The Preparatory Year Program

English Department

Introduction

      The English Department offers three distinguished educational programs: Applied Linguistics, Translation, and Computational Linguistics. The duration of each program is four years. Admission into these programs is based on successful completion of required orientation courses in the Preparatory Year Program.

 The main goal of the Preparatory Year Program is to improve the student’s oral and written skills in the English language, to introduce her to basic computer knowledge and operation, and to reinforce basic health awareness.

The development of the English language programs are based on:

• the needs of the local community and the interdisciplinary nature of academic subjects,

• the choice of the specializations that can help students to communicate with other cultures to keep abreast with the fast pace and challenges of the information age,

• the contents and structures of many similar programs in the United States, and the UK.

• the recommendations of leading international academic institutions, such as:

  • Michigan State University

  • Colorado State University  

  • Heriot- Watt University

  • University of Durham

  • University of Essex

  • University of Sussex

  • Melbourne University

  • Institut Superieur des Langues Vivantes de Tunis

    The English language has become the primary and international language worldwide. It is the major contemporary language of science and technology, research, economy and commerce, international conferences and seminars, and the language of tourism and travel.

    Therefore, the English Department prepares and supports the students academically with the linguistic fundamentals and academic experiences to use the English language in all aspects of life.

     The Department aims at enabling students to communicate with other nations, benefit from their experiences, and respond positively to the world’s challenges and information technology without affecting their own values, ethics and culture.

      The Department also aims at preparing students and providing them with the required skills to meet their professional needs in public or private sectors, as well as academically or higher studies.

 Admission to the English Department is based on:

• A satisfactory performance in the Preparatory Year Program and.

• The requirements and conditions established by the Department.

Only students who have successfully completed the Preparatory Year Program will be allowed to enroll in the freshman courses. The duration of the PYP is one academic year - nine months. It is divided into two semesters. The English Department offers the following three undergraduate academic majors:

Introduction
   Applied Linguistics is one of the major sub-fields of General Linguistics.  It is basically concerned with the application of the knowledge regarding the nature of languages as defined by linguistic research. Applied Linguistics deals with practical issues and problems in which language is a central component, especially learning and teaching of foreign languages.

Objectives 

     The B.A. program in Applied Linguistics aims at producing teachers who are well qualified, both professionally and educationally, to teach English as a foreign language in public and private educational institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where English has became an essential component of the national curriculum.

The significance of the Program of Applied Linguistics stems from the increasing demand for teachers of English as a foreign language.  This is due to the undisputed fact that English has became the international language through which many people in different parts of the world communicate for various purposes.  Furthermore, knowledge of English is one of the most important requirements for competing in the Saudi job market.  Consequently, these facts illustrate the increasing number of job opportunities for Saudi teachers of English.

The curriculum consists mainly of basic and general knowledge of Theoretical Linguistics, with its different branches, and Applied Linguistics in the areas of language acquisition, language testing, foreign language teaching methodology, preparing and designing curricula and programs, using conventional and technological language teaching aids, as well as other supporting subjects that contribute to the enhancement of the development of the students’ personality, knowledge background and professional skills.

Career Opportunities
   PSCW’s graduates will have the proficiency to gain employment in the areas of:

Teaching of English as a foreign language at all school levels.

Designing of programs and curricula of English as a foreign language, and writers of its teaching material

Designing of English teaching materials for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs.

TAs or RAs who may pursue graduate programs for further specialization in the areas of teaching and learning foreign languages, language teachers’ training, language acquisition research, speech pathology, and other areas of applied and theoretical language studies.

   Students seeking a B.A. degree in this field are required to take 133 credit hours of courses prescribed by the Department see the table below.  The expected duration of the program is eight semesters.

Introduction 
   Translation has always played a vital role in human communication throughout history. It was responsible for the development of many civilizations. For example, the material aspect of Islamic civilization flourished as a result of translation of scientific and medical works from Indian, Persian, Syrian and Greek cultures. The European Renaissance was not possible without extensive Arab and Islamic influence through translation of Arabic works in the various fields of knowledge, including philosophy, astronomy, medicine, mathematics among others, into Latin and other European languages. 

In the modern age, with globalization and explosion in the fields of communication and information, translation has become more necessary for speakers of different languages to communicate with each other. On the other hand, we find that due to the employment of speakers of foreign languages in public and private sectors in Saudi Arabia, there is a dire need for translators and interpreters to assist Saudis in their communication with these workers. Conferences, symposia and visits by foreign delegations also require the services of translators and interpreters.

The Translation Program is designed to train students in both English and Arabic translation, followed by courses in theoretical and applied linguistic, and,  practical training in the translation of various types of text, as well as different forms of interpretation.

Career Opportunities:

 PSCW’s graduates will have the proficiency to gain employment in the areas of:

Professional interpretation for public occasions

Interpretation of inter-personal meetings.

Supervision of translation interpretation activities.

Contribution to the compilation of bilingual dictionaries

TAs or RAs who may pursue graduate programs for further specialization in the areas of translation, interpretation, and related areas Supervision of translation interpretation activities.

Students seeking a B.A. degree in this field are required to take 138 credit hours of courses prescribed by the Department see the table below..  The expected duration of the program is eight semesters.

Introduction:

      Computational Linguistics is the study of computer systems with a view to understanding and generating natural languages and laying the foundations of a broad base for computerized analysis and generation of natural languages.  Developed in the past two decades, the discipline focuses on four types of computer-related activities: machine translation, information retrieval, research technology and Human-Machine Interface which uses natural languages as the interface language and as a means of data processing and building linguistic indices for linguistic research.  Through its various theories the discipline tries to process, analyze and generate sounds as well.

Of the various fields of computational linguistics the most important are single and multi-language dictionaries, computational processing of scientific terms, text construction, morpho-syntactic and semantic analysis, in addition to spelling and grammatical check, natural text generation, automatic indexing, classification and abstracting.

Objectives:

The Computational Linguistics program has been uniquely designed. The courses take into account excellence in English and outstanding familiarity with the basics of the Arabic language, in addition to the ability to use the computer for understanding and generating languages. The program aims at achieving the following:

building self-confidence and team work spirit.

enabling the female student to know the language-computer relation.

using the computer in teaching natural languages.

knowing the recent developments in the field of Computational Linguistics.

Career Opportunities:

 Undoubtedly, female graduates are in high demand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, especially in the field of computational linguistics and natural language processing.

There are many job opportunities for graduates in both the public and private sectors.

The following are particularly in high demand:

Software engineers

Software production supervisors

Researchers in Machine Translation

Researchers in natural Language Processing

Linguistic database analyzers

Designers of single and multi-language dictionaries

TAs or RAs who may pursue graduate programs for further specialization in the areas of Computational Linguistics.

Graduation Requirements:

P.O. Box 66833 Riyadh 11586  Saudi Arabia   Phone: +966 1 4535189   Fax : +966 1 4548317

[ Home | Admission |Academic Programs | Courses Catalog |Calendar | Phone Directory | Campus map | Site map | Contact Us ]

© 2006 Prince Sultan University College for Women, Saudi Arabia