| Plan
A (Thesis) Requirements
All students in the MA program, whether Plan A, Plan
B, or Plan C, are expected to have undergone second- or foreign-language
learning. Students who have not had such experience before entering the
program are required to take at least a semester of language study,
which does not count toward the 39-credit-hour MA requirement.
• Eight core courses
(24 credits): ESL 441, 490, 600, 640, 650, 660, 690, 710
• One graduate seminar: ESL 730, 750, or 760
• Two electives (6 credits) approved by the adviser
• ESL 700 Thesis (6 credits)
Plan B (Non-thesis) Requirements
• Eight core courses
(24 credits): ESL 441, 490, 600, 640. 650, 660, 690, 710
• One graduate seminar: ESL 730, 750, or 760
• Four electives (12 credits) approved by the adviser
• Submission of an acceptable scholarly paper
Plan C Requirements
Plan C is a special program individually planned for
each student. It is intended for established language scholars who wish
to pursue additional studies and receive academic credit. Typically,
Plan C scholars already have an MA or PhD degree in a foreign language,
applied linguistics, or a closely related field.
Plan C students are exempt from the specific core
requirements of the other plans. Plan C students take a qualifying
examination (written) and a final examination (written and oral). A Plan
C scholarly paper is required. In addition, Plan C students must meet
the Graduate Division residence requirements of two semesters of
full-time work or a period of enrollment that is equivalent in credits.
Admissibility to Plan C is determined by the
department’s admissions committee or within the first semester after
arrival. At that time a committee is established to recommend courses
and supervise the student’s course plan. Scholars accepted for Plan C
generally have the following qualifications:
1. No less than five years of full-time experience working in the field
of second- or foreign language education;
2. At least two years of administrative,
teacher-training, or materials-development responsibility; and
3. An outstanding academic record and a high performance on the GRE.
Additional information concerning the program and its
requirements is contained in the ESL program brochure. The topics
covered include financial aid, transfer of credit, and requirements such
as the scholarly paper. Prospective applicants are urged to obtain this
brochure from the graduate chair. Applications for graduate
assistantships and tuition waivers are also available.
Doctoral Degree
See the “Second Language Acquisition” section
within the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, for information regarding the
interdisciplinary PhD in second language acquisition.
English Language Institute
College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature
Moore 570
1890 East-West Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 956-8479
Fax: (808) 956-2802
E-mail: uhmeli@hawaii.edu
The English Language Institute (ELI) is located in the
Department of English as a Second Language. ELI’s primary purpose is
to provide English instruction for international and immigrant students,
or others, whose native language is not English so as to facilitate
their academic studies at the University. The ELI program is only for
graduates and undergraduates enrolled in degree programs. Therefore,
only students admitted to the University are eligible to register for
ELI courses.
All international and immigrant students admitted to
the University are referred to ELI to determine if they must take the
ELI placement examination before registering for University courses. If
a student does not fulfill this obligation, ELI will place a hold on the
student’s registration. The ELI placement examination is generally
offered three times at the beginning of each semester. Information about
the testing dates and times can be found in the current Schedule of
Classes, and students must sign up in person at Moore 570 prior to
the testing date.
ELI Exemptions
Students are exempt from taking the ELI placement test
under the following conditions: (a) the student is a native speaker of
English; (b) the student has received a score of 600 or better on the
paper-based TOEFL, or a score of 250 or better on the computer-based
TOEFL; (c) the student has received a score of 460 or better on the
verbal section of the GRE; (d) the student has received a score of 460
or better on the verbal section of the SAT if taken before April 1995 or
a score of 540 or better if taken in April 1995 or thereafter; (e) the
student has an Associate in arts degree from a community college within
the University of Hawai‘i system; (f) the student has obtained the
equivalent of 60 transferable semester credits with a GPA of 2.0 or
better from a regionally accredited college or university in the United
States or from a university whose academic standing is recognized by the
University of Hawai‘i and where English is the primary language of
instruction; or (g) the student has completed six years of full-time
schooling with English as the medium of instruction at a middle school,
high school, college, or university in Australia, Canada (except
Quebec), Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, or the United States.
Documentation of all six years is required.
These exemption criteria apply at the time students
are admitted to the University. An exemption on the basis of one of
these criteria may be automatically granted by the University, or it may
be granted by the ELI office if the student can provide the appropriate
documentation, including transcripts or test results.
Assignment to ELI Courses
All other international or immigrant students who have
been admitted to the University must take the ELI placement test before
they can register for courses. Placement into ELI courses or exemption
from ELI courses will be based on the test results. All ELI courses must
be completed within the first year of study at the University. The
student will receive a placement form from ELI indicating the courses to
be taken each semester.
Relationship to Other Course Work
ELI courses are not credit-bearing courses, but they
are considered equivalent to 3-credit courses when considering a
student’s course load. Students placed into ELI courses need to reduce
the number of additional credit courses they can take and should expect
to make slower progress in their regular University studies. This is an
especially important factor in some graduate programs and should be
considered carefully by students whose time or financial support is
limited. |