You are in the official 1999-2000 General Catalog
for California State University, Fresno.
Linguistics
Students can visit Buckingham Palace on the London
Semester.
School of Arts and Humanities
Department of Linguistics
GEORGE W. RANEY, Chair
Peters Business Building, Room 383
(559) 278-2441
B.A. in Linguistics
English as a Second Language Option
General Linguistics
M.A. in Linguistics
English as a Second Language
Option
Linguistics
Minor in Linguistics
Minor in English
as a Second Language
M.A. Option in ESL
Graduate Certificate in TESOL
CLAD/BCLAD
Faculty
George W. Raney, Chair
Undergraduate Advisers: Barbara M. Birch, Gerald R. McMenamin
Graduate Advisers: P. J. Mistry
Chris Golston, Ellen Lipp, Shigeko Okamoto, Vida Samiian, 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 an option
in 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.
Facilities
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.
Career Opportunities
Many of our B.A. students want to pursue careers in education. There
are several ways to do this. Our department offers a Single Subject Waiver
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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