Master's Degree Requirements and Examination Procedure

Each semester, our graduate students should take at least one course and may take up to 15 credits.
Courses given to students of literature, linguistics, TESOL divisions are as follows:
Requirements in the Literature division are as follows:

Bibliography (2)
Research paper (2)
Literary Theories and Criticism (3-3)
Students of literature division may also take electives 15 elective credits.
Discipline courses for students of the Linguistics division are as follows:
Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics (3)
Sociolinguistics (3)
Morphology (3)
Semantics (3)
Pragmatics (3)
Syntax (3)
Discourse Analysis (3)
Psycholinguistics (3)
Phonetics (3)
Phonology (3)
Historical Linguistics (3)
Students of the linguistics division should take at least 18 credits.
Requirements in the TESOL division are as follows:
Second Language Acquisition (3)
Material Design and Teaching Methodology (3)
Language Assessment (3)
Research Design and Statistics for Applied Linguistics (3)
Qualitative Research Method (3)
Courses offered each academic year depend upon our professors' specialties and our students' needs. Students of the literature division must earn 38 credits to obtain their master's degree. (6 thesis credits included). Students of the linguistics division and TESOL division must earn 36 credits. Students of the literature division are allowed to submit their proposals to their advisors only after they have earned 32 credits; students of the linguistics division and TESOL division may submit their proposals when they have earned 30 credits. Proposals submitted should bear the advisor's signature on it as an agreement. When these requirements have been met, students may begin working on the thesis. Each student need to present at least one paper in a conference or an academic journal. . Thesis advisors are to be professors or associate professors in our department; however, assistant professors may serve as advisors if they have been lecturing in our department for at least one year and have obtained the permission from the department faulty meeting. Once the thesis is completed, the student will have to go through the oral defense held by the Thesis-Oral- Defense-Committee composed of three professor or associate professor. After passing the oral defense and presenting the final version of the thesis to the department, the student may obtain 6 thesis credits and a master's degree.
Thesis Requirements
1. A short preliminary proposal: A 2-3 page abstract explaining the problem you will be dealing with, the types of sources or reference works and the methods you will be using, and the possible contribution or implications of your work. (A Bibliography or Reference list must be included.)
2. A completed thesis that would include the following:
a. Blank page
b. Title page
c. Page of signatures of examiners
d. Table of contents
e. Chinese abstract
f. English abstract
g. Acknowledgements
h. List of illustrations or charts
i. Thesis chapters
j. Works cited
k. Appendices

A Time Table of turning your Thesis

Graduate Students' Oral Defense of Thesis
1. Dates on application for the oral defense: the application date should be at least one month before the test date.
2. The committee members of the oral examination must be certified professors or associate professors. To applications of assistant professors as committee members, the applicants should attach a list of their works and experiences. Assistant professors serve as committee members after passing the review by the Department Meeting. The application for oral examination can only be made before Jan. or Jun. The application will be invalid when the time limit expires.
3. Applicants should prepare their application forms（include a file）and transcripts beforehand, handing them to the secretary Joyce Liu for preparation of official documents. Download: http://www.pu.edu.tw /~eng
4. Applicants should check with the members of their committee two days before the examination date to confirm the time and place of the exam.
5. The examinee may receive his/her signature sheet from the advisor after the advisor decides that the examining committees requirements have been met.
6. The first page following the title page of the thesis is the signature sheet of the committee.
7. For the format of the thesis students may refer to theses submitted in previous years.
8. Two paperback copies of the thesis should be handed to the Registrar of the university; two hardback copies should be prepared for the library, one hardback copy for the department office .(The total is two paperback and three hardback copies.)
9. After correctly filing the thesis, the graduate student should apply for verification of the process completion to the library. Please visit http://www.lib.pu.edu.tw/eThesys/index.html
10. After receiving and filling out the leave form, students may hand it in to the Registrar and receive the Master's Degree diploma.