Learning Goals
The Academic Program
Goals of the Department of English include instructing undergraduate
majors in the study of literature written in English and in language
arts and raising the literacy level of all University students through
a tiered series of General Education writing, reading, and critical
thinking courses. Other Department goals include providing a minor
in English, preparing future teachers in the Single Subject Credential
Waiver Program, supporting the Liberal Studies Major with appropriate
courses, granting an MA in English and an MA TESOL, and, finally,
granting Certificates in both Teaching Composition and TESOL.The
goal of this major is to blend an historical perspective, especially
at the lower division level, with an appreciation of literary genres
and modes, plus women’s, ethnic, or non-traditional literature from
the English speaking world.
Courses in Shakespeare and Advanced Composition round out
the requirements with elective units left for the individual student
to chose from various areas of concentration such as British or
American literature, creative writing, linguistics, or multicultural
perspectives. (As described
below, English has just designed a new, required senior seminar/capstone
course, but it must still go through the University course approval
process.)
The Department also offers a 21 unit English minor with required lower division units in British and American literature and a required upper division course in Shakespeare. Finally, the Department offers a 30 unit Masters of Arts degree in English and a 33 unit Masters of Arts TESOL. The M.A. in English allows a student to chose from three different “Plans” of study: Plan A (Thesis: Literature), Plan B (Project: Creative Writing or Project: Pedagogy), and Plan C (Comprehensive Exam: Literature). Each of these plans features different specific requirements and culminating experiences, but all require appropriate courses in Methods and Materials of Literary Research and graduate level classes in British and American literature. Finally, besides including elective courses and a “Culminating Requirement,” the M.A. TESOL requires 24 specific units directly related to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
The curricular strengths of the English Department are many and varied. The undergraduate major encourages students to explore both the breadth and the depth of diverse national literatures, literary genres and motifs, and different language arts (and, again, to engage in the research activities of the senior seminar), besides allowing enough freedom for students to elect more individual areas of concentration and pedagogical tracks. The M.A. in English further introduces graduate students to advanced methods of scholarly research, schools of literary theory, and a more concentrated, in-depth literary experience than occurs at the undergraduate level. Moreover, it provides the opportunity to engage in some kind of scholarly culminating experience, whether it be a thesis, project, or comprehensive exam. Depending on the Plan selected, a graduate student may thus be prepared for lifelong literary enrichment, a community college teaching career (helped with the Certificate in Teaching Composition), or entrance into a top flight doctoral program. Finally, the M.A. TESOL prepares its graduates for a rewarding career in the rapidly growing field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.Along the way, a student may earn course credit for field work in the Peace Corp (in one of only two such TESOL partnership programs in the western United States). The M.A. in TESOL may also include the Certificate of Advanced Study in TESOL, which can help students be hired in one of the growing number of teaching positions available overseas.
