Graduate Program in Japanese Linguistics


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Ph.D. Requirements

Course work: 36 credits

  • Identify your main advisor based on your interests and consult her to design your course work.  It is recommended that you will take a research method course such as English 711 or any other course that would suit to your future research plan.
  • UW-Madison requires all Ph.D. students to complete a Ph.D. minor.  The students in the Japanese linguistics Ph.D. program have typically completed a minor in Linguistics or a minor in SLA.  You need to consult with your minor advisor for the requirements.  But the 12 credits required for a minor count as part of the 36 credits required for the Ph.D. course work.
  • We encourage students to attend the LSA Summer Linguistic Institute, the Penn State Summer Applied Linguistics Institute, or other special summer sessions offered at a different institution.  You should discuss with your advisor your plan to attend such sessions offered at another institution.  The advisory committee consisting of the three faculty in Japanese linguistics will review your plan and may consider that the courses you take at another institution could substitute up to 3 credits of the 36 credit requirements.
  • It normally takes 4 to 5 semesters to complete the course work.


Foreign Language Requirements:

  • We expect a Ph.D. candidate to have basic knowledge of an East Asian Language other than Japanese.  2 semesters of course work such as Elementary Chinese I and II or Elementary Korean I and II satisfy this requirement.  The credits you earn from these languages courses DO NOT count towards the 36 credit requirements.
  • If your native language is one of these languages, you are considered to have satisfied the language requirement. 
  • If you have studied one of these languages elsewhere, you can also take a placement test with an instructor of the language.  If the instructor judges that you have the level of proficiency that is equal to, or surpasses, that of the students who have taken two semesters of the language offered in our department, you are considered to have satisfied the requirement.
  • The language requirements must be completed by the time when you finish taking the preliminary exams.


Prelims:

  • You need to complete three preliminary exams.  Typically two of them are in-class or take home exams and one of them is a paper that would ideally become a basis of your dissertation.  These three requirements should be completed ideally within one semester, or no longer than one year.
  • The topic areas for preliminary exams should be identified in consultation with your advisor.  The following two cases are most recent examples:

Case 1:                    
1) Japanese discourse functional linguistics
2) Theories of SLA and their application to Japanese

Case 2:                    
1) Japanese discourse functional linguistics
2) Phonology

Your performance in these exams should demonstrate that you have solid knowledge of the two selected subfields of Japanese Linguistics.

  • Your prelim paper should demonstrate your ability to critically review the recent development in a topic area of your choice and to present an original analysis.  In order words, we expect the quality of this paper to be publishable or presentable at a conference.


Dissertation:

  • The final requirement for a Ph.D. is to complete a substantial (book length) original research.
  • You need to form a committee of UW-Madison faculty who evaluate your dissertation.  The committee consists of 5 members including a chair or co-chairs.?@
  • You need to select an EALL faculty as a chair or a co-chair.  Depending on the area of your research, you may ask a faculty in another department to serve as a co-chair.  You should select other members of your committee based on your topic and the faculty’s expertise. 
  • Once you develop a basic idea of your dissertation, you should submit a proposal to the committee and schedule an oral defense of proposal.  The proposal should include the followings: Introduction of the topic and issues to be explored in your dissertation with a brief review of relevant literature; Explanation of data and methodology; Sample analysis (if possible and applicable); Outline of chapters.
  • Allow the committee members at least 3 weeks to review your proposals.  The proposal defense will give you a chance to discuss your plan with the committee members and clarify pathways that you are going to follow in the dissertation research.
  • After the proposal meeting, you are essentially going to work on your own to write a dissertation.  You should negotiate with your chair (or co-chairs) regarding the styles of advising.  Some faculty prefer to review your work Chapter by Chapter, while the others may want to wait until you complete several major chapters to review your work.  The other members of the committee typically will not read your work until shortly before the final oral defense.
  • Once the chair (co-chairs) considers the whole piece of your dissertation to be ready to be evaluated by the committee, you will schedule an oral defense taking into consideration all committee members’ schedule.  Allow the committee members at least one month to review your work before the oral defense.
  • At the oral defense, you will be asked to briefly summarize your work and the committee members ask you various questions regarding your work.  At the end of the meeting, the committee will make a decision as to whether you can deposit your dissertation as is, or you need to revise certain sections, or you need to work further and schedule another oral defense (we tried to avoid the third option as much as possible and make sure that your work has been polished enough to pass the oral before scheduling it).
  • Once you complete the revision and deposit your dissertation to the Memorial Library, you will have a Ph.D.!