Indiana University Bloomington
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Department of Second Language Studies  
 

Degrees

Ph.D. in Second Language Studies

Doctoral 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.

Required Core Courses
Every student in the program will take six core courses (18 cr. total):

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.

Research Concentration
Students will establish a research concentration in consultation with their committees. A research concentration may be established by enrolling in five courses in the area of specialty, by working in an appropriate research laboratory or research group, by undertaking appropriate field work or training, by conducting approved independent research and publication, or by a combination of these. Students who satisfy their research concentrations through participation in a research lab or research group or through independent research and publication may count the equivalent of up to three courses (9 credits) of S690 (Directed Readings) toward the 66 credits required for the doctorate. 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.

Language Requirements
The language requirement for the Ph.D. is two research languages, which will ordinarily be languages of scholarship in the student's specialty. In addition, students will take 1-2 courses in a language outside of the language family of the student's native language (for example, a native English speaker would take courses in a non-Indo-European language; in contrast, a native speaker of Chinese might take courses in Russian). To satisfy this requirement, a student could complete a one-year language class, take the Field Methods sequence in Linguistics (L653-L654), or take a course on the structure of an appropriate language.

Qualifying Examinations
All students must pass a set of examinations, consisting of a general qualifying examination and a research qualifying examination.

The general qualifying examination will consist of two cloistered examinations, each of three hours duration. The general qualifying examinations will call upon students to synthesize what they have learned in courses and in background reading. Students will elect two of the following five areas:

The research qualifying exam is designed to demonstrate that students have developed sufficient depth in their understanding of a particular constellation of research questions that they are able to begin meaningful work on their dissertations. The exam may take one of two forms: a published or publishable research paper which pilots the dissertation research, or a research qualifying examination which will be completed by students over the course of one full week. The specific questions posed for the examination format will arise from extensive consultation between the student and faculty and will reflect 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. Students are required to have demonstrated preparation in a research focus to the satisfaction of their advisory committees before they will be permitted to schedule the research qualifying examination in either format.

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 a 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.