2013 Postgraduate Programme
All postgraduate students are required to do coursework in Linguistics, in addition to their research project. Only in exceptional circumstances may students who have done all their linguistic training at Rhodes be allowed to register for a thesis-only degree. Below is the coursework programme for 2013. Please note that the 2013 programme begins on Monday the 28th of January and students are expected to arrive in Grahamstown the day before to register with the department.
Requirements for the various postgraduate degrees in Linguistics at Rhodes are as follows:
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Honours: 4 modules plus a research report Masters: 5 modules, including Module 11, plus a half-thesis PhD: 5 modules, including Module 11, plus a full PhD thesis |
Coursework requirements (modules)
All new MA and PhD students are required to attend and pass at least two modules by the end of their first year of registration. Failure to do so will result in deregistration. Modules 1 and 11 are compulsory (Rhodes graduates are not allowed to do Module 1), while other modules may be selected in addition. By the end of the second year of registration, at least four modules must have been attended and passed. A student’s performance in a module will be assessed by written work during the year and an examination to be written in November of that academic year. We recommend that new students attend four modules in their first year, and complete any remaining coursework in their second year. All students must tell the department in writing when they attend their first module which other modules they intend to take and when. Only in exceptional circumstances will deviation from this plan be allowed, as firm numbers are required for module planning.
Some of our modules are offered in a compact form and others in an extended form. The amount of content is the same in each format, but the method of delivery varies. All students should arrange their own travel and accommodation.
Students registered for compact modules receive reading lists in advance of the start date of the module and must prepare ALL prescribed readings before arriving in Grahamstown for the module. Additional follow-up reading lists will be supplied during the module, for use in completing the coursework for the module and in preparation for the module exam. Compact modules typically run for one week, with sessions morning and afternoon, and may be taken by both students who are ‘in attendance’ and those who travel from afar to attend. These modules are scheduled back-to-back where possible to minimise the amount of travel required by students who live outside Grahamstown.
Extended courses are taught over 12 weeks with class meetings once a week for an afternoon. They run with the academic semesters, so the first semester modules start in February and continue until the end of May and the second semester modules are from the end of July until the end of October. Typically, initial reading lists are supplied a week before the beginning of the module and lists for the following week are supplied at each class meeting. Written work is completed during the module.
The modules on offer for 2013 are tabulated below. Please note that while we will make every effort to offer the programme as is, changes may be unavoidable and the outline is thus provisional.
Postgraduate Programme 2013 |
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Compulsory modules |
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Module 1 |
Introduction to Linguistics at Rhodes (this module is not available to Rhodes graduates) |
28 January to 2 February 2013 |
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Module 11 |
Research Project (Part 1) |
4 to 8 February 2013 |
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Research Project (Part 2) |
9 to 13 September 2013 |
Compact modules |
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Module 9 |
Topics in Psycholinguistics: reading and literacy in South Africa |
11-15 March |
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Module 12 |
Corpus Linguistics |
18 to 22 March |
Extended modules |
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Module 2 |
Phonetics & Phonology |
22 July to 31 October (semester 2) |
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Module 3 |
Language and Mind and Biolinguistics: Introduction to Minimalist Syntax |
11 February to 24 May (semester 1) |
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Module 5 |
The Acquisition of Grammar |
22 July to 31 October (semester 2) |
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Module 10 |
The Investigation of Interpersonal Meaning |
11 February to 24 May (semester 1) |
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Module 13 |
Sign Linguistics |
22 July to 31 October (semester 2) |
In addition to the modules, students are required to visit Grahamstown for two events associated with the research report/thesis component of their studies. In September of each year, first year postgraduate students meet to present their research proposals to the department in preparation for their submission to the Humanities Higher Degrees Committee. Approval from this committee is required before research may commence. In the second year, students present their research to their peers and the staff in the form of a mini-conference held in the department. In 2013 this week is scheduled to begin on Monday September the 9th.
Other opportunities
Corpus Week
Students registered for Linguistics at Rhodes will be given FREE registration in 2013 for Corpus Week, an annual gathering for further training, networking and the presentation of research to be held at Rhodes from 25 to 28 March 2013. Experts in Corpus Linguistics fromSouthern Africa and overseas will gather here for an intense period of sharing, up-skilling and collaboration. The module in Corpus Linguistics has been scheduled for the week just before Corpus Week, so that students may take full advantage of this opportunity to meet and talk to experts in the field, and be exposed to cutting edge thinking in this rapidly developing area of linguistics.
Annual conference
The societies concerned with language issues in Southern Africa (LSSA, SAALA, SAALT) will hold a joint annual conference in Stellenbosch at the beginning of July 2013 and students whose research is sufficiently far advanced (usually only in their second year of registration) may request assistance from their supervisors to submit proposals to present their work at the conference. The url for the conference is http://blogs.sun.ac.za/conference2013/
