A4.
Program Characteristics and Activities
Curriculum
Students are required
to complete 27 units of interdisciplinary core courses (including
a three-unit SLAT Proseminar) and must choose an 18-unit specialization
from among the four listed in the previous section. In addition,
students must select a minor (which may consist of 12 units taken
in another of the four SLAT specializations, or 9 or more units
taken in a related area outside of SLAT) and complete a dissertation.
Post baccalaureate course work completed prior to admission may
be substituted for a portion of the course requirements, as long
as 30 hours of coursework (not counting dissertation) are taken
on campus. The core requirement is composed of courses in linguistics,
psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition
theory, pedagogy, and research methodology (Appendix B: SLAT Study
Plan). Requirements also include successful completion of a qualifying
exercise in the first year of study and demonstrating second language
proficiency, in addition to a comprehensive written and oral examination
and an oral (dissertation defense) examination.
All SLAT students
are required to take SLAT 596y Section 1 – Topics in SLAT:
Proseminar during their first semester of residence to establish
a sense of community, to acquaint them with the Qualifying Exercise,
to introduce them to the broad range of interdisciplinary issues
and perspectives they will encounter in the program, and to explore
potential topics for their own dissertation research from a very
early stage. This Proseminar is convened in coordination with
the weekly SLAT Colloquium Series, which is open to all SLAT students
(new and continuing), and has broad SLAT faculty participation.
Except for the Proseminar,
all course requirements may be met by selection from a variety
of courses, depending both on student backgrounds and interests
and on available departmental offerings. Of particular interest
are sections of SLAT 596y Topics in SLAT other than the Proseminar.
Additional sections of this course will be offered from time to
time on topics such as Variation in Second Language Acquisition,
Experimental Design Within Generative Theory, and Applied Phonology.
SLAT Faculty members may send to the Executive Council proposals
for courses they would like to offer as a section of SLAT 596y.
Also of interest are courses that several collaborating departments
have initiated or revised in response to the availability and
needs of SLAT students.
An interdisciplinary
program such as SLAT requires a variety of course offerings. Such
diversity is considered not only an efficient use of existing
resources, but indeed a program strength. It requires, however,
exceptional ‘safeguards’ in advising and quality control.
SLAT has therefore established three tiers of curricular advising/consent:
(1) a SLAT Advisor with centralized information and authority;
(2) Faculty Mentors for SLAT students within their area of specialization;
and (3) a curriculum committee containing subcommittees for each
of the four SLAT specialties. The subcommittee chairs (as well
as the SLAT Director and SLAT Advisor) evaluate the appropriateness
of specific departmental offerings for SLAT objectives and approve
the specific program specialization for individual students.
Procedures for the
continuing review and modification of program offerings are a
follows. Curriculum Subcommittee chairs are responsible for obtaining
and consolidating information on course offerings in their areas,
as well as for making decisions on their appropriateness for meeting
SLAT requirements. They will input relevant information to the
Graduate Advisor on a regular basis, and will inform the Executive
Council of the current state of offerings and requirements in
their major/minor at least once each year. The Graduate Advisor
is responsible for obtaining and consolidating information on
course offerings for Core requirements, and will submit suggestions
for change to the Executive Council for its approval.
While lists of approved
SLAT courses are kept up-to-date and revised regularly by the
curriculum subcommittees, there are often unexpected or last minute
changes in course topics, staffing, etc. Students should be aware
that, even though the Handbook may list a course as fulfilling
a requirement of a particular kind for the Core or for one of
the specializations, these last minute changes might cause a course
to be inappropriate for fulfilling those requirements in a given
semester. Therefore, despite best efforts to avoid changes of
this kind, the SLAT Advisor and/or the Chair of the Program have
final approval of how a particular course will be applied to fulfilling
requirements in a particular semester. Any changes will be made
in consultation with the student and the curriculum chair(s) who
are affected by course changes.
Students
Approximately 75
U.S. and international students are enrolled in the
program during 2005-2006. All students who have been admitted
to the program had already earned a master’s degree prior
to enrollment. Quality indicators include high GPA’s and
awards prior to admission, including scholarships for undergraduate
and/or master’s level study from U.S. and international
sources.
SLAT students are
strongly encouraged to be active in local, national, and international
professional organizations. Information is posted or distributed
on a regular basis concerning conferences, organizational memberships,
and publication opportunities. SLAT faculty are expected to guide
students in selection and initiation of research topics, and to
encourage student publication of high-quality papers. Faculty
mentors may be expected to provide detailed comments on student
manuscripts that are likely to merit publication (see section
E, Advising and Mentoring Policies and Procedures).
Because most SLAT
students play a significant role in programs for basic language
instruction (including Chinese, English, French, German, Greek,
Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish), criteria
for admission include successful prior experience as language
teachers.
Students participate
actively in SLAT: they have a strong student association (SLATSA),
elect representatives to the Executive Council and curriculum
subcommittees, take responsibility for planning and implementing
the Colloquium Series as well as the SLAT Roundtable meeting in
the spring semester. Students select and edit papers for the Arizona
Working Papers in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT).
SLAT graduate students have also successfully submitted a plan
to host the Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) conference at
the University of Arizona in October of 2003.
SLAT plans to maintain
enrollment at about 65 to 75, and has admitted 13 new doctoral
students for the 2005-2006 academic year.
Faculty
Faculty membership
in SLAT numbers roughly 70. The national/international stature
of senior faculty is attested by their having served as Presidents
of such major organization as the American Anthropological Association,
the American Association for Applied Linguistics, the American
Association of Teachers of German, the International Reading Association,
the Linguistics Society of America, the National Conference of
Research in English, the National Council of Teachers of English,
the Semiotic Society of America, the Society for Linguistic Anthropology,
and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Two faculty
members are Regents’ Professors, and five have been elected
fellows of scholarly academies: the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the Australian Academy of Social Sciences,
the National Academy of Education, the New York Academy of Sciences,
and the Royal Anthropological Institute. SLAT faculty members
have also served on the State of Arizona Foreign Language Articulation
Task Force and on the Elementary Foreign Language Task Force of
the State Board of Education.
The scope of faculty
expertise is perhaps best illustrated by members’ past or
present editorial and advisory board membership for different
professional journals (including Cognition, Cognitive Linguistics,
Journal of Intensive English Studies, Journal of Memory and Language,
American Journal of Psychology, Reading Research Quarterly, Language
and Education, Language, American Anthropologist, Language in
Society, TESOL Quarterly, Modern Language Journal, Unterrichtspraxis,
Iconicity Journal, Diacritics, Faits de Langue, and American Educational
Research Journal). Faculty members have received external
funding for their research from many different corporations and
agencies. Honors accorded faculty include Fulbright, Spencer,
NEH and Mellon Fellowships and awards for excellence in teaching,
advising, and or contributions to language education, in addition
to recognition for scholarship.
Several SLAT faculty
serve or have served important administrative roles on campus
which relate to language instruction. These include the interim
Dean of the College of Education; Associate Dean in the College
of Social and Behavioral Sciences; heads of various language departments;
the Head of the Department of Linguistics; the Head of the Department
of Language, Reading and Culture; the Director of the Center for
English as a Second Language (CESL); Directors/Coordinators of
basic language instruction in seven departments; Directors of
the Program in English Language/Linguistics (offering the M.A.
in TESOL), the Writing Skills Improvement Program, the American
Indian Language Development Institute, the Federal Court Interpreter
Certification Project, and the Critical Languages Program.
All SLAT faculty
are expected to maintain an active agenda in scholarship (research,
publication, and teaching), and to serve as members of students’
examination and dissertation committees. In addition, most are
expected to become faculty mentors for one or more SLAT students
within their area of specialization. Mentors not only provide
assistance and encouragement for student research and publication
(described above), but also serve as academic role models, and
enhance student socialization to the values, norms, practices,
and attitudes of the discipline.
All Executive Council
members of appropriate rank serve as a Promotion and Tenure Committee
for providing information and evaluation of the interdisciplinary
contributions of SLAT faculty members who are considered for tenure
and/or promotion, except in cases where adequate representation
from the SLAT Executive Council is appointed to the departmental
review committee. SLAT also cooperates in department recruitment
processes, particularly when faculty are to have responsibilities
related to second language acquisition and teaching. In addition,
the Executive Council provides information that is used in the
annual departmental evaluations of regular SLAT faculty.
Outreach
Individual faculty
members in SLAT maintain a high level of outreach activities,
ranging from positions of local importance (e.g., service on educational
committees), to consulting with national and international agencies
or departments/ministries of education.
Collaborative efforts
for outreach by the SLAT Program have included educational activities
with the Tucson Unified School District, response to business
needs, and potential collaboration in research and program activities
with the U.S. government language training agencies. At the community
level, SLAT faculty and students are working with Tucson families
who have adopted Russian orphans, conducting research on their
language development as well as providing advice and assistance.
At the national level, several SLAT faculty members have served
as researchers, consultants, and/or visiting scholars in relation
to federal language training programs. At the international level,
SLAT faculty have consulted with colleagues in Colombia, Mexico
and Germany concerning the design of teacher preparation programs
in English as a Second/Foreign Language.
Administration
and Staffing
SLAT operates under
Guidelines for Interdisciplinary Graduate Committees,
approved by the Graduate Council, Spring 1987. It is administered
by an Executive Council, currently composed of twelve members
appointed by the Director of Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs,
plus two student representatives by vote of the students. The
Chair of the Council is responsible for carrying out those duties
assigned by that committee, and for maintaining appropriate records
and communications. Subcommittees are appointed with the approval
of the Executive Council for screening applicants for admission,
constructing and evaluating the Qualifying Exercise, curriculum
review/revision, and other purposes. The SLAT Advisor is a member
of the Executive Council. The Chair and the SLAT Advisor each
receive one course release time for their service. The mentorship
and service role of all other SLAT faculty are in addition to
their normal departmental responsibilities. No faculty lines are
assigned directly to SLAT
