Graduate Programs

The Department of English Language and Literature offers two M.A. programs, one in English Literatures and three concentrations in English: Composition, Linguistics, and TESOL. Additionally, we have five graduate certificate programs in the Teaching of Composition, Teaching Post-Secondary Reading, and in Immigrant Literacies.

Master of Arts in English Literatures

The M.A. Program serves the needs of those whose goal is teaching in junior or community colleges or private high schools, pursuing a PhD, or advancing skills and knowledge in reading and writing about literature. Our graduates work as teachers in high schools and community colleges; enter the field of publishing; write for journals, magazines, and online publications; earn PhDs; enter law school; start their own businesses; and work for non-profits, foundations, and government agencies.

Master of Arts in English: Concentration in Composition

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic reading and writing. Courses emphasize equity and success for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. Excellent preparation for teaching in two-year colleges.

Master of Arts in English: Concentration in Linguistics

Study contemporary theory over a broad spectrum of the levels of linguistic structure: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.

Master of Arts in English: Concentration in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Langauges

Engage with theoretical foundations and contemporary research in linguistics, sociolinguistics, and second-language acquisition. Learn practical classroom teaching methodology suitable for adult second-language learners.

Master of Arts in Humanities

The Humanities M.A. program offers a flexible M.A. degree program with a unique range of interdisciplinary courses in the global humanities.

Graduate Certificates

Computational Linguistics

The Graduate Certificate in Computational Linguistics is designed to provide academic training in the study of computational approaches to language analysis. Computational tools are supported by a strong foundation in linguistic theory including natural language syntax, semantics and metaphor identification.

Immigrant Literacies

Study language, literacies and the immigrant experience. The program integrates community service learning to enable certificate students to integrate their professional expertise and cross-disciplinary thinking with meaningful civic action.

Teaching of Composition

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic writing. Courses emphasize ways to support developing writing, particularly in accelerated, co-requisite and integrated reading-writing classes.

Teaching Post-Secondary Reading

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic reading. Courses emphasize ways to support developing readers, particularly in accelerated, co-requisite and integrated reading-writing classes.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Designed to serve current SF State graduate students, post-baccalaureate students, current teachers or anyone interested in pursuing careers that serve English language learners, the Graduate Certificate in TESOL provides knowledge of applied linguistics, language acquisition theories, and methods of teaching in the TESOL field for teaching positions as an English as a second or foreign language teacher, tutor, or instructional aide in a variety of settings in the US and language teaching contexts around the world. This certificate does not provide a California Teaching Credential.