I have done my Masters in English and working as an Assistant Professor of English. I am interested in linguistic studies of English Language. Should I do Ph.D. in linguistics or in English Literature? Which one has a better scope in college level teaching?

Hello Disha,

English literature and linguistics are both interdisciplinary in nature.You already have a masters degree in Literature , hence I need not explain about its value. It is more of an artistic and philosophical area in English. Whereas , linguistics is a more  technical and scientific in approach . Since you are in this field you can very well understand the difference , so analyse it and decide based on your interests. As far as teaching options are concerned , with linguistics you may have better options in the area of language training than lectureship in universities or colleges. If there is a specific department dedicated for linguistic studies in any university then you may aim for that and accordingly complete you PhD in the same. So if you are very particular about a university lectureship position  , I would suggest PhD in English because it has more scope in academics,because English degrees are offered in all universities  . With linguistics , of course you can continue as a faculty in universities but it is more applicable in areas like language expert, training, foreign language teaching,speech pathology, therapy,you can be a lexicographer, editor or technical writer in good publishing firms etc. More than India it has better scope abroad. However , it all comes down to your interest, if you are very keen on specializing in linguistics , go ahead , teaching will always be an option in both ,so no worries.  Under linguistics further specializations are neurolinguistics, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, pragmatics and language acquisition etc.

All the best