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Graduate Curriculum

The Department of English at Yonsei University offers three different tracks for M.A. and Ph.D. programs :
Literature/Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Rhetoric/Composition. To cultivate our students as international scholars,
we offer a wide variety of courses taught in English. MA theses and doctoral dissertations are also expected to be written
in English. Courses for Literature majors center on postcolonialism, cultural studies, and interculturality.
For Linguistic majors, courses are offered in formal theory, applied linguistics, English education, and corpus studies. Courses for Rhetoric/Composition majors include writing and composition, rhetoric, translation, and case studies on English writing in Korea.

English Literature

Literature majors focus on literary and cultural studies of the 21st century—beyond English and American literature.
While questioning Eurocentric texts, curriculums, and methodologies, our graduate program offers diverse courses
on postcolonialism, cultural studies, and transnationalism/multiculturalism.
Students are encouraged to:

- Decenter the West

- Develop a new paradigm as postcolonial scholars

- Study world literature

- Broaden scholarly research to include cultural texts alongside literary texts

- Raise questions pertinent to our day and age in Korea

- Conduct comparative research on Korean studies and English literature

- Introduce K-pop and Korean cultural studies to the international academy

Rhetoric/Composition

Rhetoric/Composition majors are trained to become specialists in English writing and composition. We encourage students to take part in the college tutoring program for English writing and to participate in creating new knowledge in rhetoric studies. We prepare students for professions as teachers, scholars, or consultants in writing centers in schools, universities, and various business enterprises. We also recommend students from literature and linguistics majors to take classes on rhetoric and composition to enhance their English competencies and further develop their writing skills.
Students are expected to:

- Analyze different genres ranging from fiction to nonfiction

- Learn stylistics

- Develop creative ideas and content

- Study the fundamental principles of rhetoric

Linguistics

Linguistics majors study a wide range of areas including phonetics, phonology, syntax, corpus linguistics,
pragmatics, conversation/discourse analysis, social linguistics, English education, and psycholinguistics.
Students not only deal with conventional ‘analog’ texts, but also are trained to collect
and analyze digital data using technological tools and various methodologies.
Students learn:

- How to build databases of spoken and written English

- A wide range of theories and methods of data analysis

- Regional/cultural differences and other variances in English

- Applied linguistics and English pedagogy