English Language and Rhetoric
Department of English
University of Washington

      English Language Studies -- broadly understood as covering interests from rhetoric and composition through discourse analysis and stylistics, to studies in Old and Middle English, English language history, language theory, and second language acquisition -- is the primary interest and expertise of the eight faculty members listed below. Because of this concentration of interest, since 1992, the Department of English at the University of Washington has offered a track in English Language and Rhetoric in both the M.A. and Ph.D. program.

      At the M.A. level, the language and rhetoric faculty have identified four areas of basic preparation for advanced English language work -- language foundations, theory, analysis, and practice -- and regularly offers courses in each of these areas. Students interested in academic emphasis on language studies are strongly advised to take four such courses as a part of their M.A. training.

      At the Ph.D. level, for students whose interests lie primarily in language rather than literature, the department established a sequence of examination areas parallel to those required of literature students. For language and rhetoric students, the areas of examination are as follows: (1) Major Approach to English Language Study, (2) Textual Focus; (3) Second Approach to English Language Study; (4) 1 Individual Topic (General Oral Examination).

      The language faculty in the Department of English are all active teachers and scholars, with a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary interests; many are involved in collaborative research projects. They are particularly concerned with supporting graduate English language studies in as wide a range as possible, while providing -- through courses and supervision of exams -- an integrated and coherent preparation for students' applications of those studies. Current graduate students in the English Language and Rhetoric track represent diverse interests, from critical discourse analysis of basic writing curricula and ethnographic research on the teaching of writing to legal discourse analysis and national language policy and history, from analysis of adult literacy narratives to language and gender in the military.


ENGLISH LANGUAGE & RHETORIC FACULTY
Major Research Interests
Anis Bawarshi: rhetorical theory, composition studies, genre theory
George Dillon: rhetorical theory; language theory; hypertext; writing-on-the-Web
Juan Guerra: literacy; ethnography; composition theory
Yasuko Kanno: bilingual education and bilingualism; language, culture, identity
Sandra Silberstein: reading theory, processes, pedagogy; sociolinguistics; discourse analysis
Robert Stevick: history of English
Gail Stygall: discourse analysis; social and rhetorical theory; legal discourse
James Tollefson: language policy; second language acquisition


Classes in classical and historical rhetoric, language pedagogy, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics in Asian and Romance languages available from faculty in Applied Linguistics Task Force.