PhD - Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature

University of California - Santa Barbara

As described on the web site for Applied Linguistics at UCSB, ''Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of research and instruction that provides theoretical and descriptive foundations for the empirical investigation and solution of language-related issues, especially those of language education (first-language, second-language, foreign-language and heritage-language teaching and learning), but also issues of bilingualism and biliteracy, language policy, language assessment, translation and interpretation, lexicography, rhetoric and composition.''

In Comparative Literature, students need to demonstrate competency in two foreign languages. Two of the learning outcomes in the area of core knowledge include the ability of our graduate students to ''demonstrate advanced written and oral fluency of a foreign language relevant to their major field and the ability to read scholarly works in the foreign language(s) relevant to their second major field and/or minor field'' as well as ''demonstrate an informed appreciation of cross-cultural interconnections and diversity of literatures and cultures across time and space.'' In addition, one of the learning outcomes in the area of pedagogy includes the ability of graduate students to ''foster in their students the ability to think critically and construct cogent arguments in their writing, in a foreign language as well as English.'' Training in applied linguistics is one of the rigorous ways to help fulfill these learning objectives.

College of Letters and Science