Our Programs

• English Education
• Linguistics
• Literature
• Professional Writing & Rhetoric

• Composition
• Linguistics
• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
• Literature

• Computational Linguistics
• Special Study Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
• Technical & Professional Writing
• Computational Linguistics
• Immigrant Literacies in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
• Teaching of Composition
• Teaching of Post-Secondary Reading in Composition

View more about each of our Certificates.

• Literature
• Linguistics
• Professional Writing & Rhetoric (a.k.a. Technical & Professional Writing)

Interested in changing the world by inspiring and teaching the next generation of critical readers and writers? In the English Education program, students will develop the subject matter knowledge needed to enter credential programs and become an English language arts teacher at the secondary level.

Interested in human language and how we communicate with one another? In the Linguistics program, students will acquire the tools to discover how language structures the way we think and communicate with others and be well prepared for advanced graduate work and/or careers in the tech industry, government and research, translation, forensics, lexicography or advertising.

Interested in the power of literature to expand our minds, to tell us about ourselves and the collective human experience? In the Literature program, students will delve deeply into historically grounded study of English literatures from around the world and become skilled readers and thoughtful critics well prepared for advanced graduate work and/or careers in teaching, public relations, law, advertising or business.

Interested in how writing can be designed, produced and read to persuade, inform and enlighten? In the Professional Writing and Rhetoric major, students will master the written communication, design and editing skills for employment in almost every field of industry and public life, including technology, business, government and research, and non-profit organizations.

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic reading and writing. Courses emphasize equity and success for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. Excellent preparation for teaching in two-year colleges.

Study contemporary theory over a broad spectrum of the levels of linguistic structure: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse analysis, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.

The M.A. Program serves the needs of those whose goal is teaching in junior or community colleges or private high schools, pursuing a PhD, or advancing skills and knowledge in reading and writing about literature. Our graduates work as teachers in high schools and community colleges; enter the field of publishing; write for journals, magazines, and online publications; earn PhDs; enter law school; start their own businesses; and work for non-profits, foundations, and government agencies.

Engage with theoretical foundations and contemporary research in linguistics, sociolinguistics, and second-language acquisition. Learn practical classroom teaching methodology suitable for adult second-language learners.

Explore computational methods and their theoretical underpinnings including text processing, statistical patterns, part-of-speech tagging, text segmentation and classification, extraction of  meaning from texts and machine learning.

Learn foundational skills and knowledge in language acquisition and pedagogy needed for an entry level positions as an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, tutor, or instructional aide in a variety of settings in the US and language teaching contexts around the world. 

Study fundamentals of technical and professional writing. Courses emphasize technical writing, editing, document design, writing for the web, and grant writing. The certificate includes an internship. 

The Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Computational Linguistics is designed to provide academic training in the study of computational approaches to language analysis. Computational tools are supported by a strong foundation in linguistic theory including natural language syntax, semantics and metaphor identification.

Study language, literacies and the immigrant experience. The program integrates community service learning to enable certificate students to integrate their professional expertise and cross-disciplinary thinking with meaningful civic action.

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic writing. Courses emphasize ways to support developing writing, particularly in accelerated, co-requisite and integrated reading-writing classes. 

Engage with the research, theory, and practices of teaching academic reading. Courses emphasize ways to support developing readers, particularly in accelerated, co-requisite and integrated reading-writing classes. 

Designed to serve current SF State graduate students, post-baccalaureate students, current teachers or anyone interested in pursuing careers that serve English language learners, the Graduate Certificate in TESOL provides knowledge of applied linguistics, language acquisition theories, and methods of teaching in the TESOL field for teaching positions as an English as a second or foreign language teacher, tutor, or instructional aide in a variety of settings in the US and language teaching contexts around the world. This certificate does not provide a California Teaching Credential.

At the undergraduate level, students begin to explore the patterns of sounds, words, sentences, and conversations in a variety of languages and speech communities.

The Literature in English minor allows students from any major to explore literature from British, American, and other global traditions in English.

The Professional Writing and Rhetoric (PWR) concentration prepares students to be successful workplace writers in almost every field of industry and public life, including high-technology industries, business, government, and research and nonprofit organizations.