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Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

M.A.T. Comprehensive Exam Format

Exam date: Early January, generally the Thursday and Friday before classes begin.

The final evaluation for the M.A.T. in World Languages consists of a six-hour written examination split into two three-hour exam days. Each student’s committee will consist of faculty members representing each of the three areas: world language pedagogy, linguistics, and literature/culture.

Written Examination Format

  • Area A: General Education/World Languages Education, Theory, and Pedagogy — 120 minutes
  • Area B: Literature/Culture — 90 minutes. Area B must be answered in the program language.
  • Area C: Linguistics — 90 minutes. Area C must also be answered in the program language.

The exam will be held over two consecutive days.

Grading

  1. Pass all components: No oral examination.
  2. Weak pass or fail on one or two components: Oral examination. Students may receive a weak pass or fail due to failure to show mastery of either the written language or the overall content tested. The oral examination will follow within a two- or three-week period of the original date of the written exam.
  3. Fail all sections: No oral examination will be offered. The student must retake the written exam near the end of the semester, in April or November.
  4. Fail at the oral exam: The student must retake the written exam near the end of the semester, in April or November.

The oral examination, if required, will consist of questions on omissions or errors found in the written examination, or on amplification of either the tested material or other material relevant to the student’s program of study. At least one area of the oral exam must be in the program language.

Results of the written and oral examination will be reported to the M.A.T. Advisor by the Chair of the exam committee.

The M.A.T. Advisor will compile the questions for the written examination in consultation with the members of the candidate’s committee. The Chair of the Committee, appointed by the M.A.T. Advisor, will preside over the oral exam.

Reading lists are language-specific for Areas B and C. Students should consult with the corresponding committee members for a comprehensive reading list for these areas. General Education/World Languages Education, Theory, and Pedagogy will be the same for all languages. This reading list is included below.

Revised M.A.T. Reading List

M.A.T. in World Languages Degree
Reading List, revised May 2018

Area A: General Education/World Languages Education, Theory, and Pedagogy

Books

  • Brandl, K. (2008). Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting Principles to Work. Prentice Hall.
  • Curtain, H., & Dahlberg, C. (2010). Languages and Children Making the Match: New Languages for Young Learners, Grades K-8. 4th edition. Pearson Education.
  • Ducate, L., & Arnold, N. (Eds.). (2011). Present and Future Promises of CALL: From Theory and Research to New Directions in Language Teaching. CALICO: St. Marcos, TX.
  • Glisan, E. W., & Donato, R. (2017). Enacting the Work of Language Instruction: High-leverage Teaching Practices. Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
  • Met, M. (1998). Critical Issues in Early Second Language Learning. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.
  • Shrum, J. L., & Glisan, E. W. (2015). Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction. 5th edition. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
  • The Keys to the Classroom. ACTFL Publication. Available through ACTFL books and publications.

Articles

  • Abbott, A., & Lear, D. (2010). “The Connections Goal Area in Spanish Community Service-Learning: Possibilities and Limitations.” Foreign Language Annals, 43(2), 231-245.
  • Adair-Hauck, B., & Donato, R. (1994). Foreign Language Explanations within the Zone of Proximal Development. Canadian Modern Language Review, 50, 532-557.
  • Adair-Hauck, B., Glisan, E. W., Koda, K., Swender, E. B., & Sandrock, P. (2006). The integrated performance assessment (IPA): Connecting assessment to instruction and learning. Foreign Language Annals, 39, 359-382.
  • Blattner, G., & Fiori, M. (2011). Virtual social network communities: An investigation of language learners’ development of sociopragmatic awareness and multiliteracy skills. CALICO Journal, 29(1), 24-43.
  • Cerezo, L., Caras, A., & Leow, R. P. (2016). The effectiveness of guided induction versus deductive instruction on the development of complex Spanish gustar structures: An analysis of learning outcomes and processes. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38(2), 265-291.
  • Egbert, J., Herman, D., & Chang, A. (2014). To flip or not to flip? That’s not the question: Exploring flipped instruction in technology supported language learning environments. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 1-10.
  • Espinosa, L. F. (2015). Effective Use of Performance-based Assessments to Identify English Knowledge and Skills of EFL Students in Ecuador. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(12), 2441. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0512.02
  • Horwitz, E. K. (2005). Classroom Management for Teachers of Japanese and Other Foreign Languages. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 56-64.
  • Ibrahim, K. (2017). The impact of ecological factors on game-based L2 practice and learning. Foreign Language Annals, 50(3), 533-546.
  • Kinginger, C. (2001). i+1 ≠ ZPD. Foreign Language Annals, 34(5), 417-425.
  • Kissau, S., & Adams, M. J. (2016). Instructional Decision Making and IPAs: Assessing the Modes of Communication. Foreign Language Annals, 49(1), 105-123. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12184
  • Knutson, E. (1997). Reading with a Purpose: Communicative Reading Tasks for the Foreign Language Classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 30(1), 49-57.
  • Loewen, S. (2013). Instructed second language acquisition. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics.
  • Long, M. (2017). Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA): Geopolitics, methodological issues, and some major research question. ISLA, 1.
  • Macías, D. F., & Sánchez, J. A. (2015). Classroom Management: A Persistent Challenge for Pre-Service Foreign Language Teachers. Profile Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 17(2), 81-99. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v17n2.43641
  • Rifkin, B. (2003). Guidelines for foreign language lesson planning. Foreign Language Annals, 36(2), 167-179.
  • Rosell-Aguilar, F. (2017). State of the app: A taxonomy and framework for evaluating language learning mobile applications. CALICO Journal, 34(2), 243-258.
  • Shadiev, R., Hwang, W., & Huang, Y. (2017). Review of research on mobile language learning in authentic environments. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 30(3-4), 284-303.
  • Steckenbiller, C. (2016). Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee in 140 characters or less: Using Twitter as a creative approach to literature in the intermediate German classroom. Unterrichtspraxis, 49(2), 147-160.
  • VanPatten, B. (2017). Situating instructed language acquisition: Facts about second language acquisition. ISLA, 1.

Additional Resources

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