2008-2009 Guidelines for the MA in English
with an Option in TESL

The English Department at Oklahoma State University offers a comprehensive program leading to an MA in English with an option in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). The TESL program is designed to provide students with the skills necessary to teach English to non-native speakers in a variety of situations, e.g., teaching English as a foreign language in an overseas school, college, or university; teaching English as a second language to international students studying in intensive English programs in the U.S.; or teaching English to bilingual/bicultural students in American public school systems and adult education programs.

The TESL curriculum is designed to provide professional training in theoretical and applied linguistics, methods of teaching English as a second language, materials development, and second language testing. Students also participate in a supervised internship program in ESL. The elective courses are interdisciplinary in nature and are chosen by students and their advisory committees in accordance with their particular interests and needs.

The MA in English with an option in TESL consists of 30 credit hours (thesis option) or 34 credit hours (non-thesis option). In addition to these hours, students must fulfill the foreign language requirement and pass the MA Qualifying Examination in TESL. A description of the degree requirements and regulations appears on the following pages.

Summary Checklist

By the end of the second full semester of enrollment, you should have:

• chosen an adviser in your major area of study
• chosen your advisory committee
• met with your committee and discussed your Plan of Study
• filed your Plan of Study

Before taking the MA Qualifying Examination, you must have:

• fulfilled the foreign language requirement
• maintained a GPA of 3.0 or above on all graduate course work
• filed an approved Plan of Study with the Graduate College and English Graduate Office
• submitted an Intent to Take Qualifying Examination form to the English Graduate Office at least three weeks before the examination

Before you are eligible to graduate, you must have:

• filed a diploma application
• submitted a revised Plan of Study, initialed by your adviser

If you write a thesis, you must also have:

• submitted the defense copy (Final Draft) of your thesis by the Graduate College deadline
• passed your oral defense (Final Examination) and turned in the signed Results of Final Defense form to the Graduate College
• submitted the final copy of the thesis/dissertation in accordance with the format guidelines at: http://gradcollege.okstate.edu/student/thesis

Teacher Certification Disclaimer

The MA in English with an option in TESL does not carry with it certification for public school employment. Students wishing such certification must meet special state and university requirements.

Graduate College Rules and Regulations

There are many rules and regulations affecting graduate enrollment, tenure, examinations, theses, and dissertations that are made by the Graduate Faculty of the university rather than the English Department. Among the rules students should familiarize themselves with are those governing academic dishonesty or misconduct, especially those dealing with plagiarism. It is the student's responsibility to become informed about all English Department, Graduate College, and University regulations.

The Oklahoma State University Catalog should be read closely by all those who are thinking about, or participating in, graduate studies in English at Oklahoma State University. Free copies are available free to all incoming graduate students at the Graduate College, 202Whitehurst.

Adviser and Advisory Committee

All graduate students select an individual adviser and an advisory committee to guide them in completing their degrees.

Adviser. Students should choose an adviser by the end of their first semester of course work, but if this is not possible, students should select an adviser by the end of their first year of graduate study. The adviser may be any member of the English Department graduate faculty who specializes in TESL. At the Tulsa campus, the coordinator of the TESL program at OSU-Tulsa normally serves as the adviser.

Advisory Committee. The advisory committee will normally consist of the student's major adviser as committee chair and at least two members of the English Department's graduate faculty.

Changes. To change an adviser or advisory committee, a student must request the change in writing to the English Graduate Director and provide reasons for the change. The Graduate Director will forward the request to the Graduate College for final approval.

Plan of Study

MA students must file a Plan of Study with the Graduate College before completing the 17thhour of graduate credit.

Planning Meeting. No later than the second full semester of enrollment and prior to enrolling for the third semester, students should schedule a meeting with their advisory committee. (This meeting may be conducted by conference call for Tulsa students.) During that meeting, the student and advisory committee will discuss the student's preparation, professional goals, and plans for graduate study. The student and committee should agree upon a Plan of Study, the foreign language requirement, and tentative plans for the MA Qualifying Examination as well as the thesis or creative component.

Submitting the Plan of Study. Students may download a Plan of Study form from the Graduate College web site, or pick up a paper form from the English Graduate Office. The student and committee will discuss the Plan of Study which the student completes in pen, informally. After the planning meeting, students will submit the hand-written form to the English Graduate Office. The Graduate Unit Assistant will prepare a final copy of this form and return it to the student, who will then obtain signatures from all members of the advisory committee. The student returns the signed form to the English Graduate Office for the Department Head’s signature. The English Graduate Office then processes the completed and signed form for delivery to the Graduate College.

Creative Component. The course used as a creative component must be designated with an asterisk on the Plan of Study.

Changes. Changes to the Plan of Study can be made with the approval of the advisory committee and initialed by the adviser. A final, updated Plan of Study must be filed at the beginning of the semester in which the degree is to be conferred.

Ten-Year Rule. A final Plan of Study may not include any course more than ten years old at the time of actual graduation.

Checklist for Submitting a Plan of Study

• Minimum of 30 hours for thesis option, or 34 hours for non-thesis option, beyond baccalaureate degree
• At least 21 hours of course work at the 5000 or 6000 level at OSU
• Minimum of 16 hours in English
• No more than 9 hours of course work taken as special student or transferred from another institution
• All courses, including 4000 level, must be taken for graduate credit
• No course work may be used to complete requirements for another degree
• The Plan of Study must be signed by the adviser, committee members, and the Department Head

Course Requirements

The MA in English with an option in TESL offers two course requirement options: thesis and nonthesis. The following requirements govern these options.

Thesis Option: Students take 30 semester hours, including six credit hours of thesis.

Nonthesis Option: Students take 34 semester hours, including a one-credit-hour Independent Study course. They write a creative component, an article-length paper or research project, as part of this course.

Required Courses. Regardless of whether they opt for the thesis or non-thesis approach, TESL students are expected to complete 18 semester hours of required course work and to fulfill total hour requirements from among the elective courses available. The proposed program of work is planned in consultation with the student's advisory committee.

Required Courses (18 hours)

Creative Component or Thesis

Sample Electives

Courses other than those listed may be taken as electives if approved by the advisory committee.

Methods Course for Teaching Assistants. Teaching assistants must take an appropriate methodology course or courses in their first semester of teaching at Oklahoma State University. These hours may be counted as part of the total hours of course work.

Required Hours at 5000/6000 Level. All MA students must complete at least 21 hours of course work at the 5000/6000 level; this 21hours of course work may include six hours of credit for work on the thesis.

ENGL5990. ENGL 5990: Special Problems limits enrollment (with permission from the Graduate Director) to students pursuing an MA degree in English with options in TESL and Technical Writing who elect the Creative Component rather than the thesis. The use of ENGL 5990 is restricted to students who have completed coursework and need to enroll in two or three hours in order to take their qualifying examinations.

4000-Level Courses. Only those 4000-level classes marked by an asterisk in the OSU University Catalog are available for graduate credit. All graduate course work should include a research paper or other appropriate project. In the instance of a 4000-level course that may not require such a paper or project, the student should, with the consent of the instructor involved, arrange for such a paper or project to supplement the assigned work. The English Department strongly suggests that all graduate courses be at the 5000/6000 level.

Transfer Hours. Students may transfer up to nine graduate hours from another university granting a Master's degree in English. A student's advisory committee shall determine the number of hours of transfer credit to be awarded. If a student uses the hours for a degree at the previous institution, the hours are not applicable to the MA degree at OSU.

Independent Study. Independent Study courses may be occasionally arranged with an instructor when no regular graduate course on the desired topic is available during the student's expected tenure. Each of the two course numbers (ENGL 5210 and 6210) may be used for up to six hours credit per semester, and no more than nine hours total per course number. All students requesting an Independent Study course must hold a meeting with their advisory committee and receive approval by the Departmental members of the committee. Special forms must be used by those who wish to enroll in such courses. Available from the English Graduate Office, these forms should be submitted no later than the end of the first week of graduate enrollment prior to the semester in which the Independent Study class is taken. A student who has completed the 17th graduate credit hour in a degree program but who does not have an approved plan of study on file in the Graduate College may not arrange an Independent Study course.

The Graduate Studies Committee will evaluate applications for Independent Study in accordance with the following criteria and procedure:

1. Has the student's advisory committee approved the course?
2. Has the student taken regularly offered courses related to the subject?
3. Is the Independent Study unlikely to have a negative impact on enrollment in concurrent or immediately subsequent course offerings?
4. Does the Independent Study fill a gap in the student’s curriculum?  Or is the specific course content unlikely to be offered during the student's expected tenure?
5. Are the text materials clearly listed?
6. Is the work appropriate for the number of credit hours requested?
7. Is the list of assignments and percentages awarded to each clearly explained?
8. Is the schedule of conferences sufficiently specific?

If all eight questions may be answered affirmatively, the Graduate Director will send a written notice of acceptance to the faculty member, who will then inform the student.

If one or more questions cannot be answered affirmatively, the Graduate Director will contact the faculty member in an effort to clarify and/or resolve the problem(s). If no resolution can be reached, the Graduate Director will inform the faculty member of the denial and the reason(s) for the denial in writing. The faculty member will then inform the student.

End-of-Semester Evaluations. All graduate students will be evaluated in writing at the end of each semester by the professors with whom they have taken courses. These evaluations are kept on file in the English Graduate Office and are available for students to read.

Grade of "Incomplete."  The following regulations apply to students who receive what at OSU is termed the “composite incomplete” grade (“IB,” “IC,” “ID,” or “IF”) for any of their coursework within the English Department:

• Students must complete coursework within one calendar year, after which time the preliminary grade (expressed by the second letter of the composite) becomes permanent in accordance with University policy.  Individual faculty members, however, may establish a shorter time limit for completing coursework. Faculty will identify time limits in the “remarks” dropdown of the electronic grade sheet.
• Teaching assistants or associates having more than three incomplete grades on their records will not be recommended for reappointment.
• Teaching assistants or associates having any incomplete grades on their records will not be recommended for summer employment.

Students should familiarize themselves with Section 6.2 of the University Academic Regulations found in the University Catalog for a full explanation of university policy governing incomplete grades.

Foreign Language Requirement

TESL students must complete six credit hours of course work in a foreign language with grades of "B" or better. Students who have not met this requirement at the time of admission must complete two semesters of foreign language course work, receiving grades of "B" or better, prior to taking the MA Qualifying Examination. Non-native speakers of English are exempt from this requirement but may be required to take an advanced-level ESL course, depending on the results of the University's Test of English Language Proficiency (TELP) for international students.

MA Qualifying Examination in TESL

MA students in TESL take one five-hour qualifying examination that is administered on a single day. It is given each September and February on the fourth Saturday of the semester. Students must submit a signed notice of intent to take the examination by the end of the first week of classes and must take the exams on the Stillwater campus. No exams are offered during the summer.

Prerequisites. In order to take the MA Qualifying Examination, students must:

• have fulfilled the foreign language requirement.
• have a grade point average of at least 3.0 on all graduate work taken beyond the baccalaureate degree. Grades received for courses used to satisfy the foreign language requirement are not included in computing the minimum grade point average. All courses carrying graduate credit, including transfer hours on the approved Plan of Study, will be calculated in this grade point average.
• have an approved Plan of Study on file with the Graduate College and with the English Graduate Office.
• submit an "Intent to Take Qualifying Examinations" form to the English Graduate Office three weeks before the examinations begin.

Exam Areas. The MA Qualifying Examination in TESL contains two questions in each of the following five areas.

1. Second Language Acquisition
2. Pedagogy
3. Applied Linguistics
4. Grammar
5.  ESL Testing

Students must respond to one question in each of the five areas.

Copies of past exams and reading lists covering the five areas are available from the English Graduate Office.

Evaluation. Each question will be evaluated by three readers from the specific subject area covered by that section of the exam. Student anonymity will be maintained. If a student answers two questions in a single area, the readers in that area will evaluate each question separately. All readers evaluate exam questions individually before meeting as a committee to discuss student performances and provide a rating of "Pass with Distinction," "Pass," "Pass/Terminal MA," or "Fail" for each question. To be eligible for the MA in English with an option in TESL, students must pass all five areas.

Notification of Results. The Graduate Director will notify students of the results of their exams no later than five weeks after they were taken. The English Graduate Office will mail the results to the student's home address with a copy sent to the student's adviser.

Retakes. Students may take the exams only twice. Students who fail one or more questions will retake only the areas that they failed.

Appeals. Normally, a second failure on any TESL Qualifying Exam will result in termination of the student's work toward the degree. However, when course work has been of exceptionally high quality, a student may, after a second failure, petition the Graduate Studies Committee for permission to take the exam a third and final time. In order to petition, the student must have a grade point average of 3.50 or higher in graduate courses taken at OSU. In addition, the student's petition must be supported by favorable end-of-semester evaluations from at least three professors.

Thesis (optional)

Should the student choose to write a thesis, the thesis is expected to be a substantial research project on a topic related to teaching English as a second language, bilingual education, second language acquisition, second language testing or applied linguistics; it may be based on experimental research, may deal with a theoretical problem, or may have a pedagogical thrust. The thesis director should be a member of the TESL graduate faculty of the English Department.

Thesis Committee. Unless a student requests a change, the advisory committee serves as the thesis committee. Once constituted, a thesis committee may not be changed except for serious reasons stated in writing to the Graduate Director and then approved by the Graduate College.

Prospectus. MA candidates writing a thesis should submit a prospectus (approximately 1000 words) no later than the beginning of the first semester they register for thesis hours. The prospectus must be approved by the candidate's committee. Committee members must be notified in writing if an approved prospectus differs significantly from the submitted thesis (if, for example, the topic of the thesis changes, the authors or texts to be treated are altered, or the number or character of the chapters changes). Students must provide a copy of the approved prospectus to the English Graduate Director.

Reading Procedure. At the time that the prospectus is approved, the candidate and the committee members should agree upon the reading procedure for the individual chapters. Matters to be discussed in reaching this agreement might include which chapters each member of the committee needs to see as they are completed by the candidate; whether individual committee members wish to see the chapters serially or all at once; and how much time committee members will need to finish reading a chapter or the entire thesis. Under no circumstances should a completed thesis be submitted to any committee member for reading less than two weeks before the defense.

Deadlines. Students submitting theses must adhere to deadlines established by the Graduate College and by the English Department.

Style. The student must write the thesis according to the guidelines in the current Graduate College Style Manual. The Style Manual is available from the Graduate College or at: http://gradcollege.okstate.edu/student/thesis. A Graduate College staff member will be available for advice on formatting for binding and microfilming. In addition, students should follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

Defense Copy (Final Draft). The defense copy of the thesis that is defended should contain all of the chapters in a completed form and full documentation.

Final Copy. If as a result of the defense, revisions to the thesis are required, committee members will not sign the thesis until they are satisfied with the revisions.

Final Examination: Thesis Defense (optional)

A thesis defense will consist of a public, oral examination by the thesis committee. It will be no less than 45 minutes, but in many instances, it will be longer.  The thesis defense occurs after the student has submitted a complete draft of the thesis to all committee members.

Intent to Defend Form.  Candidates will file a nonbinding Intent to Defend form with the Graduate Director within the first two weeks of the semester in which they expect to defend the thesis. Each member of the committee will sign this form before it is filed with the Graduate Director. If a student does not defend in the semester when the Intent to Defend form is filed, he or she should resubmit the form when he or she is prepared to defend.

Scheduling of Oral Defense. Under no circumstances should a completed thesis be submitted to any committee member for reading less than two weeks before the defense. The English Graduate Office must be notified one week before the oral defense of the day and time of the defense, and the title of the thesis. No thesis defense will be held during the summer.

Student Tenure

Students must complete all requirements within seven years from their first enrollment in classes for the MA program.

Length of Financial Support For Teaching Assistants

A teaching assistant who has not been placed on strict academic probation and who is making satisfactory progress toward the degree is eligible for financial support for a maximum of three years. A student who obtains an MA in English at OSU and then enters the PhD program is eligible for an additional four years of support.

If exceptional circumstances warrant, a student in the final year of financial support may petition the Head of the English Department for an additional year's support. Such exceptional cases will be judged on an individual basis and in light of Departmental policies and staffing needs.

Ineligibility for the MA Degree

The Graduate Director may upon proper cause declare that a student is ineligible for a degree from the English Department at Oklahoma State University. Upon determining that such cause exists, the Graduate Director will immediately notify the student's adviser, who will discuss the matter with the student and respond to the Graduate Director within fifteen working days. Should the Graduate Director still believe that proper cause exists, he or she will write a letter to the student indicating the reasons for the decision. The student may then appeal to the Graduate Studies Committee within ten working days for a hearing.

The Graduate Studies Committee will review the appeal and report its findings to the Graduate Director, who will notify the student. The student may then appeal that decision to the full Graduate Faculty of the English Department. The decision of that group shall end Departmental appeals.

Appeals and Petitions

All appeals involving grades or charges of academic dishonesty or misconduct must be directed to the OSU Academic Appeals Board. Contact the Executive Vice President's office (101 Whitehurst) for information and forms.

Petitions involving teaching assistantships must be directed to the Department Head.

All other petitions or appeals must be directed in writing to the Graduate Director, who will then forward the petition to the appropriate body, usually one of the following: the Graduate Studies Committee (for special requests as described within the English Graduate Guidelines), the English Graduate Faculty (for exceptions to English Department policy), or the Graduate Faculty Council (for exceptions to OSU policy). Students are urged to discuss matters with their advisers and with the Graduate Director before making a formal petition or appeal.

If the Graduate Director does not act upon the student's written request within a reasonable amount of time, the student and/or adviser may appeal directly to the Department Head. If a student has exhausted all appeals procedures within the Department and is still not able to resolve the problem, he or she may appeal to the Graduate College.

English Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-9474
For Information about English Programs: english.information@okstate.edu
Webmaster: engweb@okstate.edu

Summary Checklist
Teacher Certification Disclaimer
Graduate College Rules and Regulations
Adviser and Advisory Committee
Plan of Study
Course Requirements
Foreign Language Requirement
MA Qualifying Examination in TESL
Thesis (optional)
Thesis Defense (optional)
Student Tenure
Length of Financial Support For Teaching Assistants
Ineligibility for the MA Degree
Appeals and Petitions
MA Reading Lists