You are in the official 2001-2002 General Catalog
for California State University, Fresno.
Barbara M. Birch, Chair
Undergraduate Advisers: Barbara M. Birch, Gerald R. McMenamin
Graduate Advisers: Chris Golston
Chris Golston, Ellen Lipp, Shigeko Okamoto, George W. Raney, Vida
Samiian, Terese Thonus, Raymond S. Weitzman, Jack B. Zeldis
The Department
Language is an essential part of our life. Nothing characterizes
humanity more than the ability to use language. To understand
the general nature of language, linguists analyze sounds, words,
sentences, and texts. Linguists also make valuable contributions
to practical fields such as K-12 teaching, second and foreign
language teaching, language planning, translation, computer science,
forensic linguistics, and language disorders.
Computational applications of linguistics, such as speech synthesis,
speech recognition, and machine-assisted translation, have also
become increasingly important in recent years.
The Department of Linguistics offers a Bachelor of Arts degree
with options in General Linguistics and Teaching English as a
Second Language (ESL), undergraduate minors in Linguistics and
Japanese, a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages (TESOL), and a Master of Arts degree in Linguistics,
with an option also in ESL. In addition, a Master of Arts degree
with an emphasis in French or German is offered.
Both our undergraduate and graduate programs aim to develop intellectual
skills that are essential to professional careers or advanced
degrees. Our courses provide students with analytical tools that
can be applied to virtually any subject. They also help enhance
critical thinking, satisfy broad intellectual interest, and enrich
personal knowledge.
Our majors can be applied directly to various professional fields.
They also serve as excellent preparation for pursuing advanced
degrees in linguistics and other fields such as English, anthropology,
psychology, sociology, computer science, and foreign languages.
ESL is an important part of our program and especially compatible
with degrees in education and liberal studies. A Japanese minor
can be profitably combined with majors in such areas as business,
international relations, linguistics, and literature.
A Japanese Minor is also available for students with an interest
in Japanese language and culture and/or plans to pursue careers
in various areas, such as international business, marketing, economics,
art and literature, etc., where a knowledge of the Japanese language
and culture would be useful.
The Department of Linguistics has equipment for the analysis
of speech sounds and for displaying the operation of the organs
of speech. Computers are used for simulating speech and for mapping
the geographical extent of language features, as well as for storing
the data needed for the making of grammars and dictionaries. The
Linguistics Department provides practical classroom teaching experience
for qualified ESL students through employment in the American
English Institute, a facility established by the department and
operated under the aegis of the California State University, Fresno
Foundation. A description of the American English Institute is
included in the Special Programs section
of this catalog. Also associated with the Linguistics Department
is the Forensic Linguistics Institute (FLI), established by agreement
with the California State University, Fresno Foundation in 1996.
The purpose of the FLI is to provide analyses in linguistic stylistics
to extramural clients, thereby giving Fresno State linguistics
majors opportunities for work, study, research, and career preparation
in a new and rapidly-developing area of applied linguistics.
Many of our B.A. students want to pursue careers in education.
There are several ways to do this. Our department offers a Subject
Matter Preparation Program for students who wish to teach ESL,
language arts, or English composition and literature in California
middle and high schools. Students can double major in linguistics
and liberal studies, or minor in linguistics with a liberal studies
major to lead to a Multiple Subject Credential for K-6 instruction.
Students who pursue a major in linguistics by itself may enter
the Multiple Subject Credential Program with satisfactory completion
of the MSAT Exam. Many linguistics students find jobs teaching
English overseas upon completion of the B.A. or M.A.
Students with a B.A. or M.A. in Linguistics can go on for further
education in a wide variety of fields. In law or criminology,
they have a special understanding of legal issues involving language
or the use of language evidence in litigation (forensic linguistics).
With additional work in computer science, the linguistics student
can find employment in software development working with computer
language or making the interface smoother between human and computer.
After further training, some linguistics students work for the
Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the
Peace Corps, the United States Information Agency, the military,
or the State Department monitoring foreign news or doing cryptography,
language instruction, or translation. Many corporations recruit
linguistics majors into management, development, and marketing
positions. Enterprising linguistics students have developed service-related
businesses in consulting, interpretation, translation, or communication.
After the Master of Arts in Linguistics, many of our students
are accepted into Ph.D. programs in the best research universities
in the U.S. in applied or theoretical linguistics, ESL, education,
anthropology, psychology, or other majors. The M.A. Option in
ESL prepares students for Ph.D. programs or teaching/administrative
positions overseas, in community colleges, and in adult schools.
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