Overview

The Applied Linguistics major, designed in cooperation with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, exists to train people to engage in collaborative work with speakers of minority languages—usually languages with little or no written tradition—to develop written materials in and about those languages and to promote mother-tongue literacy. The courses deal with general principles basic to all languages and cultures and are illustrated by material from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas.

Program Objectives

Students who complete the requirements of this major should

• Be able to develop both vocational skills in language work and their abilities in analytical and creative thinking, all in the context of becoming more sensitive to other cultures and languages
• Be able to distinguish, reproduce, and write all the possible sounds in human languages
• Be able to make a preliminary analysis of the sound system and grammar of any language of the world
• Be able to learn to speak another language fluently, even where no formal program exists