Our Chinese, Japanese, and Korean master’s programs, which prepare students to work in a variety of professional and academic fields, provide intensive training in linguistic and textual analysis and an extensive exposure to literary theory and comparative and cultural studies. The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures encourages students to develop their specialization in Asian literatures in broader, more comparative, and more interdisciplinary perspectives than has been the case in traditional programs.

MA in Chinese Studies

There are two options for students pursuing an MA degree specializing in Chinese literature:

• Terminal master's course
• Preparations for early entry into the PhD program

Terminal MA

This is the usual option for students seeking the MA degree in East Asian languages and literatures with a specialization in Chinese literature, and it prepares students for study at the doctoral level. This option requires successful completion of a minimum of 14 graduate-level courses including:

• Issues in Early Chinese Literature (CHN 523)
• Issues in Medieval Chinese Literature (CHN 524)
• Issues in Modern Chinese Literature (CHN 525)
• Two advisor-approved graduate courses in literary theory or another literature
• Chinese Bibliography (CHN 550)
• One approved course in language pedagogy, Asian history, or another field relevant to the student’s career objectives
• Five Chinese seminars

With the advisor’s approval, one course in Reading and Conference (CHN 605) may be counted as one of the fourteen courses. Students must pass a comprehensive written examination at the end of study or write and defend a Master of Arts thesis. Students who elect to write a thesis must register for 9 credits of Thesis (CHN 503). The student must form a two-member exam/thesis committee by the fourth quarter of the program.

Graduate Degree with Early Entry to PHD

A master’s student may, in consultation with the student’s advisor, apply for early entry to the PhD program. Such applications are typically made in spring term but, in any event, only after at least two terms at the university. Applications must include transcripts, three recommendations, and a statement of the student’s prospective course of study. Students who elect this option are awarded the master’s degree upon completion of the course work for the PhD degree. This option requires successful completion of a minimum of twelve 4-credit graduate-level courses including:

• Issues in Early Chinese Literature (CHN 523)
• Issues in Medieval Chinese Literature (CHN 524)
• Issues in Modern Chinese Literature (CHN 525)
• Two advisor-approved graduate courses in literary theory or another literature
• Chinese Bibliography (CHN 550)
• One approved course in language pedagogy, Asian history, or another field relevant to the student’s career objectives
• Five Chinese seminars

With the advisor’s approval, one course in Reading and Conference (CHN 605) may be counted as one of the twelve courses. Students must pass a comprehensive oral examination that covers the student’s primary areas of study.

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MA in Japanese Studies

The Master of Arts (MA) degree in East Asian Languages and Literatures with a specialization in Japanese studies requires successful completion of a minimum of twelve graduate-level courses. These courses must be chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor.

Twelve courses related to the fields of Japanese Studies:

• Six courses in the Japanese Studies sector
• Two courses in methodology/theory
• Two East Asian related courses, which may be taught outside of the East Asian Languages and Literatures
• The first term of Classical Japanese (JPN 537) or Advanced Readings in Japanese Literature (JPN 534) or Structure of the Japanese Language (JPN 541)
• One course in Global Scholars (for non-native speakers of Japanese; native speakers of Japanese alternate this requirement with a course in the Japanese Studies Sector)

In addition to completion of the required courses, students must pass a comprehensive examination at the end of study or complete an MA thesis. The examination and degree granting process differs for terminal MA students and for students who apply for continued study in the University’s PhD program (see below).

Terminal MA Students in Japanese Studies

Those students who are not planning to go on to the PhD must successfully pass a two-part written examination based on a reading list of:

• Japanese literature and/or Japanese film, which should provide comprehensive coverage of major periods, writers, and genres of Japanese literature and/or film. Approximately 20 works. The student’s advisor will provide a model reading list.
• General theory and criticism, based on student’s specialized area, which can be outside of the Japanese studies. Approximately 10 works.
• A specialized area of the student’s own choosing. Approximately 10 works.

The first part of the exam shall include questions pertaining to broad issues in the field of Japanese literature and/or film deriving from section one of the students’s reading list. The second part of the exam, to be administered a week later, shall cover more specialized questions deriving from sections two and three of the student’s reading list. The student shall have forty-eight hours for each part to produce the final typed, double-spaced exams of approximately 10-12 pages each.

MA Students Seeking Entry to the PhD Program in Japanese Studies

If the student also decides to seek admission into the PhD program, the MA exam administered shall include the oral component.

An oral examination shall take place no later than the seventh week of the term in which a request for the degree has been made. It shall consist of a 1-2 hour interview with the faculty committee, which is required to be formed by the student and the advisor before the student takes the comprehensive exam, and shall include evaluation of the following:

• The student’s skill of critical thinking, reading, listening, and writing.
• The student’s ability to formulate a pedagogical approach to topics appropriate to the student’s career goals.
• A discussion of career options and prospects.

The committee shall determine whether the candidate has successfully fulfilled the requirements for the MA degree and shall confer one of the following grades: distinction, clear pass, marginal pass, or failure. This determination is independent of the student’s candidacy to the PhD program. As in the case of terminal MA students, should the committee determine that the candidate has not been successful, it may recommend that the students be given one additional opportunity to pass the exam during the next academic term.

*Consulting the advisor, the student (either Terminal MA or seeker to the PhD program) can complete a MA thesis instead of passing a comprehensive examination at the end of study. Students who elect to write a thesis are strongly recommended to register for 9 credits of Thesis (JPN 503). As in the case of students who take comprehensive examinations, consulting the faculty committee, the advisor shall determine whether the student has successfully fulfilled the requirements of the MA degree, and shall confer one of the following grades: distinction, clear pass, marginal pass, or failure. Should the advisor determine that the candidate has not been successful, the advisor may recommend that the student be given additional time to revise the thesis or to pass the exam during the next academic term.

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MA in Korean

The MA degree in EALL with a specialization in Korean literature, film and culture requires successful completion of a minimum of twelve graduate-level courses (at least four credits each). These courses must be chosen in consultation with the student’s advisor.

Students must complete 12 courses related to the fields of Korean Studies:

• Korean sector (3 courses)
• Korea-related courses (4 courses)—may be taught outside of the East Asian Languages and Literatures
• Electives (5 courses)—five advisor-approved EALL courses

In addition to completion of the required courses, students must pass a comprehensive examination at the end of study or write and defend a MA thesis.

Completing the MA Comprehensive Exam

Students who choose to take a comprehensive exam must successfully pass a two-part written examination based on a reading list of:

• Korean literature and/or film, which should provide comprehensive coverage of major periods, writers, and genres of Korean literature and/or film. Approximately 20 works. The student’s advisor will provide a model reading list.
• General theory and criticism, based on student’s specialized area, which can be outside of the Korean studies. Approximately 10 works.
• A specialized area of the student’s own choosing. Approximately 10 works.

The first part of the exam shall include questions pertaining to broad issues in the field of Korean literature and/or film deriving from section one of the students’ reading list. The second part of the exam, to be administered a week later, shall cover more specialized questions deriving from sections two and three of the student’s reading list. The student shall have forty-eight hours for each part to produce the final typed, double-spaced exams of approximately 10-12 pages each.

Completing the MA Thesis

Students who elect to write a thesis must register for 9 credits of Thesis (KRN 503).

Two terms before graduation, students meet with their advisors during the first week of term to set up a two member committee and a schedule for submitting thesis or project drafts (i.e. first week of winter term if planning to graduate spring term).

At least six weeks before the date of the thesis or project defense, submit a draft to main advisor for approval. The advisor is expected to return comments within two weeks. There will then be a continuing dialogue between the student and advisor until the manuscript is considered complete.

If approval is not obtained at this point, there is no guarantee that the student will be able to graduate that term.

Submit a clean copy of thesis or project to advisor and committee members either two weeks before defense or four weeks before filing date for approved thesis as published by Graduate School.

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MA in East Asian Linguistics and Pedagogy

The East Asian Languages and Literatures Department offers a Master of Arts (MA) program in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Linguistics and Pedagogy. This program is one of a very few in the nation that offers a complete East Asian linguistics program, covering Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Students may elect to specialize in Chinese, Japanese or Korean linguistics, in Chinese, Japanese or Korean language pedagogy, or alternatively, they may undertake cross-linguistic studies.

The forerunner of the current program was launched in 1995, when the late Professor Noriko Fujii developed a highly regarded MA and PhD program with a focus on Japanese Linguistics and Pedagogy. The current program builds upon this strong tradition, while expanding to include all three major East Asian languages.

EALL faculty’s expertise covers major sub-fields of linguistics and applied linguistics. In our research and teaching, we emphasize functional and empirical approaches to the study of language structure, use, learning and teaching.

Our instructors include:

• Kaori Idemaru: Japanese linguistics, acoustic phonetics, second language acquisition, language pedagogy.
• Zhuo Jing-Schmidt: Cognitive linguistics, corpus linguistics, emotion and pragmatics, historical linguistics and grammaticalization.
• Nayoung Kwon: (Korean) linguistics, psycho-/neuro-linguistics, language processing and acquisition.

UO is also home to a very strong Linguistics department, and students may augment their programs by drawing upon its course offerings.

MA Degree Requirements

The Master of Arts (MA) program in East Asian Languages and Literatures with specialization in East Asian Linguistics and Pedagogy requires 12 graduate-level courses in three categories:

• Core East Asian Linguistics courses
• East Asian Linguistics Electives
• Open Electives

Students are also required to either pass an MA Comprehensive Exam or successfully complete an MA Project or MA Thesis.

Prerequisite: Students with no linguistics background are required to take one of the following courses: LING 301: Introduction to Linguistic Analysis, JPN 315: Introduction to Japanese Linguistics, or KRN 315: Introduction to Korean Linguistics.

Required Core East Asian Linguistics Courses

Choose four from focus area:

East Asian Linguistics Electives

Choose at least four:

• CHN 582 History of Chinese Language
• EALL 586 East Asian Sociopragmatics
• EALL 507 CHN, JPN, and KRN Sociophonetics
• EALL 507 CHN, JPN, and KRN L2 Phonetics

Open Electives

Choose four courses. Open electives are advisor-approved courses in EALL Linguistics, Literature, and Languages. You can see sample courses here.

Other Course Requirements

• Language requirement: Non-native speakers are required to complete or test out of a course in fourth year language class in the language they specialize in. For Japanese, this would be a Global Scholars class.
• EALL 611 (2 credits): Must be taken by all graduate students during their first term.
• 600-level courses: All MA students are required to take a total of 9 credit hours of 600-level courses by the UO graduate school.
• Exam, project, or thesis requirements: Students are required to either pass an MA Comprehensive Exam or successfully complete an MA Project or MA Thesis. These will be worth between 4-9 credits.

Receiving a Certificate of EALL Learning and Teaching

Students who complete the following three graduate level courses may receive a letter from the Department certifying that they have received basic training in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean Language Learning and Teaching.

To earn the certificate, students must take both:

• EALL 542 SLA of Chinese, Japanese and Korean
• EALL 543 Chinese, Japanese and Korean Pedagogy

Students must also take one of:

• CHN 581 Chinese Pedagogical Grammar
• JPN 554 Japanese Pedagogical Grammar
• KRN 510 Korean Pedagogical Grammar

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Timeline for Master’s Thesis

In graduate programs, it’s the student’s responsibility to:

• Communicate in an appropriate and timely way with advisors to stay on track.
• Understand and meet all Graduate School deadlines.

Advising MA students is among the most important responsibilities of faculty; reading multiple drafts of theses and dissertations can be extremely time consuming. Different advisors and committee members will have different preferences and work styles in terms of how many drafts they prefer to read and how much time they need to read and comment on each one.

The guidelines below represent the minimum amount of time students should give their advisor and committee to read and respond to drafts. If a number of students plan to defend during any given term, the advisor/committee members may ask the student to turn in work to them at an even earlier date. Those students who cannot honor these deadlines may be asked to defer graduation one term.

A “clean copy” means a draft needing only minor technical and editorial corrections, not one needing substantive revisions.

• Two terms before graduation: Meet/correspond with advisor during the first week of term to set up a committee and a schedule for submitting thesis or project drafts (i.e. first week of winter term if planning to graduate spring term).
• At least six weeks before the date of the thesis or project defense: Submit a draft to main advisor for approval. The advisor is expected to return comments within two weeks. There will then be a continuing dialogue between the student and advisor until the manuscript is considered complete. If approval is not obtained at this point, there is no guarantee that the student will be able to graduate that term.
• Submit a clean copy of thesis or project to advisor and committee members either two weeks before defense or four weeks before filing date for approved thesis as published by Graduate School.

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