Department of English
P.O. Box 413
UW-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI 53201

Curtin Hall 439
3243 N. Downer Ave.
Phone: 414-229-4511
Fax: 414-229-2643
E-mail: connieb@uwm.edu

Graduate Handbook - Second Language Requirement

Doctoral candidates are required to demonstrate proficiency in a second language. The student's major professor and the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies must approve the choice of a language. If a student's major professor considers proficiency in more than one language necessary to the student's specific plan of study, exams in more than one language may be required.

Proficiency is defined as a reading knowledge of a second language. For the Ph.D. in English, proficiency is demonstrated in at least one of several ways:

Completion of the fifth semester of a college-level language course with a grade of B or better in the past three years.
Demonstration of second language proficiency required as part of a master's program, providing the M. A. was awarded in the past three years. The student will need written evidence of second language proficiency (notation on transcript, letter from former institution, e.g.).
While a doctoral student, completion of an upper level U/G or graduate course in literature, theory, or translation offered by a language department (a grade of B or better). The course readings cannot be in English. Or, completion of a "reading knowledge" course in a second language with a grade of B or better. Advance approval from the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies is required for students who choose this option.

Courses that are listed as undergraduate courses only, i.e. designated with a 'U', can not be taken for graduate credit even if the course is approved for Second Language Requirements. Teaching Assistants who wish to take a 'U' class to meet Second Language Requirements; e.g. French 401, must take at last six graduate credits in addition to the 'U' class in order to meet Graduate School enrollment requirements. Students who are not Teaching Assistants may want to determine if a 'U' course qualifies as proper enrollment for the purposes of financial aid.
International students for whom English is not a first language may satisfy the requirement with another class in their concentration in English graduate studies.

Students who have not met the criteria stated above must take a two-hour written translation exam, which consists of a short passage (approximately 1000 words) of scholarly or literary prose to translate. Students may use a dictionary and/or grammar book in the exam. A qualified faculty member will evaluate the exam by making a judgment about the student's ability to deal with grammatical and syntactical problems in the language, and will write a brief letter to the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies (and copied to the student) indicating whether the student has passed the exam. Students who do not pass the exam may retake it the following semester.

Students should endeavor to pass the language exam before taking the preliminary examination, as dissertator status cannot be obtained until the second language requirement is satisfied. TA eligibility for doctoral students in their fourth year requires passage of the second language and preliminary examinations by the end of the spring semester, as well as application for dissertator status.

Scheduling the second language exam

Unless there are exceptional circumstances, language exams are given twice a year: in September and January. Students arrange to take the exam by notifying the Graduate Program Assistant. The Associate Chair for Graduate Studies locates a faculty member to design and evaluate the exam. Because language exams are given at designated times, the faculty member evaluates all students taking the same exam at that time. The Associate Chair, not the student, sets up the specific time and place of the exam.

In order to ensure that the student has met the Second Language Requirement, The Second Language Requirement Certification form must be completed by the student, the Major Professor and the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. The form provides the student and the Major Professor with an opportunity to review the method by which the student intends to satisfy second language requirements and to certify that the method used qualifies for that purpose. The Second Language Requirement Certification form is available from the Graduate Program Assistant in Curtin Hall Room 433.