Certificates

Bachelor Level

Description

The Certificate in Computational Linguistics is designed to provide academic training in the study of computational approaches to language analysis. The curriculum assumes no prior linguistic or programming knowledge and introduces students to a variety of computational methods and their theoretical underpinnings including: writing programs in Python to process raw texts (tokenization), discovering statistical patterns in linguistic data (frequency distribution), performing part-of-speech tagging, text segmentation, and classification,(context-free grammars, dependency grammars), extracting meaning from texts, and applying various machine learning methods to data mining.

Coordinator

Anastasia Smirnova
Email: smirnov@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-3102
Office: HUM 429

Requirements

  • ENG 420 - Introduction to the Study of Language
  • ENG 421 - Syntax
  • ENG 620 - Introduction to Computational Linguistics
  • ENG 680 - Applied Computational Linguistics

Select One:

  • ENG 424 - Phonology and Morphology
  • CSC 620 - Natural Language Technologies 

Admission to the Program

If you currently ARE a matriculated undergraduate student and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you do not need to apply to the University, but you must submit a certificate of admission application, statement of purpose explaining your interest in the certificate, and unofficial transcripts. The certificate application, statement of purpose and unofficial transcripts can be submitted to the Department of English office in HUM 484 or emailed to english@sfsu.edu.

Non-matriculated students may complete the certificate through Open University through the College of Professional & Global Education. Before starting the certificate courses, please submit to the Department of English office in HUM 484 or email the following documents to english@sfsu.edu

  • A statement explaining your interest in the Certificate
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university last attended 

The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated undergraduate students, you cannot take more than two courses for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a B.A. program are not eligible for financial aid.

Required Upon Completion

Once you complete the courses in the certificate, you should fill out the Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form and pay the $7.00 processing fee to receive the certificate diploma. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

In order to be accepted to an undergraduate certificate program, a student must have completed 56 semester units of undergraduate course work with a 2.0 (C) grade point average. A maximum of 6 Technical and Professional Writing advisor-approved transfer units is allowed toward the certificate.

Before completing the certificate, students must demonstrate appropriate writing competency by successful completion of the required 18 units of upper-division, writing-intensive Technical and Professional Writing course work.

Requirements

Course Courses

  • ENG 402 - Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric
  • ENG 540 - Professional Editing
  • ENG 545 - Visual Rhetoric and Document Design
  • ENG 695 - Internship in Professional Writing and Rhetoric

Elective Courses

Chosen from skills electives courses described under the B.A. program, including a minimum of 6 Technical and Professional Writing units - see an advisor.

Note: All units applied to the Technical and Professional Writing certificate must be earned with a grade of C or better.

Admission to the Certificate Program

Non-matriculated students should apply through Cal State Apply. Please upload your unofficial transcripts of all colleges attended to the Cal State Apply website. 

If selected for admission, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the SF State Grad Studies office in order to secure your offer of admission. Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript.

If you ARE currently a matriculated undergraduate student at SF State and you wish to apply for admission to the program, please submit a Certificate of Admission Application by email to: english@sfsu.edu along with your unofficial transcripts. 

The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1. 

Requirement Upon Completion

For the final award of the TPW certificate degree, students must fill out a Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form available on the Graduate Studies website and pay the $7.00 processing fee. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

Description

Designed to serve SF State undergraduates, this certificate is an introduction to the TESOL field with courses that provide 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.

This certificate does not provide a California Teaching Credential, but it supplements other teaching preparation and could be applied to being an instructional aid in public schools or to teaching or tutoring adults in private schools and language institutes that do not require teaching credentials. 

For questions, please contact the coordinator.

Coordinator

Priya Abeywickrama
Phone: (415) 338-3095
Email: abeywick@sfsu.edu

Certificate in Special Study in TESOL - 12 units

  • ENG 423 - Language Analysis for Language Teachers
  • ENG 426 - Second Language Acquisition
  • ENG 523 - Tutoring Practicum
  • ENG 608 - Language Teaching in Multilingual Contexts

Admission to the Certificate Program

If you currently ARE a matriculated undergraduate student with a minimum GPA of 2.8 at SF State, and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you do not need to apply to the University, but you must submit a certificate of admission application, statement of purpose explaining your interest in the certificate (1 page), and unofficial transcripts. Certificate application, statement of purpose and unofficial transcripts can be submitted to the Department of English office in HUM 484 or emailed to english@sfsu.edu.

 

Non-matriculated students may complete the certificate through Open University through the College of Professional & Global Education. Before starting the certificate courses, please submit to the Department of English office in HUM 484 or email the following documents to english@sfsu.edu

  • A statement explaining your interest in the Certificate (1 page) 
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university last attended 

The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated undergraduate students, you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a B.A. program are not eligible for financial aid.

Required Upon Completion

Once you complete the 4 courses in the certificate (with a minimum 2.0 average), the English Dept. will inform Graduate Studies (they issue all undergrad and grad certificates) and you will fill out the Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form and pay the $7.00 processing fee to receive the Certificate in Special Study in TESOL diploma. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

 

Master Level

Description

The certificate program is designed to provide academic training in the study of 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.

Coordinator

Maricel Santos
Email: mgsantos@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-7445
Building: HUM 465

Courses (12 units)

  • ENG 832 - Seminar on Immigrant Literacies & Community-based Projects

Select one the following:

  • ENG 735 - Community-based Curriculum Development
  • ENG 736 Teaching ESL in the Community

Select one of the following:

  • HED 810 - Public Health and Community Organizing
  • HED 835 - Health Policy
  • HED 845 - Training and Educational Process
  • AAS 833 - Seminar: Asian American Family & Identity
  • AAS 875 - Asian American Community in Ethnic Studies
  • ETHS 710 - Theories and Concepts in Ethnic Studies

Capstone:

  • XXX 899 - Special Study
    • e.g. ENG 899 for M.A. TESOL students
    • e.g. HED 899 for MPH students
    • e.g. ETHS 750 - Ethnic Community Practicum for ETHS students
    • Or equivalent graduate-level community service-learning course (with approval of advisor)

Admission to the Program

Required application materials for all applicants:

  1. a short personal statement which outlines your interests in immigrant language and literacy issues
  2. transcripts
  3. current vita or resume
  4. names and contact information of TWO references (provide name, job title or relationship, address, phone number)
  5. evidence of completion of the university’s Level I written English proficiency requirements*
  6. For non-matriculated students only: documentation of a passing score on the Analytical Writing section of the GRE or GMAT; or a 3-4 page academic writing sample (e.g. research paper, grant proposal, publication)

Please note: If you are currently a matriculated graduate student, you DO NOT need to apply to the university; submit the Certificate of Admission Application and email items 1-5 listed above to the English Department at english@sfsu.edu. Please enter send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the application form.

If you are a prospective, non-matriculated student, you need to apply to the university through Cal State Apply, and submit items 1-6 listed above to Cal State Apply's "Program Materials" section. Unofficial transcripts should be uploaded to the Cal State Apply's "Program Materials" section and then official transcripts should be mailed to Graduate Studies.

Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript.

Mail official transcripts to:

Graduate Admissions Office, ADM 250
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132

The deadline to apply for Fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for Spring semester is November 1.

*For matriculated graduate students in TESOL: Evidence of completion of the written English proficiency requirement is determined based on a satisfactory evaluation of the student’s Statement of Purpose, submitted to the department as part of the application.

Please note that you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a master’s program are not eligible for financial aid.

Requirement Upon Completion

For the final award of the Immigrant Literacies certificate degree, students must fill out a Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form available on the Graduate Studies website and pay the $7.00 processing fee. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form. Please contact the English Department at (415) 338-2660, if you have any questions. 

No course applied to the Certificate may be taken CR/NC, and a grade of A or B must be earned in each course. Students may enroll in any of the courses listed above even if they do not wish to complete the certificate. Students wishing to earn the Certificate must follow all University requirements and procedures for graduate certificate programs as outlined in the San Francisco State University Bulletin. For further information, contact the English Department, HUM 484, (415) 338-2660 or (415) 338-2264.

Description

The program is designed for people who want to teach composition at the senior high school, community college, college and adult levels. It is aimed at both experienced and aspirant teachers who wish to learn about the field of composition and who wish to improve their classroom practice.

Certificate Advisor

Virgina Schwarz
Email: vschwarz@sfsu.edu
Office: Humanities 421

Courses

The certificate consists of four courses: English 700, 707, 709, and 710.

  • English 700 - Introduction to Composition Theory: Issues of composition theory, research, and classroom practice.
  • English 707 - Language Analysis: Pedagogical Grammar for Composition: Theory and practice of responding to linguistic, stylistic, and rhetorical issues in student writing.
  • English 709 - Seminar in Teaching Integrated Reading and Writing: Exploration of the integration of reading and writing from both a theoretical and pedagogical perspective.
  • English 710 - Course Design in Composition and Post-Secondary Reading: Theory and practice of designing post-secondary reading and composition courses. This course is offered only in spring semesters. This is the Capstone course for the Certificate. It should be taken toward the end of your certificate coursework.

Admission to the Program

Non-matriculated students need to apply to the certificate program through Cal State Apply. Please upload the following documents to the Cal State Apply website: 

  • A statement explaining your interest in the certificate 
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university attended 

If selected for admission, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the Division of Graduate Studies in order to secure your offer of admission. Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript. 

If selected for admission, please mail official transcripts to: 

Graduate Admissions Office, ADM 250 

San Francisco State University 

1600 Holloway Ave. 

San Francisco, CA 94132 

If you currently ARE a matriculated M.A. student at SF State, and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you must fill out the Grad Studies certificate application form. Please enter send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the application form.  
 
The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated students, you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a master’s program are not eligible for financial aid. 

Requirement Upon Completion

For the final award of the certificate degree, students must fill out a Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form available on the Graduate Studies website and pay the $7.00 processing fee. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

No course applied to the Certificate may be taken CR/NC, and a grade of A or B must be earned in each course. Students may enroll in any of the courses listed above even if they do not wish to complete the certificate. Students wishing to earn the Certificate must follow all University requirements and procedures for graduate certificate programs as outlined in the San Francisco State University Bulletin. For further information, contact the English Department, HUM 484, (415) 338-2660 or (415) 338-2264.

 

Description

The certificate in Teaching Post-Secondary Reading is designed to assist prospective and already practicing post-secondary teachers in meeting specific individual professional needs in the areas of basic literacy and reading instruction. The certificate can help prepare students for teaching position in the community colleges and community agencies where specialized background and techniques in reading instruction are desirable.

The certificate meets new requirements for teaching reading in the community colleges (Assembly Bill 1725) which specifies that new instructors must possess a master’s degree in Education with a specialization in reading, or master’s in English or ESL with additional certification in the teaching of reading.

Certificate Advisor

Virgina Schwarz
Email: vschwarz@sfsu.edu
Office: Humanities 421

Certificate Program Courses

The courses of the Certificate program, English 701, 709, 710 and 715, emphasize both theory and practice. While students receive theory primarily in English 701 and 709, coursework in all four courses, provide opportunities for immediate benefits in the practice of teaching.    

  • English 701: Theoretical Backgrounds in College Reading Instruction - Exploration of history, policy, research, and theoretical approaches that inform the practices of college reading instruction.
  • English 709: Seminar in Teaching Integrated Reading/Writing - Exploration of the integration of reading and writing from both a theoretical and pedagogical perspective. This course is only offered in fall semesters.
  • English 710: Course Design in Composition and Post-Secondary Reading - Theory and practice of designing post-secondary reading and composition courses. This course is offered only in Spring semesters. Prerequisite: English 709.
  • English 715: Pedagogy and Practice of Post-Secondary Reading - Application of theories of reading to the design of teaching activities and course designs. 

Admission to the Program

Non-matriculated students need to apply to the certificate program through Cal State Apply. Please upload the following documents to the Cal State Apply website: 

  • A statement explaining your interest in the certificate 
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university attended 

If selected for admission, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the Division of Graduate Studies in order to secure your offer of admission. Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript. 

If selected for admission, please mail official transcripts to: 

Graduate Admissions Office, ADM 250 

San Francisco State University 

1600 Holloway Ave. 

San Francisco, CA 94132 

If you currently ARE a matriculated M.A. student at SF State, and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you must fill out the Grad Studies certificate application form. Please enter send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the application form.  
 
The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated students, you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a master’s program are not eligible for financial aid. 

Requirement Upon Completion

For the final award of the certificate degree, students must fill out a Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form available on the Graduate Studies website and pay the $7.00 processing fee. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

No course applied to the Certificate may be taken CR/NC, and a grade of A or B must be earned in each course. Students may enroll in any of the courses listed above even if they do not wish to complete the certificate. Students wishing to earn the Certificate must follow all University requirements and procedures for graduate certificate programs as outlined in the San Francisco State University Bulletin. For further information, contact the English Department, HUM 484, (415) 338-2660 or (415) 338-2264.

Description

The Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Computational Linguistics is designed to provide academic training in the study of computational approaches to language analysis.  The curriculum assumes no prior linguistic or programming knowledge and introduces students to a variety of computational methods and their theoretical underpinnings including: writing programs in Python to process raw texts (tokenization), discovering statistical patterns in linguistic data (frequency distribution), performing part-of-speech tagging, text segmentation, and classification (context-free grammars, dependency grammars), extracting meaning from texts, and applying various machine learning methods to data mining. Computational tools are supported by a strong foundation in linguistic theory including natural language syntax, semantics, and metaphor identification.

Coordinator

Anastasia Smirnova
Email: smirnov@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-3102
Office: HUM 429

Requirements

  • ENG 620 - Introduction to Computational Linguistics
  • ENG 680 - Applied Computational Linguistics
  • ENG 719 - Seminar: Contemporary  Semantic Theory
  • ENG 707 - Topics in Language Analysis

Select One:

  • ENG 821 - Syntax
  • ENG 737 - Introduction to Corpus Linguistics

Admission to the Program

Non-matriculated students need to apply to the certificate program through Cal State Apply. Please upload the following documents to the Cal State Apply website: 

  • A statement explaining your interest in the certificate 
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university attended 

If selected for admission, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the Division of Graduate Studies in order to secure your offer of admission. Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript. 

If selected for admission, please mail official transcripts to: 

Graduate Admissions Office, ADM 250 

San Francisco State University 

1600 Holloway Ave. 

San Francisco, CA 94132 

If you currently ARE a matriculated M.A. student at SF State, and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you must fill out the Grad Studies certificate application form. Please enter send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the application form.  
 
The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated students, you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in a master’s program are not eligible for financial aid. 

Requirement Upon Completion

For the final award of the certificate degree, students must fill out a Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form available on the Graduate Studies website and pay the $7.00 processing fee. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.

No course applied to the Certificate may be taken CR/NC, and a grade of A or B must be earned in each course. Students may enroll in any of the courses listed above even if they do not wish to complete the certificate. Students wishing to earn the Certificate must follow all University requirements and procedures for graduate certificate programs as outlined in the San Francisco State University Bulletin. For further information, contact the English Department, HUM 484, (415) 338-2660 or (415) 338-2264. 

Description

Designed to serve current SF State graduate students, postbaccalaureate 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.

Coordinator

Priya Abeywickrama
Email: abeywick@sfsu.edu
Phone: (415) 338-3095
Office: HUM 482

Requirements

  • ENG 707 Topics in Language Analysis: Pedagogical Grammar for TESOL.
  • ENG 733 Seminar in Student Teaching.
  • ENG 826 Second Language Acquisition.

Select One:

  • ENG 731 TESOL Listening and Speaking Skills.
  • ENG 732 TESOL Reading and Writing Skills.

Admission to the Program

Current matriculated graduate student with a minimum GPA of 3.0 at SF State may apply for the certificate by completing a certificate of admission application, and submitting to the Department of English office in HUM 484 or emailing english@sfsu.edu:

  • A statement explaining your interest in the certificate (1 page).
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from San Francisco State.

Non-matriculated students may apply for the certificate through Cal State Apply and upload the following documents to Cal State Apply:

  • A statement explaining your interest in the certificate (1 page).
  • Unofficial copies of transcripts from each college or university last attended.

If selected for admission, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the Division of Graduate Studies in order to secure your offer of admission. Please note: if you previously attended SF State, you do not need to submit a SF State transcript. 

Please mail official transcripts to: 

Graduate Admissions Office, ADM 250 

San Francisco State University 

1600 Holloway Ave. 

San Francisco, CA 94132 

If you currently ARE a matriculated M.A. student at SF State, and you wish to apply for admission to the program, you must fill out the Grad Studies certificate application form. Please list send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the certificate application form.
 
The deadline to apply for fall semester has been extended to July 31; the deadline to apply for spring semester is November 1.

Please note: For matriculated graduate students, you cannot take more than one course for the certificate program through Open University or the College of Professional & Global Education. Also, certificate students who are not enrolled in an M.A. program are not eligible for financial aid.

Requirement Upon Completion

Once you complete the 4 courses in the certificate (with a minimum 3.0 average), you will fill out the Certificate Approved Program (CAP) form and pay the $7.00 processing fee to receive the Graduate Certificate in TESOL from SF State. Please enter send a copy to: English Department @ english@sfsu.edu on the CAP form.