Requirements for the MA in Linguistics

MA students (except students in the Professional TESOL MA program) may select a personal faculty advisor after the first year in the program. If you do not select a personal advisor, the graduate advisor will serve as your advisor throughout the program. To supplement the information contained here, consult the Graduate Student Handbook. Completion of an MA degree calls for a minimum of three semesters of study; four semesters is usual. Up to three courses may be transferred from other schools. Courses taken at CU Denver (except for the required TESOL courses LLC 5820: Techniques of Teaching ESL and LLC 5910: Field Experience in Literacy and Language Teaching) and ACCESS courses taken on this campus count as transfer courses. Proficiency in a language other than English equivalent to at least the junior year of college study is required for admission to the MA. Otherwise qualified students admitted to the MA without this level of proficiency must make up the deficiency, by taking appropriate courses or other means. Native speakers of a language other than English automatically satisfy this requirement.

Required courses

All students must complete the following courses: LING 5030: Linguistic Phonetics, LING 5410: Phonology, LING 5420: Morphology and Syntax, and LING 5430: Semantics and Pragmatics.  Students who complete the program for the TESOL certificate must also complete LING 5610 Structure of English for TESOL. All other students must complete LING 5570: Introduction to Diachronic Linguistics. A student who has completed equivalents to these courses as an undergraduate must earn an equal number of credits in other LING courses.

MA with Thesis: Plan I

Plan I requires 30 semester hours of course work, including 4 to 6 hours of thesis credit, plus the comprehensive examination. A thesis is normally prepared under the guidance of an MA thesis committee,consisting of the thesis advisor and a second reader in the Department. A student in Plan I takes the MA comprehensive examination, prepared by the departmental examination committee in consultation with the student’s MA thesis advisor, and an oral examination that consists principally of a defense of the MA thesis before a three-person examination committee.

MA without Thesis: Plan II

Plan II requires 30 semester hours of course work plus the comprehensive examination. Specialization or concentration in TESOL, or particular areas of interest, is possible.

The MA comprehensive examination

Students in both Plan I and Plan II must pass a comprehensive written examination covering general topics in linguistics. It is given once per semester. An oral examination may be added as part of the comprehensive examination at the request of either the student or the departmental examination committee. The student must be registered for the semester in which the exam is taken.