SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHER EDUCATION (SLATE)

Chair of SLATE Program: Susan Gonzo

Correspondence and Admission Information: SLATE Program, 3070 Foreign Language Building, 707 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801; (217) 333-2353; E-mail: slate@uiuc.edu

URL: slate.lang.uiuc.edu

CERTIFICATE OF ADVANCED STUDY IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHER EDUCATION

SLATE is a multidisciplinary program for doctoral students with an interest in second language acquisition and second language teaching. Students cannot earn a Ph.D. in SLATE; instead, students in this program earn a Certificate of Advanced Study in Second Language A cquisition and Teacher Education in conjunction with a Ph.D. in one of the cooperating units.

Students in the SLATE program can work with faculty from a number of different academic units across the campus. Cooperating faculty hold appointments in various units in the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, including the following: Curriculum and Instruction; East Asian Languages and Cultures; Educational Psychology; French; Germanic Languages and Literatures; Linguistics; Slavic Languages and Literature; and Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, as well as the Division of English as an International Language. Other units also offer courses relevant to the interests of students in SLATE.

The SLATE program is designed to meet the individual needs of its students. The course requirements in the affiliated units are generally flexible and allow freedom for students to conduct work in specialized subfields tailored to their academic interests and goals. In recent years, students have studied such topics as cognitive and affective
sociology
factors in second-language (L2) learning and teaching; communicative competence; computer-assisted language instruction; curriculum development; L2 reading strategies; psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic aspects of L2 acquisition; and L2 speech perception and production. What unifies these various fields of specialization is the rapidly growing discipline of second-language learning and teaching. SLATE students must fulfill course requirements in four core areas-linguistics, psycholinguistics/socio-linguistics, second language studies, and research methods.

admission

Because SLATE is not a Ph.D. program, all students in SLATE must apply to and be enrolled in a Ph.D. program in one of the following units: Curriculum and Instruction; East Asian Languages and Cultures; Educational Psychology; French; Germanic Languages and Literatures; Linguistics; Slavic Languages and Litera ture; or Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

After being admitted to a doctoral program in one of these units, preferably during their first semester on campus, students should complete and turn in to the SLATE program a SLATE program registration form. At this point, they will be added to the SLATE mailing list and listserv so they will receive all the information about SLATE program activities and requirements.

FINANCIAL AID

Financial aid is granted only through individual departments. A limited number of teaching and research assistantships, tuition and fee waivers, and fellowships are available each year through cooperating departments. Applicants can indicate their desire for financial aid by checking appropriate boxes on the application for admission. Financial support for a limited number of qualified SLATE candidates may also be available through assignments in the Intensive English Institute, EOP Rhetoric Program, Language Learning Laboratory, or Office of Student Teaching. Appli cants should contact these units directly for details. The SLATE Executive Committee itself administers no financial aid.