Guidelines for Examination Candidates Raymond Hickey English Linguistics University of Duisburg and Essen (August 2015)

The final examination for students studying under the regulations of 2003 consists of the following parts A written thesis Three exams for GYM-GE: A written exam An oral exam One further exam (written or oral) Two exams for GHR or BK (second subject): A written exam An oral exam

What should one know about one’s final examinations? 1)You must do a written thesis in one of your two subjects or in educational science (Erziehungswissenschaft). 2)You must do a written exam in English, this can be in linguistics if you like (Modul VIII or VI with linguistic focus). 3)You must do an oral exam in English.

Your exam thesis

Your thesis is basically similar in form to an essay and you can use the essay template for this (you can find this on the ELE website, see link on following slide). However, you do need to have a strong focus and need to enter into more detail in the 60 or so pages you write for the thesis (Staatsexamensarbeit).

Make sure that you download the essay template from the website: and following the instructions there for writing an essay. These can be applied to theses as well.

If you are writing a thesis you should do an outline first, consisting of 1)a table of contents, showing the main sections for the thesis. 2)some sample pages to show what your written style is like. 3)a literature list to show what books and articles you are using for the thesis.

Your written exam

Your written exam is also similar to an essay but there are a few differences. 1)You do not need to quote authors in detail (just a name if you wish). 2)You do not have to quote large sets of examples. “One example per point” is the rule in this case.

For your written exam your should send your examiner an outline of the topic you have prepared along with the literature you have used for your preparations. Again only list sources (books and articles) which you have actually used. You may make a limited use of internet sources (reliable sites such as those of universities, libraries, government departments and the like). Remember internet sources do not replace books!

Your outline should specify the focus you have set yourself within the area of linguistics you chose for your exam. For example, if you are preparing second language acquistion as a topic you could have models of second language acquistion or a comparison of first and second language acquisition or bilingualism and second language acquisition as a focus.

Don‘t forget that your written exam is just that, an exam which means that you cannot predict 100% what the topic will be. You can rest assured that it will be from the area which you discussed with your examiner so that you can use the knowledge you have gained during your preparations in answering the question you are set. Normally, the question consists of two parts: (i) a general question about your area of linguistics and (ii) a second more specific question which reflects the focus which you communicated to your examiner when preparing for this exam.

When writing (on the day of your exam), you should structure your essay with first level headings, as follows: 1. Introduction 2. XXX YYY ZZZ Conclusion, etc.

Leave an empty line before and after each heading to increase readibility of the essay. Do not write an essay consisting of a single piece of text. Your mark will be automatically reduced if you do. The structure of your essay must be immediately recognisable from the headings and divisions which you use.

Please remember! Apart from the presentation of your topic the most important part of your essay is the critical evaluation which you offer in your own words. This can be included in the body of the essay and must be in the conclusion as well.

As your written exam is hand-written, it is difficult to specify the size exactly. However, if you prepare it beforehand on your computer, then about 5 pages of single-line spaced text will be sufficient. For this you will have 4 hours during the exam which is ample.

General information on various areas of linguistics can be found in the PDF files (full texts) for each branch of the tree on the linguistics website: There is also a dictionary of linguistics on the ELE website, so please consult it for explanations of terms.

Your oral exam

Send your examiner an outline of your exam topic along with the literature you have used. Only quote books/articles you have read. The examiner may well refer to this during the exam by pointing out that you should know something because it is discussed in the literature you have quoted.

Your oral exam is 45 mins long. It makes sense to have at least two topics for this exam as this gives you the opportunity to switch topics in the middle, take a deep breath, have a drink of water and concentrate afresh on the second topic.

In your oral exam you will be examined on the topics you discussed with the examiner beforehand. However, you can easily get questions of a general nature, on background knowledge in linguistics, so be prepared to answer these. Make sure that you have prepared enough information for 80-90% of the exam time. That way you will not run out of things to say.

When you are talking about a topic during an oral exam it is *not* enough just to mention a concept you have to be able explain it as well. For example, if you mention “colonial lag” when discussing American English then you must explain what is meant by this term and provide at least one good example which illustrates it.

One of the difficult situations you can get into in your oral exam is where you are asked a question and you don‘t know the answer. What do you do then... ???

The first thing is that you can say where you might find an answer (in what literature). The second thing is you can try to logically construct an answer, i.e. show what steps you would proceed through to arrive at an answer. This shows that you can think independently in a structured manner.

During your oral exam avoid long pauses. When you are asked a question give a comprehensive answer and do not wait for the examiner to extract it from you. Some questions are indeed straightforward, so give a simple answer first. If the examiner wants more detailed information then you will be told that. Also remember that it is often difficult to ask a question without giving the answer. Hence some of the question may seem a little indirect or convoluted. Don‘t be put off by this, but just try an answer and see how the examiner reacts.

If questions come which you cannot answer at all, ask the examiner to move on to another aspect of your topic and say what aspects you have devoted your attention to (do not wait to be asked this). Make sure the flow of the exam is not interrupted.

Raymond Hickey English Linguistics Campus Essen Check the linguistics website for more information: