College of Arts and Sciences

Departmental E-mail: dsls [at] indiana [dot] edu

Departmental URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~dsls/

(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)

Curriculum

Curriculum
Courses
Faculty

Degrees Offered

Master of Arts in TESOL/Applied Linguistics, Master of Arts in Second Language Studies, Doctor of Philosophy in Second Language Studies, Doctoral Minor in Second Language Studies, Graduate Certificate in TESOL and Applied Linguistics.

Special Departmental Requirements

(See also general University Graduate School requirements.)

Master of Arts in TESOL and Applied Linguistics

Admission Requirements

Admission to the M.A. program will be based on evaluations of

1. undergraduate grade record,
2. level of achievement on the Graduate Record Examination General Test,
3. three letters of recommendation, and
4. undergraduate exposure to linguistics and related course work,
5. statement of purpose,
6. curriculum vitae.

Students not satisfying requirement (4) may be admitted, but may be required to do course work prerequisite to introductory graduate courses.

Requirements

A total of thirty (30) credit hours is required, including the core courses:

• T510 Modern English Grammar
• S511 Second Lan­guage Syntax
• T514 English Phonology for Language Learning and Teaching
• S532 Foundations of Second Language Acquisition
• T534 Methods in Teaching ESL/EFL to Adults (TESOL)
• T535 TESOL Practicum
• T550 Language Testing

Additional electives are required as approved by the department. A grade point average of 3.0 (B) must be maintained in 500-level courses in Second Language Studies; any student who falls below a GPA of 3.0 will be put on probation and unless the student brings this record up to a 3.0 grade point average in the following semester may be dismissed from the program.

Foreign Language Requirements

Reading knowledge of one foreign language approved by the department.

Thesis

Optional; maximum of 4 credit hours.

Final Examination

None.

Master of Arts in Second Language Studies

Admission Requirements

Admission to the M.A. program will be based on evaluations of

1. undergraduate grade record,
2. level of achievement on the Graduate Record Examination General Test,
3. three letters of recommendation,
4. undergraduate exposure to linguistics and related course work,
5. statement of purpose,
6. curriculum vitae.

Students not satisfying requirement (4) may be admitted, but may be required to do course work prerequisite to introductory graduate courses.

Requirements

A total of thirty (30) credit hours is required, including the core courses:

• S511 Second Language Syntax
• S512 Second Language Phonology
• S532 Foundations of Second Language Acquisition
• S533 Second Language Acquisition Research Design
• S536 Research in Second Language Pedagogical Contexts

Addi­tional electives are required as approved by the department. A grade point average of 3.0 (B) must be maintained in 500-level courses in Second Language Studies; any student who falls below a GPA of 3.0 will be put on probation and unless the student brings this record up to a 3.0 grade point average in the following semester may be dismissed from the program.

Foreign Language Requirements

Reading knowledge of one foreign language approved by the department.

Thesis

Optional; maximum of 4 credit hours.

Final Examination

None.

Doctor of Philosophy in Second Language Studies

Admission Requirements

Admission to the Ph.D. program will be based upon evaluation of

1. previous academic record,
2. level of achievement on the Graduate Record Examination General Test,
3. three letters of recommendation,
4. previous exposure to TESOL/Applied Linguistics and related course work,
5. statement of purpose,
6. statement of research interests,
7. curriculum vitae.

Degree Requirements

A total of ninety (90) credit hours are required, with at least 66 credit hours of course work plus up to 24 credit hours of dissertation research. A grade point average of 3.0 (B) must be maintained in Second Language Studies coursework; any student who falls below a GPA of 3.0 will be put on probation and unless the student brings this record up to a 3.0 grade point average in the following semester may be dismissed from the program.

Required Core Courses

Every student in the program will take six core courses (18 cr. total):
S511    Second Language Syntax (3 cr.)
S512    Second Language Phonology (3 cr.)
S532    Foundations of Second Language Acquisition (3 cr.)
S533    Second Language Acquisition Research Design (3 cr.)
S536    Research in Second Language Pedagogical Contexts     (3 cr.)
S670    Language Typology (3 cr.)

Seminars (3 cr. each)

All students will complete at least 6 credits in two seminars in Second Language Studies. These courses may be applied to other requirements as well.

Breadth requirements

All students will complete at least 3 credits each in four of the following five areas for a total of 12 credits. There is no restric­tion on the department in which these courses may be com­pleted. Courses in the Second Language Studies core cannot be used to complete this requirement.

• Historical Linguistics/Language Contact/Language Revitalization
• Sociolinguistics/Pragmatics/Discourse Analysis
• Morphology/Syntax/Semantics
• Pedagogy
• Phonetics/Phonology

Linguistic Structure Requirement

Students are required to complete a graduate-level course in the linguistic structure of a language other than a commonly taught Western European language (i.e., a language other than, e.g., English, French, German, or Spanish). Courses that fulfil this requirement are frequently offered by the Department of Linguistics under the number LING-L590, but comparable courses offered by other departments are also acceptable.

Research Concentration

Students will demonstrate proficiency in a Research Concentration in consultation with their Advisory Committees. Proficiency in the Research Concentration may be demonstrated by completion of two courses in the area of specialty AND  

• by completing three additional courses in the area of specialty, OR
• by working in an appropriate research laboratory or research group, OR
• by undertaking appropriate field work or training, OR
• by conducting approved independent research and publication, OR
• by a combination of these.

It is ultimately the responsibility of each student’s Advisory Committee to define the student’s Research Concentration and to approve the courses or other components. SLST-T505, SLST-T510, and SLST-T514, as well as the six (6) Required Core courses cannot be used to fulfill this requirement. However, as long as the content is appropriate, all other graduate courses, whether taken in the Department of Second Language Studies or in another department, including courses taken to fulfill the breadth requirements, the year-long seminar requirement, or the Ph.D. minor may appear on the list of courses for the Research Concentration, at the discretion of the student’s Advisory Committee. Students may, but need not, register for SLST-S690 (Independent Readings in Second Language Studies) credit for work in a research laboratory or research group, field work or training, and/or independent research and publication. The Research Concentration is represented in the Research Qualifying Examination.

Minor and Language Concentrations

All students will be required to have a minor. The selected minor should be appropriate to the student’s choice of subdis­cipline within Second Language Studies. Appropriate minors include Anthropology, Cognitive Science, Communication and Culture, foreign languages, Language Education, Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, and Sociology. In all cases the number of hours to be included in the minor will be consistent with the requirements of the unit granting the minor.

Some students may wish to pursue a significant concentration in a particular language area or in English as a Second Lan­guage. Students pursuing a language concentration in French, German, or Spanish will ordinarily take at least 21 hours in the Department of French and Italian, the Department of Ger­manic Studies, or the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as appropriate. (Additional language concentrations may be added in the future.) Providing a student has completed all the requirements for the minor in the language department, there is no need to complete both a minor and a language concentra­tion. The language concentration will be the student’s minor of record.

Graduate Reading Proficiency Requirement

Students are required to demonstrate reading knowledge of one language other than English. We follow the policy of the University Graduate School policy in allowing graduate students whose native language is not English to fulfill this requirement with either English or their native language. For details on fulfilling this requirement, students are referred to the subsections “Fulfilling Foreign Language Requirements” and “Students Whose Native Language is not English” under the section “Foreign Language and Research Skills” in the University Graduate Bulletin.

Qualifying Examinations

All students must pass a set of examinations, consisting of a General Qualifying Examination (GQE) and a Research Qualify­ing Examination (RQE). These examinations are intended to provide an institutional structure for students as they move from taking courses to writing a dissertation.

General Qualifying Examination (GQE)

The GQE is meant to demonstrate the ability to synthesize material explored in courses and in independent reading. The GQE will consist of two cloistered examinations, each three hours in duration. Students will elect two of the following five areas, corresponding to the breadth requirements.

Historical Linguistics/Language Contact/Language Revitalization
Second Language Morphology/Syntax/Semantics
Second/Foreign Language Pedagogy
Second Language Phonetics/Phonology
Second Language Sociolinguistics/Pragmatics/Discourse Analysis

Most students will take the GQE the semester after coursework is completed. In general, the two cloistered exams will be offered in October and in February. The GQE schedule will be posted by the end of each semester by the committee, each student will inform the Director of Graduate Studies of his or her two areas no later than one month in advance of the scheduled exam. Appropriate faculty members will submit potential questions to the Director of Graduate Studies, who in turn will select and edit questions and coordinate grading.

On any given cloistered exam, the student will have the op­portunity to de-select at least one question; the student will be required to answer two of three questions. All students selecting a given area in a given semester will receive the same questions. All responses to any given exam question will be graded by the same two faculty members. The grades are Pass and Fail. To pass any given cloistered exam, at least three of the four grades assigned must be Pass. If a student fails to pass one or both sections, s/he may take it a second time when the GQE is offered in the next semester. After consultation with his or her advisory committee, such a student may also select a differ­ent exam area.

Research Qualifying Examination (RQE) 

The RQE is designed to demonstrate that students have de­veloped sufficient depth in their understanding of a particular constellation of research questions and that their academic writing skills are sufficiently well honed that they are able to begin meaningful work on their dissertations. In contrast to the GQE, the research exams will be scheduled individually. We rec­ommend that the research exam be completed in the semester following the successful completion of the GQE. Nevertheless, students are required to have demonstrated preparation in a research focus to the satisfaction of their advisory commit­tees before they will be permitted to proceed with the RQE. In contrast to the GQE, the advisory committee administers the RQE and reports successful completion of the examination to the Director of Graduate Studies.

The RQE may take one of two forms:

Option 1: a publishable research paper which pilots the stu­dent’s dissertation research, or
 
Option 2: a research essay which will be completed by the student over the course of one full week.

For Option 1, the student must complete, to the advisory com­mittee’s satisfaction, an original sole-authored research paper in the student’s intended area of dissertation research, which in the committee’s judgment, is ready for submission to one of the following journals: Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Research, Language Learning, TESOL Quar­terly, or Applied Linguistics. Research papers are 8,000-10,000 words in length including text, references, tables, figures, and appendices.

For Option 2, the advisory committee will assign a single question arising from extensive consultation with the student reflecting the individual student’s research focus, as defined through a series of courses, approved independent research, participation in research groups or labs, outside publications, or a combination of these. The student is to complete the essay within exactly one week, but is free to employ data collected and analyzed ahead of time.

Dissertation Proposal

The proposal for the dissertation must be approved by the stu­dent’s research committee. Proposals should include pilot stud­ies. The research committee may have the same membership as the advisory committee or the student may choose different members. The advisor for the dissertation will be a faculty member in the Department of Second Language Studies and a member of the Graduate Faculty. One of the three other mem­bers of the committee will be based in the minor department or in the department of the student’s language concentration. The student will defend the proposal at a public colloquium.

Dissertation (up to 24 cr.)

Students are required to complete a dissertation that consti­tutes an original and significant contribution to the field of Second Language Studies. The dissertation must be success­fully presented to the research committee in an oral defense as described in the University Graduate School Academic Bulletin.

Ph.D. Minor in Second Language Studies

The minor consists of a minimum of four courses (12 credit hours) in Second Language Studies. Courses should be at the 500 level or above. A grade point average of 3.0 (B) or bet­ter must be achieved in these courses. All SLS minors must include S532. The prerequisite for S532 is a graduate level course in morphosyntax; if taken in SLS this prerequisite will count toward the minor. A specific program for satisfying the minor requirement must be developed in consultation with the student’s minor advisor.

Graduate Certificate in TESOL and Applied Linguistics

The Certificate in TESOL and Applied Linguistics is a practical two-semester program designed to enable students to work as successful teachers of the English language to adult speakers of other languages. The Certificate requires twenty (20) credit hours of course work and a level of English language proficiency commensurate with effective teaching of English.

In the fall semester, students take:

• SLST-T510, Modern English Grammar (3 cr.)
• SLST-T514, English Phonology for Language Learning and Teaching (3 cr.)
• ONE of the following
  • SLST-T502, Communications Skills for International Associate Instructors (3 cr.)¹
  • a 3-credit elective in SLST numbered 500 or higher
  • SLST-T5xx, Proseminar in Applied Linguistics (1 cr.)²

In the spring semester, students take:

• SLST-T550, Language Testing (3 cr.)
• SLST-T534, Methods in Teaching ESL/EFL to Adults (TESOL) (3 cr.)
• SLST-T535, TESOL Practicum (3 cr.)
• SLST-T5xx, TESOL Professionalization Workshop (1 cr.)²

¹ Required for non-native speakers of English who score below Level 2 on the TEPAIC.

² To be piloted in fall 2016 and spring 2017 under SLST-T500.

English as a Foreign Language

The Department of Second Language Studies also offers English language instruction, including T501 Academic English for In­ternational Graduate Students (2-3 cr.). For more information, please see the English Language Instruction website.