指定重点（DE）为博士生提供语言习得和基于技术的语言教学的理论知识和实践知识。能够更全面地理解第二语言习得过程的研究生有助于改善本科语言教学的整体水平。完成DE的研究生将大大提高他们在外语和ESL工作市场上的前景。
The Native American Studies Graduate Group's interdisciplinary and hemispheric approach includes attention to the increasing diaspora of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, and calls upon the authority of native intelligence to address the issues that concern native peoples. Topics of study include history, religion, philosophy, government, politics, society, and language and linguistics, as well as indigenous community development for autonomy and sovereignty, colonialism, racism, and self-determination, and ethnohistory. At both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels, students have opportunities to develop their teaching skills through teaching assistant and instructor positions.<br><br>The Designated Emphasis (DE) provides doctoral students with both a theoretical and practical knowledge of language acquisition and technologically-based language instruction. Graduate students who more fully understand the process of second language acquisition contribute to improving the overall delivery of undergraduate language instruction. Graduate students that complete the DE will significantly increase their prospects in the foreign-language and ESL job market.