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Home > About the Program > SLA PhD Minor > Requirements

Doctoral Minor in Second Language Acquisition

(For students in other, not SLA, programs)

About the SLA PhD Minor
The Option A Minor in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) offers graduate students both a theoretical and a practical background in the increasingly important area of SLA. After completing the minor, students will be prepared to understand research in SLA and to develop teaching curricula based on principles of second language learning and teaching.

Student must come to the SLA minor with a minimal background in second language acquisition and learning methodology, and in linguistics, obtained through the listed prerequisite courses or their equivalents.

For all students, the minor includes English 711, a course in theory which explains the research process in second language acquisition and introduces students to current research paradigms. Students also choose three courses from the approved SLA list below.

The courses for the SLA minor may be taken in any appropriate sequence. The Chair of the SLA Minor Committee will assist students in registering for English 711.

The total for the minor is thus the prerequisites plus four courses (12 credits). In order to help students apply general principles of SLA to the specific foreign language(s) they are studying and/or teaching, one of the four required minor courses beyond the prerequisite may be in the home department.

Students wishing to minor in SLA should first contact the relevant SLA committee member in their department who will refer them to the chair of the SLA minor program. Students declaring the minor are required to meet with Professor Catherine Stafford , Chair of the SLA Minor Committee, before registering for SLA minor courses.

For more information on the minor for doctoral students, see the Graduate School Academic Guidelines.

Prerequisite Courses for the SLA PhD Minor

At least one in methodology and one in linguistics.

A. Courses Fulfilling the Prerequisite in Methodology:

African Languages and Literature

  • 575 Methods of Teaching African Languages

East Asian Languages and Literature

  • 622 Teaching of Chinese
  • 623 Teaching of Japanese as a Foreign Language

English

  • 334 Introduction to TESOL Methods

French and Italian

  • 820 College Teaching of French

German

  • 720 and 722 College Teaching of German and Theory of Teaching German

Slavic Languages and Literature

  • 818 Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages

Spanish

  • 545 College Teaching of Spanish

B. Courses Fulfilling the Prerequisite in Linguistics

Linguistics

  • 301 Introduction to Linguistics: Descriptive and Theoretical

C. Or Any One of the Following Courses

African Languages and Literature

  • 501 Structure and Analysis of African Languages
  • 571 Structure of and African Language

East Asian Languages and Literature

  • 431-432 Introduction to Chinese Linguistics
  • 434 Introduction to Japanese Linguistics

English

  • 324 Structure of English

French and Italian

  • 340 Structures of Italian

German

  • 650 History of the German Language

Linguistics

  • 309 Grammatical Variability

Slavic Languages and Literature

  • 704 The Structure of Russian

Spanish and Portuguese

  • 340 Portuguese Phonetics
  • 543 Spanish Phonology

Required Course for the SLA PhD Minor

The required course, which provides an introduction to the research process in second language acquisition, is English 711 - Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Students declaring the SLA minor are encouraged to notify the SLA Minor Chair of their intention to take English 711 as early as possible so that a slot in the course may be reserved.

Electives

Students are required to take three courses from the following list. (English 333, Second Language Acquisition, is highly recommended for one of these courses.)

Students select courses for a balanced program according to individual interest. All courses must be approved by the SLA Minor Chair who will monitor the overall coherence of each student's minor program, with input from the student's departmental SLA advisor. To be approved for the minor, courses must contain a foreign language or second language component as evidenced by course material (such as: syllabus, reading list, or final paper), provided by the student to the SLA Advisor.

Other courses can be considered, but require preapproval by the SLA Executive Committee.

Curriculum and Instruction (C&I)

  • 630* Workshop in School Program Development
  • 715 Design of Research and Curriculum and Instruction
  • 917* Seminar: Design of Research & Evaluation in C & I

Education

  • 700 Rehabilitation Psychology Research

Educational Psychology

  • 760 OR 761 Statistical Methods Applied to Education I OR II
  • 763 The Design and Analysis of Research in Educational Psychology

English

  • 332 Global Spread of English (Instructor and SLA advisor consent required.)
  • 333 Second Language Acquisition
  • 710 Discourse Analysis
  • 713* Topics in Contemporary English Linguistics
  • 715 Advanced Second Language Acquisition
  • 905* Seminar in Applied English Linguistics

French and Italian

  • 821 * /** Issues in Methods of Teaching French and Italian

German

  • 727* Topics in German Applied German Linguistics
  • 960* Seminar in German Linguistics
  • 970* Advanced Seminar in German Linguistics

Sociology

  • 544 Introduction to Survey Research

Spanish

  • 544 Applied Spanish Linguistics for Teachers
  • 815* Seminar in Language: Modern Spanish

*Topics courses. Students should see the chair of the SLA Minor Committee for approval of topics appropriate for the minor.

**Courses must be taken for a total of 3 credits, in one or multiple enrollments.

 

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Upcoming SLA Events

Fall 2008 SLA Reception
4:00 pm, Tuesday, September 9, 2008
1322 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Avenue
Light refreshments will be served

Lecture: Interaction as Method and Result of Language Learning
Joan Kelly Hall
Pennsylvannia State University
4:00 pm, Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A public lecture for the SLA Talk Series. Read the abstract >

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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