The programme is well suited for students who are interested in studying how English is acquired in first and second language settings, as well as how the English language is affected by multilingual situations. In individual speakers, multilingual situations may cause one language to influence another, in particular in the acquisition process, and may ultimately also result in language attrition due to the lack of exposure and use of one of the languages. In societies, multilingualism and language contact may result in the development of new varieties of the language. Students admitted to the programme will be closely integrated into the research group in Language Acquisition, Variation and Attrition (LAVA: http://site.uit.no/lava/), which is an active and productive research group working on various aspects of multilingualism and multilingual language acquisition. The students will get the opportunity to carry out hands-on research with the members of the group. The programme provides a good foundation for work related to multilingualism in both the private and the public sector, and is well suited for students who want to pursue a career within research.... [-]