Faculty and students in the Department teach and learn about, conduct research on, and disseminate ideas in Critical Second Language Studies (CSLS) in order to promote:
- understandings of how matters of power affect language users/learners in educational, occupational, and other social settings;
- approaches to second language research which are conscious of, or explore, the ideologies of our professional practices and attend to second/foreign/heritage language learning, teaching and use as sites where social relations are enacted, negotiated and potentially transformed;
- more equitable social relations through the actions of language professionals and the organization and implementation of language programs and projects.
The specialization in CSLS is intended to develop language professionals’ knowledge, abilities, and views in approaches to language:
- research that derive from a critical perspective, for example, participatory action research, critical ethnography;
- pedagogy that derive from a critical perspective; for example, critical pedagogy;
- approaches to language curriculum that prioritize the needs and interests of minorities or marginalized groups; for example, bilingual education, and critical English for Academic Purposes;
- learning that reflect critical understandings of society (as hierarchical and often manifesting inequities such as those associated with class, race and gender) and of the individual (as embodied, gendered, positioned in discourses but having agency); for example, critical language awareness;
- analysis and use that see language as non-transparent, manifesting sociopolitical forces, and active rather than neutral; for example, critical discourse analysis, critical sociolinguistics.
Courses: In addition to the four (4) core courses, MA students specializing in CSLS will complete the following:
Required:
- The core seminar* will be from SLS 730, SLS 760, or SLS 775.
Four courses from the following:
- SLS 408 Multilingual Education
- SLS 675 Second Language Qualitative Research
- SLS 676 Interpretive Qualitative Inquiry
- SLS 680P Various Topics in Second Language Pedagogy
- SLS 680R Various Topics in Second Language Research
- SLS 680U Various Topics in Second Language Use
*More than one seminar can be taken to fulfill the track requirements.