M.A. in English Language

GRADUATE PROGRAM

Mission Statement

The MA in English seeks to impart advanced skills in writing, critical reading, and the analysis of language, as well as a broad, general knowledge of literature. Varying with students' interests, the MA prepares graduates for doctoral study and for careers in writing, teaching, and other professions.

Fall Semester

Professional Communication. 3

Spring Semester

Summer Classes

COURSE DESCRIPTION

ENG 700: Introduction to Linguistic Analysis:-

Principles and methods of linguistic analysis with emphasis on phonology, morphology, and syntax. Description of linguistic variation and current theoretical approaches to linguistics.

ENG 711: Introduction to Old English Language and Literature:-

Introductory study of Old English language and literature in prose and poetry, including extracts from Beowulf. Some attention to Anglo-Saxon culture.

ENG 712: Introduction to Computers in Applied Linguistics:-

Use of applications software for language teaching, linguistic analysis, and statistical analysis. Issues and problems in applied linguistics related to computer methods.

ENG 714: Teaching Business and Technical Communication:-

Practicum in teaching college courses in business and technical communication. Emphasis on curriculum planning, textbook selection, assignment design, materials development, and assessment of student work.

ENG 716: Technology in Business, Technical, and Professional Communication:-

Seminar course examining the role of technology, especially computer technology, in communication practices within academic and workplace settings.

ENG 717: Writing Proposals and Grant Applications:-

Introduction to the theory and practice of preparing and analyzing proposals and grant applications intended for businesses, governmental agencies, and/or private and corporate foundations. Individual assignments and group projects include text documents and oral presentations.

ENG 719: Computer-Assisted Language Learning:-

Theory, research, and practice in computer use for teaching nonnative speakers of English. Methods for planning and evaluating computer-based learning activities.

ENG 720: Writing and Analyzing Professional Documents:-

Introduction to the theory and practice of planning, preparing, and presenting information in written, oral, and visual forms prepared for business, science, industry, and government. Guided readings. Team projects. Individual projects.

ENG 721: Language Assessment Practicum:-

Advanced practicum in language assessment.

ENG 723: Research Methods in Rhetoric and Professional Communication:-

Survey of the major qualitative and quantitative methods used in research on communication and language in academic and non-academic settings.

ENG 725: Sociolinguistics:-

Theories and methods of examining language in its social setting. Analysis of individual characteristics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, social class, region), interactional factors (e.g., situation, topic, purpose) and national policies affecting language use.

ENG 726: Advanced Workshop in Academic Writing:-

Hands-on practice in writing academic discourse for publication; rhetorical analyses of student-selected academic journals; discussion of current trends in academic writing; professional perspectives on the referee process and on journal editorial decision making. Focus on the writing of selected short pieces (opinion essays, standard reviews, conference-length papers) and of article-length manuscripts.

ENG 727: Theory and Research in Professional Communication:-

Introduction to professional communication as a discipline, with emphasis on theories of communication and discourse that inform professional communication research and on trends and developments in that research and the field.

ENG 728: Statistical Natural Language Processing:-

Introduction to computational techniques involving human language and speech in applications such as information retrieval and extraction, automatic text categorization, word prediction, intelligent Web searching, spelling and grammar checking, speech recognition and synthesis, statistical machine translation, n-grams, POS-tagging, word-sense disambiguation, on-line lexicons and thesauri, markup languages, corpus analysis, and Python programming language.

ENG 732: Computational Analysis of English:-

Concepts and practices for analysis of English by computer with emphasis on the applications of computational analysis to problems in applied linguistics such as corpus analysis and recognition of learner language in computer-assisted learning and language assessment.

ENG 734: Literary Theory and Criticism:-

Examination of the history, logic, and rhetoric of contemporary literary criticism and analysis.

ENG 736: Literacy: Issues and Methods for Nonnative Speakers of English:-

Theoretical and practical issues and techniques in the teaching of literacy in a variety of contexts, involving children and adults at basic skill levels and teens and adults in academic and vocational programs.

ENG 748: Theory and Research in Composition:-

In-depth consideration of the theory and practice of critical composition pedagogy. Opportunities for actual classroom application.

ENG 737: Discourse Analysis:-

Methods and theoretical foundations for linguistic approaches to discourse analysis. Applications of discourse analysis to the study of texts in a variety of settings, including academic and research contexts.

ENG 749: English for Specific Purposes:-

Issues and techniques in analyzing, teaching, and assessing English for specific purposes. Topics include theories of specific purpose language use, analysis of learner needs in target language contexts, and syllabus and materials development for teaching and assessment.

ENG 799: Dissertation

*