Introduction The doctoral program at the University of Barcelona was offered for the first time in 2000 and was a pioneer in this field of study in Spain. The program is coordinated by the GRAL Group (Language Acquisition Research). Nowadays the program is fully consolidated with an international student body, a stable group of graduate research assistants, a regular program of visiting lecturers from prestigious universities abroad, and student-oriented faculty members with extensive research experience in the field. The program is part of the inter-university program Cognitive Science and Language (http://www.ub.edu/ccil/?q=content/presentation).
The program can be followed on a full-time or part-time basis, but it is not available on-line since regular meetings with the supervisor are a requirement. The language of oral and written communication in the programme is English for international students.
The GRAL or Language Acquisition Research Group (GRAL is the Catalan acronym for Grup de Recerca en Adquisició de LLengües) is devoted to the study of Second Language Acquisition. The group was set up in 1995 by Dr. Carme Muñoz in the English and German Department at the University of Barcelona and it is officially recognized as such by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
If you want to know more about the GRAL Research Group, click here.