Portland-State-University 2021-2022 Bulletin

World Languages and Literatures M.A.

The M.A. in World Languages and Literatures is a graduate degree with concentration in a primary language, a secondary language, and in linguistics. The primary language may be German, Japanese, or Spanish; the secondary language may be Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish. Admission to the MA in French has been suspended effective fall 2020, and no applications are being accepted at this time.

Requirements

A minimum of 60 credits, of which 40 must be earned in residence, distributed among the following areas:

Primary language

General

WLL 560Principles of Scholarly Research

4

Credits from 551, 552, 553

Eight graduate credits chosen from 551, 552, 553

8

Other

Other adviser-approved 500-level courses

16

Total Credit Hours:28

Secondary language

Eight graduate credits chosen from:

511Advanced Language

4

512Advanced Language

4

514Advanced Language

4

516Advanced Language

4

517Advanced Language

4

Twelve graduate credits chosen from:

500-level literature

12

Total Credit Hours:20

Note: 500-level literature may not include Literature in Translation.

Note: If upper-division courses in fourth-year language have been successfully completed at the undergraduate level (with a GPA of 3.00 or above), the equivalent number of Advanced Language credits can be waived, reducing the total credits required by a maximum of 8.

Linguistics and methods

12 graduate credits chosen from:
WLL 593Language Proficiency Testing and Teaching

4

WLL 598Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages

4

Fr 590History of the French Language

4

Ger 584German Stylistics

4

Ger 594German Linguistics

4

Ger 597Applied German Linguistics

4

Jpn 552Japanese Language and Linguistics

4

Jpn 577Teaching Japanese As a Foreign Language

4

Jpn 578Teaching Japanese As a Foreign Language

4

Jpn 594Japanese Sociolinguistics

4

Span 590History of the Spanish Language

4

Span 594Spanish Linguistics

4

Span 597Applied Spanish Linguistics

4

Span 598Spanish Syntax

4

Other adviser-approved courses

Total Credit Hours:12

Total Credit Hours: 60

In addition to the required coursework, the candidate will have to:

  • Submit two research papers to the graduate committee, one dealing with the primary, the other with the secondary area. These may be written either in the primary or secondary languages, respectively, or in English.
  • Pass a final comprehensive written and oral examination over coursework taken in the primary and secondary areas and over the research papers.