English competence has been formally designated as part of the Ph.D. candidacy requirements as outlined in the Graduate Bulletin. This requirement applies to all entering Ph.D. students and does not apply to those students admitted to candidacy prior to the fall of 1992. The Graduate Program in Acoustics and advisors will identify any deficiencies before or at the Candidacy Examination and direct affected students into appropriate remedial activities. Both domestic and international candidates must meet the English Competency Requirements set down in this policy statement before they are accepted into the Ph.D. Program.
In addition to the acoustics-specific questions asked during the written and verbal portions of the Candidacy Exam, the Candidacy Committee will assess the competence each candidate has in writing and speaking English. The verbal portion of the Exam lends naturally to an assessment of speaking ability. The Committee will look for an ability to organize thoughts, use the visual props available to help convey the thoughts, use appropriate language, vocal variety, pronunciation, grammar, and articulation. As part of the proctored written Exam, the candidate will write an essay of between 250 and 500 words in length on a topic selected by the Committee. The Committee will evaluate this writing by noting the candidate's ability to narrow the topic appropriately, define statement of purpose, organize, use facts found in the subject essay, use accurate and appropriate grammar and punctuation, and demonstrate syntactic variety.
The English proficiency part of the Candidacy Examination will be scored by the entire Examination Committee and a consensus is to be reached. The results will be indicated by a pass or fail for each of the two components (speaking and writing). In the case of a failure by a non-native speaker in the verbal part of the exam, the candidate will be required to take (and pass with a B or higher grade) SPCOM 115G (English as a Second Language: Speaking/Listening). If a native candidate fails the verbal test, then he/she will be required to take (and pass with a B or higher grade) either SPCOM 100A (Effective Speech, Public Speaking) or SPCOM 312 (Informative Technical and Presentational Speaking). For failures in the written part of the exam, native candidates must complete successfully (B or higher grade) ENG 198G (Writing in the Disciplines); for the non-native failures, SPCOM 116G (English as a Second Language: Reading/Writing).
Successful completion of the above-specified remedial actions will serve as the final requirements for those candidates who failed the English Competency portion of the Candidacy Exam given by the Graduate Program in Acoustics. A grade of B or better must appear on the official University transcript; only then will the Candidacy Exam be considered to have been passed and the candidate formally accepted into the Ph.D. Program. A student must complete the Ph.D. program within eight years of having passed the Candidacy Examination.
Graduate Program in Acoustics, The Pennsylvania State University
