the full-time and flexible-time options are the same. Applicants must declare their preferred option when applying.

This program investigates questions around the relationships of literacies in language and language in literacies across communities, societies, instructional environments, and informal learning settings. The scope of the program encompasses the following within applied linguistics and literacies studies:

• the learning, teaching, and use of first and additional (non-native) languages in diverse settings;
• curriculum, instruction, and assessment related to the development of first and additional language and K-12 literacy skills;
• the development of bilingual, multilingual, and translinguistic abilities;
• language and literacy education policies and planning;
• pedagogy oriented towards multiliteracies development, including early literacy and adolescent reading, writing, and oral language development, and
• children’s literature across the curriculum;
• social justice issues related to plurilingualism and cultural and linguistic diversity; and
• pedagogical implications of the fact that language and literacy are infused into all aspects of learning in contexts characterized by linguistic diversity.

Specific resources related to the program include the OISE library’s Modern Language Collection, la Collection Franco-Ontarienne, the Children’s and Young Adult literature collection, and the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies.