Exam Preparation

Dear students,

Important: please check the website of the Philosophische Fakultät for all formalia and information about the current situation. (oral exam, written exam, kombinatorische Prüfung)

(1) Oral Exams

For students that are registering for the first time, oral exams will take place during the final two weeks of the semester. You can also register later for the second exam phase. Please talk to Prof. Bongartz during office hours when the time approaches. You may use the readings and materials from our classes as your reading list, and you will need to select TWO topics.

Note also that the during the pandemic oral exams will take place in an online platform via ZOOM (also applies to the "Kombinatorische Prüfung"). There are special requirements to arrange for those – please find out about them before you sign up. In case you need technical support, please bring that to our awareness.

Please note that for all examinations with Prof. Bongartz the following applies: Dates for oral BA and MA exams are arranged individually between the examiner and the examinee. Exact dates can only be given after the KLIPS registration deadline.

For oral exams and "kombinatorische Prüfungen", the institute's internal registration form must be completed. Please submit this form to the SIO as soon as you have received an exam date. Due to the current situation, please send the completed and signed form by email to Ms. Bouzardaoui (nbouzar1@uni-koeln.de). For oral exams you can list one introductory and one expert question per topic on the literature list.

Topics or reading lists are to be prepared in APA format. The scope of your literature list should cover at least 1 monograph and 4-5 (recent!) scientific articles/studies per topic.

Your final literature list has to be discussed with us during a consultation hour or via email. You should bring this list to the examination in triplicate. Due to the current situation, please send the literature list by email to Ms. Bouzardaoui (nbouzar1@uni-koeln.de) by the date we have notified you.

 

(2) Written Exams

Students interested in submitting an argumentative essay based on our class readings as their written exam thesis will have to contact me during office hours. Upon request, I can take a look at your bibliography, outline, research questions and thesis statement.

FOR ALL EXAMS, make sure that you are registered for the MAP in KLIPS 2.0.

PLEASE post all content-related questions and commentary you might have in ILIAS. You may also email me or the rest of the class using ILIAS.

PLEASE talk to me during office hours in case you have any questions or concerns or just would like to talk things through.

Writing of homework: Please consult our style sheet for formal questions about writing term papers. For all other open questions, the style sheet of the English Seminar applies. Please note that written papers of any form will only be accepted if the corresponding cover page is available.

PLEASE note that the regulations regarding term papers requires you to have the official "Deckblatt für schriftliche Arbeiten" of the English Seminar signed and as your first page, followed by the body of the paper as one document.

You can find the official documents of the English Seminar available for downloading hier.

Deadline: The deadline for term papers is 15.03. in the winter semester and 15.09. in the summer semester. Term papers received after the deadline will not be corrected. Deadlines will not be extended.

Written papers will only be accepted after prior registration in KLIPS. An evaluation before the expiration of the KLIPS deadline (15.3. or 15.9.) is not possible. Please allow for at least 8 weeks for correction of your paper. Questions regarding content can be clarified in Prof. Bongartz consultation hours.

In case you need to have your term paper corrected by a certain date (deadline for submission of the examination office or similar), please allow for at least 10 - 12 weeks for correction.

 

Registration in KLIPS 

All exams have to be registered via KLIPS.

 

Practical Guide 

We created a Practical Guide here.

If you would like an opinion on your (module) theses or similar, before the registration on KLIPS, please note that your work must be submitted at least 2 months in advance. In general, work cannot be graded before the KLIPS registration deadline.

Appointments for oral MAPs will only be given after the KLIPS deregistration deadline (2 weeks before the exam date given in KLIPS).

 

Exam topics

• Core Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics

One of the exam topics must be selected from the following list:

• Syntax
• Word Formation/Morphological Theory
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Semantics

The second topic can e.g. be one of the following:

• First language acquisition
• Second language acquisition
• Bilingualism
• Conversation Analysis
• Sociolinguistics
• Pragmatics

 

Independent work

Prof. Bongartz only supervises the work of students who have given a presentation in at least one of her seminars. If this is the case, you can visit Prof. Bongartz during her office hours with a specific topic suggestion.

 

Written theses

All written theses (Bachelor's, Master's, Master's and State) with Prof. Bongartz must have a clear content-related relationship to English linguistics. Simply writing the work in English without reference to an English linguistic topic is not enough. Likewise, topics of general linguistics without reference to the English language are not possible.

 

Bachelor presentations

Bachelor presentations in main seminars: Group presentation in the seminar + 10 minutes more talk time (+ if necessary, elaboration of approx. 5 pages of the presentation given).