DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
MISSION STATEMENT: MASTER'S DEGREE
The Master of Arts
in English Composition is designed for students interested in pursuing
advanced studies in the related fields of composition, linguistics,
and literature. Three concentrations are available: English Composition,
Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), and Literature.
The mission of
the graduate program in English is to provide students with an understanding
of how written and spoken texts work rhetorically and stylistically
as well as how historical, cultural, and social conditions affect the
ways in which speakers, writers, and readers construct meaning. With
its firm grounding in theory and research as well as its emphasis on
pedagogy, the M. A. in English Composition prepares students to excel
both as writers and teachers of writing, literature, and English as
a second language, particularly at the high school and community college
levels. The program also provides students with a foundation for Ph.D.
and M.F.A. degrees and prepares them to be effective technical and business
writers.
GOALS
The English Department expects all
students graduating with an M.A. in English Composition to meet the
following goals:
1. Theory Goal:
To demonstrate familiarity with major historical backgrounds, theories,
and concepts underlying current developments in their particular concentrations.
2. Analysis
Goal: To understand the inter-connections of language, literature,
and culture as well as the variety of ways in which texts can be studied
and to be able to apply various approaches to the critical analysis
of texts.
3. Pedagogy Goal:
To recognize ways that theory and practice inform each other and to
use this understanding to construct pedagogies appropriate to the students'
particular concentrations.
4. Writing/Composing
Goal: To understand discourse structures and composing processes
as well as to demonstrate rhetorical flexibility along with a high level
of control of the conventions of written academic English.
5. Research Goal:
To identify and evaluate major scholarly resources and techniques and
to conduct and present their own research.
OBJECTIVES
Goal 1: To demonstrate
familiarity with major historical backgrounds, theories, and concepts
underlying current developments in their particular concentrations.
(Theory Goal)
Objectives for the Composition Concentration:
1. To demonstrate understanding of
the major theories, texts, and movements in the Western rhetorical tradition,
contemporary composition and discourse theory, linguistic analysis,
and literature.
2. To demonstrate understanding of
the implications of rhetorical, linguistic, and literary theories as
they bear on the teaching of writing.
Objectives for the TESL Concentration:
1. To be able to explain the evolution
of the field of TESL/Applied Linguistics in terms of its historical
context.
2. To situate the development of the
field in terms of concurrent (and historically-connected) developments
in the fields of linguistics, composition, psychology, language teaching,
and sociology.
3. To demonstrate familiarity with
the major figures in each stage of development of the field, as well
as to measure and appraise their contributions to the field as a whole.
Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
1. To demonstrate an understanding
of the major critical schools, approaches, and movements in literary
theory and criticism and of their historical and cultural backgrounds.
2. To demonstrate familiarity with
current developments in literary theory.
3. To understand the implications of
generic, rhetorical, historical, and linguistic theories as they bear
on the analysis and teaching of literature.
Goal 2: To understand
the interconnections of language, literature, and culture as well as
the variety of ways in which texts can be studied and to be able to
apply various approaches to the critical analyses of texts. (Analysis
Goal)
Objectives for the Composition Concentration:
1. To be cognizant of a text's rhetorical,
technical, and cultural contexts.
2. To be able to explain the concepts
of standard and non-standard text productions and demonstrate an understanding
of the ways in which variables such as power, geographic region, social
class, gender, and ethnicity shape language choices.
3. To demonstrate
an understanding of technology's roles in producing and shaping texts,
as well as how technology influences writers and readers.
Objectives for the TESL Concentration:
1. To demonstrate an understanding
of the variety of social variables influencing language, such as age,
gender, region, occupation, social class, ethnic group, and educational
background.
2. To demonstrate an understanding
that language use and choice have cultural and social implications,
that one choice of language or speech style is not inherently superior
to another, and that appropriateness to the context determines its value.
3. To examine language as a discourse-based
phenomenon (vs. sentence-level) that is situated in time, space, and
human relations.
4. To examine specific schools of discourse
analysis and their theoretical frameworks, as well as to apply one or
more to the study of text, spoken or written.
5. To demonstrate an understanding
of the difference between linguistic attitude vs. linguistic fact, prescriptive
vs. descriptive rules, and standard vs. non-standard dialects.
Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
1. To recognize the cultural and social
implications of literary texts and practices.
2. To be able to apply analytical strategies
of various critical approaches to the study of texts.
3. To be able to
identify and analyze major forms and genres of imaginative writing.
4. To demonstrate an understanding
of technology's roles in producing and shaping texts, as well as how
technology influences writers and readers.
Goal 3: To recognize
ways that theory and practice inform each other and to use this understanding
to construct pedagogies appropriate to the students' particular concentrations.
(Pedagogy Goal)
Objectives for the Composition Concentration:
1. To apply rhetoric and composition
theories in teaching contexts.
2. To recognize the theoretical underpinnings
and implications of particular textual practices and pedagogies.
3. To engage in pedagogical activities
that demonstrate the reciprocity between theory and practice.
Objectives for the TESL Concentration:
1. To describe and explain current
principles and methods of teaching English as a second language, and
to choose and apply those relevant to the particular language teaching
contexts, taking into account the particular population of students
and its needs and goals.
2. To understand how practice is informed
by theories of second language acquisition and to select appropriate
theoretical approaches.
Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
1. To apply literary theories in teaching
contexts.
2-3. Same as above objectives 2-3 for
the Composition concentration.
Goal 4: To understand
discourse structures and composing processes and to demonstrate rhetorical
flexibility along with a high level of control of the conventions of
written academic English. (Writing/Composing Goal)
Objectives for the Composition Concentration:
1. To identify multiple rhetorical
strategies and their foundations in classical rhetoric and other traditions
and to be able to translate and/or subvert these strategies in contemporary
speaking and writing situations.
2. To demonstrate familiarity with
the multiple composing processes writers use to produce texts.
3. To demonstrate rhetorical and stylistic
flexibility in their own writing and to communicate their ideas with
appropriate register, style, and purpose.
Objectives for the TESL Concentration:
1. To recognize the systematic nature
of language and the implicit knowledge of native speakers, (including
sound, form, and structure) of their language system.
2. To identify communicative competence
as an important aspect of knowledge of a language; to understand the
influence of pragmatics on language, as well as the nature of conversational
interaction.
3. To demonstrate familiarity with
the multiple composing processes writers (including ESL writers) use
to produce texts.
4. Same as above objective 3 for the
Composition concentration.
Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
1-3. Same as above objectives 1-3 for
the Composition concentration.
Goal 5: To identify
and evaluate major scholarly resources and techniques and to conduct
and present their own research. (Research Goal)
Objectives for the Composition Concentration:
1. To demonstrate understanding of
various research orientations and approaches such as qualitative, quantitative,
ethnographic, historical, theoretical, empirical, and experimental.
2. To locate relevant scholarship using
traditional print and online resources (e.g., specialized bibliographies,
citation indexes, the Internet).
3. To demonstrate understanding of
research concepts such as validity and reliability and to assess the
quality and applicability of different forms of scholarship.
4. To formulate research questions
appropriate to the scholarly context, to interpret and evaluate the
results in terms of contribution to the field, to draw conclusions warranted
by data and evidence, and to present their research to scholarly audiences.
5. To understand
the necessity of ethical responsibility in scholarly research and to
design and employ ethically responsible research methods appropriate
to their purposes.
Objectives for the TESL Concentration:
1. To comprehend and differentiate
between the major research paradigms and methods of inquiry, including
qualitative/quantitative, theoretical/empirical, descriptive/experimental,
as well as formal/functional.
2-5. Same as above objectives 2-5 for
the Composition concentration.
Objectives for the Literature Concentration:
1. To demonstrate
understanding of various research orientations and approaches, such
as formalist, historical, biographical, and cultural.
2-5. Same as above objectives 2-5 for
the Composition and TESL concentrations.
