Applicable only to students admitted during the 2025-2026 academic year.

Teaching Asian Languages

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Asian Languages and Cultures offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) in Teaching Asian languages.

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

Upon admission, students are assigned a faculty adviser by the Director of Graduate Studies in conjunction with faculty in the students’ language field. Students are required to meet with their graduate advisers at least once every month to establish their study program and check their progress. The Director of Graduate Studies is also available to meet with students on a regular basis or when necessary. While the department evaluates student performance every quarter, unsatisfactory performance by the end of the first quarter may result in disqualification from the program.

Areas of Study

The program covers selective fields of Teaching Asian Languages. These fields include Teaching Chinese, Teaching Korean, and Teaching Japanese.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students at the M.A. degree in Teaching Asian Languages are required to have or develop proficiency in relevant languages as detailed below:

Students in Teaching Chinese must demonstrate competence in modern Chinese (equivalent to successful completion of Chinese 101B).

Students in Teaching Japanese must demonstrate competence in modern Japanese (equivalent to successful completion of Japanese 101B).

Students in Teaching Korean must demonstrate competence in modern Korean (equivalent to successful completion of Korean 101B).

Language competence may be demonstrated by college level language class transcripts or an examination administered by an authorized UCLA faculty.

Course Requirements

A total of nine courses (or a total of 36 units) are required for the degree. Students can fulfill the course requirements by completing four (200-level) core courses in the areas of research methods (Asian 200), Asian Language Pedagogy (Asian 204A, 204B), and Chinese, Japanese, or Korean linguistics (e.g., Chinese C240/Japanese C223/Korean C220). In addition, students must complete three practicum courses (Asian 206A-B-C) and two elective courses (upper division or 200-level). The two electives can be taken from the ALC Department and/or other department (e.g., School of Education). Specific elective courses are to be negotiated with adviser/committee. Two upper division courses are applied toward the University’s nine-course minimum requirement for the Master’s degrees. No 500-level courses may count toward degree requirements.

A sample program for each field is listed below:

Chinese

Fall	Winter	Spring
Asian 200 Research Methods Asian 204A Teaching Asian Language Asian 206A MA Practicum	Asian204B Teaching Asian Language Asian 206B MA Practicum Chinese 220 Structure of Chinese	Asian 206C MA Practicum Elective (1) Elective (2)

Japanese

Fall	Winter	Spring
Asian 200 Research Methods Asian 204A Teaching Asian Language Asian 206A MA Practicum	Asian204B Teaching Asian Language Asian 206B Instructional Apprenticeship 200-level Japanese Linguistics course	Asian 206C MA Practicum Elective (1) Elective (2)

Korean

Fall	Winter	Spring
Asian 200 Research Methods Asian 204A Teaching Asian Language Asian 206A MA Practicum	Asian204B Teaching Asian Language Asian 206B MA Practicum 200-level Korean Linguistics course	Asian 206C MA Practicum Elective (1) Elective (2)

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Three courses (Asian 206A-B-C) on Teaching Practicum at local schools are required. Teaching practicum may take various forms, depending on the available opportunities.

Capstone Plan

Students, in consultation with their faculty adviser, must submit three Capstone projects in any combination of academic papers or portfolios of pedagogical materials that the student has developed, including, but not limited to, curriculum design, course materials, and learning activities. These projects will be evaluated by the ad hoc committee chaired by the student’s principal adviser. One of the three papers or educational materials can be written in the target language, but this is optional.

The committee must be formally approved by the Director of Graduate Studies or the chair before the circulation of the research papers and the oral examination.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Students who are admitted to graduate status with no deficiencies in prior course work and who carry a standard course load should be able to obtain the degree after three quarters. The maximum time to degree is six quarters.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	3	3	6

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.