Introduction

How novices are inducted into a profession is a reflection of how members of that profession view themselves and their expertise.In the case of doctoral studies，pursuing a PhD or an EdD is a form of apprenticeship to academia（irrespective of whether the candidate subsequently chooses a career as an academic）.In the same way that the public signage and notices of a linguistic environment tell us about the underlying role and statuses of various languages（García，Flores，& Spotti，2016；Landry and Bourhis，1997），the discourses to which a doctoral candidate is exposed reveal conceptualisations held by academics of their profession.In many post-secondary and tertiary institutions，a doctorate is the basic requirement for entering the academic workplace，while in other aspects of society，a doctoral degree is viewed as a mark of expertise，as evidenced by the honorific，“Doctor”，which is derived from the Latin term meaning a “learned person”.

Since 2005，researchers have become increasingly interested in the discipline-specific features of doctorate programmes and how they enable doctoral candidates to develop into full-fledged members of that specific academic community（Olson and Clark，2009）.Attention has been paid to ways in which the curricula of doctoral programmes can nurture competent graduates（e.g.，Gurung，Chick，and Haynie，2009）.Within this research，Shulman’s（2005）term“signature pedagogy”has been used to discern the key features of the practices of teaching，and to provide insights into the underlying conceptions of what characteristics the education profession considers a learned person should embody.Signature pedagogy refers to those practices of teaching and learning that characterise the education of a profession.According to Shulman（2005，p.52），it is the “personalities，dispositions，and cultures”of specific professional fields，which are indispensable for peripheral members to be granted full membership in the professional community.

A number of researchers（e.g.，Evans，2007；Olson and Clark，2009；Zambo，2011），have focused on Doctor of Education（EdD）programmes，given the challenges faced by such programmes in differentiating from PhDs in the field of education and the particular professional orientations of the candidates.Evans（2007）succinctly summed up the signature pedagogy of EdD as the development of the praxis or knowledge base to guide the pedagogic practice，departing from the sole focus on the observable teaching practice.Zambo（2011）brought in a new，significant perspective by analysing the implemented signature pedagogy，using dissertations as data.Scholars from different disciplines and fields，inspired by the idea，have started to expand the investigations outside EdD programmes.Gurung et al.（2009）and Chick et al.（2012）collected the works on signature pedagogy across different disciplines including，to name but a few，fine arts，language education，and sociology，in their two edited landmark volumes.Some studies even looked beyond university education；Larrison and Korr（2013），for instance，looked into the signature pedagogy of social work.

PhD programmes，meanwhile，have received less attention，and is thus the focus of this paper.Specifically，the study analyses the signature pedagogy of a PhD programme in Applied Linguistics as implemented by faculty members and experienced by research students.The choice of Applied Linguistics is significant，given that this discipline pays attention to how languages are used in our daily lives，and the fact that they are not simply vehicles to communicate but to construct and change societies.The majority of research and publications，with a few exceptions，investigate signature pedagogy from the point of programme directors and focus on the design stage of the pedagogy，overlooking the enacted and realised version of the programmes as experienced by doctoral students.For this study，taking into account the fact that PhD students’ development occurs through multiple encounters with other academics and students，the scope encompasses their individual supervisory sessions and semi-mandatory weekly research seminars in order to capture the socialisation in effect.Existing studies，furthermore，have mostly investigated the perspective of programme designers and not considered how signature pedagogy is realised in action，although there are a couple of exceptions，including Zambo（2011）who analysed the participants’ learning as captured in dissertations or Amann and Knorr Cetina（1988）who discussed a discipline specific way of “seeing” in the laboratory.Applied Linguistics，despite its long history and its increasing importance in the globalising world，has been an outsider to this research expansion into PhD degrees.Ham and Schueller（2012）studied the signature pedagogy of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages，which is sometimes considered part of Applied Linguistics，but also limited their research to the design level.Thus，by documenting the signature pedagogy as experienced and implemented by the community members of a PhD programme in Applied Linguistics，this paper addresses several research gaps.