Education and Research
The programme is composed of various disciplines all leading to the object of study. It is a pioneering degree breaking new ground in the field of studying voice, language and verbal communication. The disciplinary areas draw together in the PhD Degree curriculum plan and are rounded off by providing an opening and access to different research units in the respective Faculties.
The Programme will also be linked into research projects carried out in Portugal and abroad. An international network of specialists connected to the Programme will be progressively built up as work proceeds.
Credits and Curriculum units
The Programme offers a total of 240 credits spread over 8 semesters of student work in conformity with the standard duration of courses leading to a PhD degree.
The way in which the number of credits (in the European Credit Transfer System - ECTS) are distributed throughout the curricula is in keeping with general framework laid down by the University of Lisbon. It is based on the standard duration of the total number of semesters where the courses are administered in semesters. Each semester earns 30 credits (ECTS) and one year earns 60 credits (ECTS).
Upon the resolution of the University of Lisbon Senate, it was decided that one (1) credit corresponds to twenty-eight (28) student hours of work. It has therefore been calculated that one year of work (60 credits) corresponds to 1680 hours of student work.
In taking into account experience gained when distributing the number of credits (ECTS) throughout the curriculum units in the different institutions of the University of Lisbon which are taking part in the PhD Programme, it was decided that the same number of credits (7.5) for each of the curricular subjects should be adopted in this further education degree course.
It has also been decided that about two thirds of the total number of student ECTS should be spent in independent student work while the remaining third should be spent in teacher-student contact hours.
Supervision seminars I and II are worth 15 ECTS each. A large number of credits are therefore awarded for autonomous student work owing to the fact that the seminars have the main aim of supervising research work leading to the PhD dissertation. Apart from the results of the research work carried out and the actual written thesis, this work should also consist of public presentations by the PhD students themselves giving information about the material they have been working on.
The Plan
The Programme has been planned in eight semesters. The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Voice, Language and Communication is conferred after having (i) obtained a pass in this further education course (80 ECTS corresponding to the subjects and seminars selected in the 1st and 2nd semesters of the Study Plan; (ii) obtained 30 ECTS corresponding to the supervised seminars, and (iii) successfully defended a doctoral dissertation (130 ECTS) which has to be submitted within the deadline that is legally established by the University of Lisbon's Post-Graduate Regulations.
The PhD Programme is based upon the individual drawing up of academic plans which are compliant with previous academic training, thereby opening the way to integrating the knowledge gained in other areas. At the same time, besides the theoretical component, the plans should introduce the practical side as demonstrated in the means, methods and practices used in observating and analysing knowledge and behaviours in the natural languages, and in particular, in European Portuguese.
PhD candidates who are able to prove that in the previous two years they had successfully attended and passed subjects in the Master’s degree programme that have identical contents to the PhD programme, or candidates who have acquired professional experience in the respective area of knowledge, may be excused from attending some of the compulsory curriculum modules. In order to receive this dispensation, the Scientific Council of the PhD Programme will have to sanction any such equivalence.
Plan of Studies
The Curriculum structure and the Plan of Studies are presented in terms of the technical standards laid down in Order No. 10543/2005 (2nd Series), of 11 May 2005 (Annexe II)
1. University of Lisbon
2. Faculties: of Letters and of Medicine
3. Course: Voice, Language and Communication
4. Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
5. Main scientifica area of the Course: Linguistics and Medicine
6. Number of Credits in terms of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) needed to obtain the degree of PhD: 240 ECTS
7. Standard duration of the Course: 4 years
8. Options, branches or other kinds of alternative paths along which the course may be structured (if need be):
9. Scientific areas and credits that should match in order to obtain the degree or certificate of PhD:
| Scientific Area | Symbol | Credits | |
| Compulsory | Optional | ||
| Linguistics | LING | 22,5 | 0-180 |
| Biomedical Sciences | CBIOM | 7,5 | 0-180 |
| Medecin | MED | 22,5 | 0-180 |
| Like Sciences* | CA | 7,5 | |
| Total | 60 | 180 | |
*Corresponds to optional subjects obtained in any undergraduate or post-graduate programme offered at the University of Lisbon in that they should complement the student’s original education.
SCHEME – PLAN OF STUDIES
1st Year/1st Curriculum Semester
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Linguistic Topics I | LING | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Voice and Communication I | MED | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Neurology and Neuropsychology |
CBIOM | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Linguistic Topics II | LING | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
1st Year/2nd Curriculum Semester
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Linguistic Topics III | LING | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Voice and Communication II |
MED | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Psychology and Psychopathology |
MED | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
| Option | CA | S | 210 | S30 OT15 | 7,5 | |
2nd Year/1st Curriculum Semester
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Supervised Seminar I | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 420 | S30 OT30 | 15 | |
| Dissertation | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 420 | OT30 | 15 | |
2nd Year/2nd Curriculum Semester
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Supervised Seminar II | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 420 | S30 OT30 | 15 | |
| Dissertation | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 420 | OT30 | 15 | |
3rd Year/1st & 2nd Curriculum Semesters
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Dissertation | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 1680 | OT60 | 60 | |
4th Year/1st & 2nd Curriculum Semesters
| Curriculum Units | Scientific Area | Type | Student Working Time (in hours) | Credits | Observations | |
| Total | Contact | |||||
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6) | (7) |
| Dissertation | MED/LING/ CBIOM | S | 1680 | OT60 | 60 | |
Linguistic Topics
Within the sphere of the PhD programme in Voice, Language and Communication, the subject of Linguistic Topics introduces study into the aspects of oral verbal communication by describing and presenting the relationship between speech, language and communication (Linguistic Topics I). It then goes on to introduce the units and the relationships between these units at phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactical level and the relationships or interfaces between these grammatical modules which are implicit in the way European Portuguese works (Linguistic Topics I and II).
The link between knowing the language and its oral and written verbal behaviour will be observed from the perspective of human processing of verbal information by way of prosody and by resorting to observation and analytical models and means of understanding oral and written verbal information (Linguistic Topics III).
Throughout the three levels, all the contents will be dealt with from this perspective taking into account the native speaker’s acquisition, development, production and understanding of language.
| Linguistic Topics I | (S1) |
| General Topic | Speech, language and communication. |
| Specific Topics | |
| Verbal interaction | Conversation and cooperation in interaction: maxims and principles. Situations and contexts. Forms of treatment in European Portuguese. Speech, language and communication disturbances. |
| Phonetics | Data basis for speech analysis. |
| Phonology | European Portuguese Phonology. Phonological development in the first few years of life in the native-speaker of European Portuguese. |
| Linguistic Topics II |
(S1) |
| General Topic | The way natural language works: the particular case of European Portuguese |
| Specific Topics | |
| Lexis | Word formation in European Portuguese. Lexical semantics. Word power development in the first few years of life in the native-speaker of European Portuguese. |
| Syntax | Grammar analysis data base. Aspects of syntax in European Portuguese. Syntactical development in the first few years of life of the native-speaker of European Portuguese. |
| Interfaces |
| Linguistic Topics III |
(S1) |
| General Topic | Observation, analysis and evaluation in terms of knowing the language and expressing oral and written verbal behaviours. |
| Specific Topics | |
| Prosody | Word Prosody Sentence Prosody Discursive Prosody |
| Processing verbal information | Means of evaluating comprehension of and productions in oral and written European Portuguese. |
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