Adding the emphasis

Graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. in the Departments of Comparative Literature, East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, Education, Linguistics, and Spanish & Portuguese may petition to add the emphasis in applied linguistics at any time (using the Change of Degree Status Petition from the Graduate Division). The petition should be signed by the departmental graduate advisor and then sent to Prof. Laura Marqués-Pascual, the Director of the Applied Linguistics Emphasis, for approval. Once the necessary signatures are obtained, the petition is taken to the Graduate Division. Students will then ask a member of the Applied Linguistics Executive Committee or Affiliated Faculty to be their advisor. There are 10 faculty on the Executive Committee and 23 Affiliated Faculty members from 11 departments on campus.

Change of Degree Status Petition form

Program requirements

course requirements

Students must take a total of five courses (20 units).

A. A minimum of two courses (8 units) must be taken for a letter grade from the core group of applied linguistics courses, which provide them with the basics of linguistics, second language acquisition theories, second/foreign language teaching methodologies, and practical applications of theory to teaching:

B. Two additional courses (8 units) are required (must be taken for a letter grade) and may be chosen from any of the sub-areas (Linguistics, Discourse, Second Language Acquisition; Language and Society, Socio-cultural Perspectives, Multilingualism and Multiliteracy; Language and Cognition, Psycholinguistics; Language Acquisition Using Technology; Translation Studies, e.g., CLIT 260). See Master Course List https://www.appliedlinguistics.ucsb.edu/courses/master).

C. Required independent study (4 units, may be taken S/U): Taken with an appropriate faculty member, leading to a research paper describing theoretical, empirical, or applied work in applied linguistics. Students are also strongly encouraged to attend the Applied Linguistics lecture series and will be asked to present their research papers informally as part of the lecture series, usually in Spring Quarter.

examination requirement

In addition to the course and unit requirements described above (including the research paper), the student's Ph.D. Qualifying Examination shall include examination of knowledge within the Applied Linguistics emphasis. At least one faculty member of the Applied Linguistics program shall participate in the qualifying examination.

In the case the student fails the exam, they will be ablet to re-take it one more time during the following quarter.

degree conferral process

When all of the above requirements have been fulfilled, fill out the Applied Linguistics Emphasis Requirements form, submit it to the Director of the Emphasis, who will sign it and submit it to Graduate Division.

The emphasis in Applied Linguistics will be awarded solely in conjunction with the Ph.D. and will be signified by the degree designation "Ph.D. in X with Emphasis in Applied Linguistics" where X is the Ph.D. program in which the student is enrolled.

Students are strongly encouraged to attend the Applied Linguistics lecture series and will be asked to present their independent study research paper informally as part of the lecture series.