} Faculties: } Faculty  of Graduate Studies: }  Programs :

MA in Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of English

General Guidelines

Program Goals

It is believed that the program will achieve the following goals:

1.     Enhance and develop the teaching and learning of English in Hebron and the surrounding areas, giving such learning and teaching a solid empirical and theoretical basis. 

2.     Produce graduate scholars who can conduct empirical research in the area of teaching and learning English in the Palestinian context.

3.     Produce M.A. graduates able to pursue PhD studies in the fields covered in the program.

4.     Supplement local college programs, by producing language instructors with professional academic qualifications and expertise in applied linguistics.

5.     Enhance the chances of Palestinian teachers to advance themselves in their careers.

6.     Provide local teachers with the opportunity to combine the requirements of their current careers with the pursuit of higher studies close to their residence and work.  

Admission requirements

The admission requirements for the MA program are as follows:

1.     Students should hold a bachelor degree or equivalent in English studies from an accredited university, with an above-average pass mark, i.e. a grade-point mean above 70%, a grade ‘C’ award, or equivalent.

2.     A good command of English for academic purposes is required, attested by a TOEFL score, or an equivalent test measure. (Institutional TOEFL –ITP- is held at HU public relations office on regular basis). 

3.     Applicants are required to submit a sample of their academic writing, between 5 and 8 pages in length or to pass an interview before the department committee.   

4. Two letters of recommendation should be included in the application.

Academic Plan

Degree requirements:

1. Coursework

Students should complete 27 credit hours over a minimum period of three semesters.  These courses are distributed as follows:

1. 18 required courses from table A below.
2. 9 elective courses from table B.

 Table A: Required Courses (18 hours)

Table B: Elective Courses (9 hours)

II The Thesis:  Each student is required to submit a thesis that does not exceed 300 pages in length.

 What to do? 

             Where to go?

Where do I get the application?

Registrar’s office.  Hebron University main building.

What documents need to be attached to the application?

1-     صورة مصدقة من قبل الجامعة ووزارة التعليم العالي عن كشف العلامات وشهادة البكالوريوس.

2-     صورة مصدقة عن كشف علامات التوجيهي.

3-     صورة مصدقة عن شهادة الميلاد.

4-     رسالتا توصية.

5-     4 صور شخصيه.

6-     إيصال رسوم تقديم الطلب.

How long does it take to finish all degree requirements?

4-6 semesters including work on the thesis.

What is the number of hours I can take each semester?

6-9 credit hours.

Appendix III

( ملحق رقم "3")

4-5 Course Description and Objectives

  MA in Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of English

A: Required Courses (18 hours)

22751 Second Language Acquisition Studies

This course will analyze selected theoretical and practical issues inside second language acquisition, centering around the questions of how far and in what sense all learners learn the same way (nativist theory), and how far they differ individually in terms of their motivation, aptitude, and other cognitive and affective variables. The course will also review the ways in which second language acquisition research is carried out. The focus will be on recent empirical studies.

22752 Methods, tasks and topics in language teaching (Theoretical TEFL)

This course is designed to promote greater understanding of several areas of the language teaching field.  It provides a deep, comprehensive review of the standard language teaching methods in their historical and cultural settings.  The course also highlights the major techniques used in teaching the various language skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing.  Some integrated approaches to language teaching will be presented as well as some controversies in the field.  Students are expected to show familiarity with major research issues in the field through relevant presentations and submission of term papers. 

22771 Research methods and practices in applied linguistics

Experimental, ethnographic, descriptive and participatory research methods will be described and illustrated from the literature. There will be a strong focus on empirical classroom-based research. The students will be required to develop their own research designs for different kinds of research questions, and will be equipped to critically evaluate research reported on in the literature.

22731 Selected Studies in applied linguistics

This course deals with the major issues in psycholinguistics other than language acquisition/development.  They include issues related to : language comprehension (construction, utilization, memory perception, and inference), language production (plans, execution of plans), meaning and thought (representation of meaning, uses, language and thought).  Students will also be familiarized with the recent research studies in the area through presenting articles from well-known journals in the field.

22732  Pedagogic grammar and the structure of English

A pedagogic grammar is here to be understood as a description of English designed for teachers and/or learners of English as a foreign or second language. The course will address the following issues:

- What relevance has knowledge obtained from a grammar book for using English in speaking, listening, reading and writing?

- In which ways should a pedagogic grammar differ from a linguistic grammar?

- What pedagogic grammars of English are available, and how do they differ?

Additionally students will deepen their insight into the structure of the English language. 

22758 Classroom observation, analysis and practice (TEFL Practicum)

This class will include a practicum: students will observe and analyze foreign language teaching classes in the University of Hebron, local schools, and other institutions. Such visits will be prepared, accompanied, and followed up by work on observational schemata, and the analysis of classroom discourse structures. Some teaching practice will be included, e.g. during the visits to language classes, or via micro-teaching in plenary sessions.

B: Elective Courses (12 hours)

22772 Error analysis/discourse analysis: implications for language teaching and learning

This course introduces students to ways of analyzing how learners use English beyond the sentence level, and what can be learned from this regarding their learning processes, and appropriate teaching strategies. The concept of interlanguage is central to the course, in addition to concepts of text types, context, reference, stylistics, as well as coherence and cohesion.  The course will also focus on the techniques and procedures of collecting data, identification of discourse patterns, errors, and their classification as well as explanation.   

22759 Curriculum development and syllabus design

This course looks at the theoretical and practical issues involved in syllabus design and curriculum development in the foreign language context.  It reviews product-oriented and procedural types of syllabus, such as grammatical, functional, communicative and task-based approaches, and their theoretical justification. By the end of the course, students are expected to have the knowledge and skill necessary for evaluating and enriching available English teaching programs, as well as future ones.

22734 Technology and language learning and teaching

This course will cover the appropriate use of both traditional and computer-based technology in language teaching and language learning. Therefore, as well as reviewing the use of teaching aids such as the overhead projectors, recorders (audio and video), language labs, films, and television materials, and their potentials and limitations, the course will pay special attention to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), web-based materials, and e-mail projects. The nature of authentic materials and autonomous learning will necessarily also be addressed.

22753 Literature in the foreign language classroom

This course investigates the role of literature in the foreign language classroom, its relevance to language learning, and to additional educational goals. Students will be exposed therefore to the various roles that literature can play in the classroom. They will also be trained in the methods and techniques of presenting texts that belong to different literary genres, and the evaluation of the literary content of current syllabuses.

22735 English phonology for language teachers

This course provides an experimental analysis of the speech signal, speech articulation, and the structure of phonetic space.  A survey of the current theories of speech production and perception is provided.  This course will also deal with the standard concepts of phonemes and allophones and their phonetic correlates. 

22737 English for specific purposes (ESP)

ESP language courses are designed to fit the specific needs of particular groups of learners, such as physicians, hotel staff, or computer specialists. This course will

explore the origins and development of ESP, focusing on the role of the teacher, course content, design and evaluation.

22754 Sociolinguistic studies and language planning

This course treats the areas of the social meaning of language, communicative competence, models of sociolinguistic research, language functions in bilingual and multilingual communities, code choice, and code switching, language variation and language change. 

2757 Testing and evaluation

This course analyzes the relationship between language teaching and testing withing the communicative paradigm.  It provides a comprehensive survey of the various types of language tests (achievement, proficiency, aptitude, integrative, discrete point, and communicative).  Proper focus will be laid upon the characteristics of good tests; e.g., validity, reliability and discrimination.  The course also looks at the contemporary forms of alternative assessment such as portfolio assessment.

22739  Action Research for language teachers:

The aim of this course is to encourage language teachers to pursue researchable issues and trends in their particular contexts with the aim of finding solutions for concrete problems that face students in studying the foreign language.  

22777  Foundations of Education

The course provides a general survey of main educational theories. It also familiarizes students with the major educational issues related to teaching learners of various age groups.  It tackles the issue of cognitive, psychological and social differences between child, adolescent and adult learners and the implications of these differences for language teaching and learning.

22778 Analysis and evaluation of English language teaching materials

This course provides a survey of the major criteria used in textbook evaluation as well as evaluation of other language teaching materials, such as videos, audios, computer software and printed supplementary material.  It equips the students with the tools necessary for evaluating, enriching, and providing feedback on Palestinian materials currently used at schools. 

     Guide of  Faculty of Graduate studies