夏威夷大学希罗分校

The M.A. in Hawaiian Language and Literature was UH Hilo’s first graduate program and the first focusing on a Native American language in the United States. The program is designed for students who have already achieved fluency in spoken Hawaiian and competency in reading modern and historical Hawaiian texts. Student cohorts are accepted every three years. Currently, the college offers only a Plan A degree, which requires a thesis.

Mission

The mission of the M.A. program in Hawaiian Language and Literature is to prepare scholars to carry out research to enhance our knowledge of Hawaiian language and culture in order to ensure their preservation and revitalization. The program draws upon the tremendous wealth of Hawaiian literary resources from the 19th and 20th centuries and examines the contemporary use of Hawaiian language and culture.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate oral and written comprehension and grammatically correct use of Hawaiian at a level appropriate to graduate work.
• Identify and explain major aspects of the grammatical structure of a sample of Hawaiian.
• Describe the history of Hawaiian language and literature and know how to access Hawaiian language resources of various kinds (written and oral, electronic and traditional).
• Read and analyze important Hawaiian language texts (literary, cultural and historical) from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Describe the most important of those texts.
• Demonstrate both knowledge of and skill in performance of Hawaiian chant
• Write an effective academic paper in Hawaiian (clear, concise, effectively organized, accurate in content, analytical and/or synthetic in nature).
• Apply various research methods appropriate to Hawaiian language and literature and carry out rigorous research in field.
• Demonstrate understanding of indigenous and/or endangered language in other contexts through personal experience with speakers and communities of those languages.