A&S—Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics offers the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in both linguistics and Hispanic linguistics, with areas of concentration in applied linguistics and American Indian languages. The MA Program requires a minimum of 10 courses (30 credits). The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences requires a minimum of 72 credits beyond the baccalaureate for a PhD degree.

Master of Arts in Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics

Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Linguistics
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociolinguistics

Students may also fulfill requirements for the TESOL Certificate in conjunction with their graduate study.

Contact Information

Department Chair: Scott Kiesling

Main Office: 2816 Cathedral of Learning

412-624-5938

Fax: 412-624-6130

E-mail: lingpitt@pitt.edu

www.linguistics.pitt.edu

Additional information concerning the department’s graduate program may be obtained from the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Linguistics, Graduate Secretary, 2816 CL, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Phone: 412-624-5900. Fax: 412-624-6130. E-mail: lingpitt@pitt.edu.

In addition to graduate and undergraduate education in the field of linguistics, the Department of Linguistics is responsible for the following programs:

Less Commonly Taught Languages Program

Robert Henderson Language Media Center

TESOL Certificate Program

Admissions

In order to be admitted to graduate standing in linguistics, students must meet the admission requirements of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and have at least two years, or the equivalent, of university-level study of a second language. The Graduate Record Examination is strongly recommended for all applicants; it is required for those applying for financial aid. PhD applicants must also submit samples of written work in linguistics. To be considered for financial aid, complete applications should be received by December 15. For students interested in Hispanic linguistics, in addition to the above admissions requirements, they must be fluent in Spanish.

Financial Assistance

Most of the aid offered by the department is in the form of teaching assistantships in the Department of Linguistics in the English Language Institute. There are about four to six new positions per year. There are between 2-5 other assistantships each year, usually involving some sort of administrative or editorial work and sometimes teaching or teacher supervision; applicants whose native language is not English may be eligible for two or three of these positions. For all assistantships, applicants are ranked mainly on the basis of their academic qualifications, but relevant teaching experience or research can help. Students in the Hispanic linguistics program teaching Spanish language courses must be enrolled in Methodology for Teaching Spanish (SPAN 2307). There is a total of 6 funded positions in Hispanic linguistics.

Besides assistantships, there are a limited number of predoctoral fellowships from the Andrew Mellon Foundation and Provost's Humanities Fellowship program, for which PhD applicants in linguistics are eligible. Applicants should realize that these are very prestigious fellowships, granted on the basis of a University-wide competition. The application deadline is February 1. For more information on these fellowships, see Fellowships and Traineeships in the A&S section of this bulletin.

MA-PhD Program Requirements

The MA/PhD program is a new combined program designed for students entering with a BA with the intention of earning a PhD. The program consists of core coursework, requirements for specific Areas of Concentration (ARCO), preliminary exams, comprehensive exams, and dissertation work. The ARCOs available are:

Applied Linguistics
Hispanic Linguistics
Sociolinguistics

If none of the above ARCOs are chosen, then the student will be in the General and Descriptive Linguistics Program.

Required Core Courses for the MA/PhD

The following courses are required of all students in the MA/PhD program. Students entering with an MA degree from another institution may petition to have coursework taken for that MA degree apply to the PhD degree at Pitt. See also the Preliminary exam requirement.

Courses required to be taken in the first year

2578 Phonetics (Fall)
2579 Phonology (Spring)
2773 Morphology (Fall)
2777 Syntax (Spring)
2144 Research Methods (Fall)

Required courses that can be taken any time

One course in socio/language change
            2267 Sociolinguistics
            2680 Historical Linguistics
            2253 Language Contact

Choose one advanced level core course approved by the student's advisor. Some example courses fulfilling this requirement::
            2580 Advanced Phonology
            277X Advanced Morphology
            277X Advanced Syntax

Other ARCO requirements

Applied Linguistics PhD Requirements

Courses

2146 Second Language Acquisition
Language pedagogy course
Either LING 2945 Psycholinguistics or a course in First Language Development
A seminar in Applied Linguistics (2147, 2149)
Statistics for Research in Linguistics

General and Descriptive Linguistics PhD Requirements

Courses

Field Methods
One Advanced Core Course in Phonology, Morphology or Syntax (whichever was not taken in core)
3000-level Advanced seminar in Phonology, Morphology or Syntax
Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, or Language Contact (whichever not taken in core)
Linguistic Typology

Hispanic Linguistics PhD Requirements

Courses

2392 History of Spanish
Spanish Sociolinguistics or 2394 Spanish Dialectology

Other requirements

Entrance requirement: Advanced Low Proficiency in Spanish as measured by an OPI or equivalent.

In core courses, students are encouraged to work on topics in Hispanic linguistics and to use Spanish sources.

All theses and long papers must have a significant Hispanic element, and a significant number of sources in Spanish.

Students may wish to focus on Applied Spanish Linguistics or Spanish Sociolinguistics, but these are not official ARCOs. The following are suggested courses.

Applied Spanish Linguistics:

Education of Linguistic Minorities
Second Language Acquisition
Approaches and Methods of TESOL
Techniques and Procedures of TESOL

Spanish Sociolinguistics:

Education of Linguistic Minorities
Language Contact
Discourse Analysis
Variation Analysis

Sociolinguistics PhD Requirements

Sociolinguistics if not already taken

Field Methods
SOC 2101: Sociological Theory 1 – Classical
SOC 2102: Sociological Theory 1 – Postclassical
Statistics for Research in Linguistics

Two of:

Discourse Analysis
Language Contact
Sociology of Language
Variation Analysis

Other MA/PhD Requirements

Language requirements:

1. Reading proficiency in two languages other than English is required. Oral proficiency in one language other than English is also required (the language fulfilling the oral requirement may be the same as one of those fulfilling the reading requirement). This requirement is satisfied by examination.
   
   
2. Students whose native language is not English and who complete their core courses with a grade of B+ or better will be considered to have completed the oral and reading requirements for one language. Such students will still need to demonstrate reading proficiency in another language.
   
   
3. If a student speaks two languages natively and one of these is English, the student need only demonstrate proficiency in one further language.
   
   
4. In addition to the basic second language requirement in (1), the department requires one term of study with a grade of B or better in a language that is not Germanic, Greek, Italic (Romance, including Latin), or Slavic. If a student studies such a language for one of the other language requirements, no extra language need be taken. For applied linguists, however, this requirement must be fulfilled by classroom study. This requirement cannot be  fulfilled by Field Methods.
   
   
5. Example 1: A student may pass an exam reading Spanish, and then take two years of Vietnamese to allow her/him to pass a reading and oral proficiency exam. In this case all language requirements have been fulfilled.
   
   
6. Example 2: A native Spanish-speaking student passes all core courses with an A grade. She/he then takes one semester of Japanese. This student has fulfilled the language requirement.

Thesis : A thesis is required to progress to the PhD program. See www.linguistics.pitt.edu/graduate/ma/ma-research-req.htm for details. A long paper may not be substituted for a thesis for students in the MA/PhD program.

Preliminary exam : The preliminary exam is fulfilled by completing the master’s thesis, and passing the final exam of all core courses with a B+ grade or better. With respect to the thesis, the student is considered to have passed the preliminary exam if the thesis committee recommends the student for doctoral study.
Students entering with an MA degree may petition to have core courses waived. In order to waive phonetics, phonology, morphology or syntax, a student must demonstrate knowledge by providing course syllabi and passing an oral interview. In order to fulfill the thesis requirement when entering with an MA, a student must have written a thesis for the previous MA; in addition, the student must defend the previous thesis in their first year at Pitt. Students are advised to have the MA thesis approved by the faculty—and set up a defense committee and date—as soon as possible after they begin PhD study. If a student’s MA did not require a thesis, then during the first year of PhD study the student must revise a course paper in accordance with departmental MA thesis guidelines, and defend that paper before the end of the year, in order to pass the preliminary exam (in addition to the core course requirement).

Comprehensive exam : A comprehensive examination precedes admission to candidacy and dissertation research. To fulfill this requirement, the student must write two papers of publishable quality on substantially different topics, evaluated by and defended before a committee of at least 3 faculty. The student must present one (1) of these papers in a department colloquium. A maximum of 18 comprehensive credits may be taken.

Dissertation proposal : When the student has successfully completed the PhD comprehensive examination, she or he must prepare a dissertation proposal and present it in a formal dissertation proposal defense. A four-person doctoral committee will direct the dissertation and administer the required proposal defense after the proposal has been submitted. The student chooses the chair of the doctoral committee, and together they select the remaining committee members, subject to the approval of the department chair. One of the committee members must be from outside the core faculty of the Department of Linguistics.
A dissertation proposal must have at least two elements: a knowledge essay and a proposal. The dissertation advisor will determine exactly the format for these two elements. For example, the advisor may require the first few literature review chapters of the dissertation for the knowledge essay portion, and then require a student to provide a proposal based on those chapters. Alternately, the advisor may construct a series of questions about the topic that a student must satisfactorily answer (in written essay form) in addition to providing a proposal. Upon approval of the proposal, the student will be admitted to candidacy for the PhD. Up to nine credits of dissertation study credits may count toward the total required number of credits.

Dissertation : The student must prepare and submit a dissertation that is a contribution to linguistic knowledge. A four-person doctoral committee will direct the dissertation and administer the required oral defense after the dissertation has been submitted for regulations governing the dissertation committee and defense). The dissertation defense is open to all members of the University community, and all graduate faculty members who attend have the right to pose questions to the candidate.

Sample progression through MA/PhD program (milestones)

Year 1
Core courses

Year 2
Core courses and electives
Complete thesis

Year 3
Elective courses
Defend comprehensive 1
Present comprehensive paper in colloquium (can wait until year 4)

Year 4
Defend comprehensive 2
Present comprehensive paper in colloquium (if not done in year 3)
Dissertation proposal defense

Year 5
Dissertation research or fieldwork,
Possibly defend dissertation

Year 6
Defend and submit dissertation

Evaluation of Students

For progression from MA to PhD in MA/PhD program: At the end of their first year, a written evaluation is presented to all faculty that assesses the student’s work in courses and TA assignments. If unsatisfactory, students are put on notice that they will only be permitted to continue through the next year (i.e. 2nd year). The faculty may also elect to warn the student that unless their performance improves in the next semester, they will only be permitted to finish their MA. A final continuation evaluation will be based on the thesis defense.

For students entering with an MA, the first year is probationary. Students must complete the year with a GPA of 3.5, and their performance will be reviewed in the spring semester.

For funding: All currently-funded students, current students without funding, and newly admitted students are evaluated at the funding meeting each January.

Requirements for an MA in Linguistics

Required Courses for all linguistics MA degrees

LING 2578 Phonetics  
LING 2579 Phonology
LING 2777 Syntax 
LING 2144 Research Methods 

One course in sociolinguistics/language change. Choose from:
            LING 2267 Sociolinguistics
            LING 2680 Historical Linguistics
            LING 2253 Language Contact

ARCO Requirements

Requirements for MA in Applied Linguistics

LING 2146 Second Language Acquisition
Language pedagogy course
Choose one:
            LING 2945 Psycholinguistics
            A course in First Lg. Development
            2147 Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition
            2149 Special Topics in Applied Linguistics

Suggested course sequence for MA in Applied Linguistics

Suggested course sequence for Applied Linguistics with TESOL Certificate
(5 semesters)

Note: LING 2195 (1 credit) must be taken also

Suggested course sequence for Applied Linguistics with TESOL Certificate
(6 semesters)

Note: LING 2195 (1 credit) must be taken also

Requirements for MA in General and Descriptive Linguistics

Field Methods
Historical Linguistics or Sociolinguistics (whichever was not taken for core)
Linguistic Typology

Suggested course sequence for General and Descriptive Linguistics

Requirements for MA in Hispanic Linguistics

Courses

2392 History of Spanish
Spanish Sociolinguistics or 2394 Spanish Dialectology

Other requirements

Entrance requirement: Advanced Low Proficiency in Spanish as measured by an OPI or equivalent.
In core courses, students are encouraged to work on topics in Hispanic linguistics and to use Spanish sources.

All theses and long papers must have a significant Hispanic element, and a significant number of sources in Spanish.

Suggested course sequence for Hispanic Linguistics

Other MA Requirements

Comprehensive exam : Students must attain a B+ in all core courses. If the grade is lower than a B+, a student must take the final exam the following year and attain a grade of B+ on the exam, or retake the course.
 
Language requirement : Proficiency in one second language is required for the MA degree. This requirement is satisfied by examination for students whose native language is English. Students whose native language is not English and who complete their MA work with a grade point average of B (3.0) or better will have fulfilled this requirement automatically.

Thesis/long paper : See www.linguistics.pitt.edu/graduate/ma/ma-research-req.htm

Requirements for the Certificate in TESOL

TESOL

TESOL is an acronym for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Professionals in TESOL may be involved in teaching, administration, curriculum development, materials development, assessment, research, and advocacy.  They work in a variety of contexts including various age levels, countries, and specialist areas such as English for specific purposes.
This TESOL certificate program includes the study of: linguistics at an introductory level, structures of English, theories and practices of teaching second language, second language acquisition, materials and curriculum development, and assessment. 

TESOL Certificate Course Requirements

A certificate in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is offered by the Department of Linguistics.  Candidates for the certificate must have completed a Bachelor’s degree, preferably in a related field such as Linguistics, a second language, or language education.  The following requirements must be fulfilled by any student who wishes to earn the certificate at the MA of PhD level:

PREREQUISITE (or taken concurrently with the first certificate  course)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Please note:
I.  LING 2195 involves supervised language teaching concurrent with or following LING 2142.  Teaching Assistants who are teaching in the English Language Institute automatically fulfill the Practicum requirements, but they must sign up for LING 2195 once during their teaching terms.  Other candidates fulfill the requirement by signing up for LING 2195 and teaching during that term in an informal ESL course run by the English Language Institute, OR, with permission of the advisor, by second language teaching in another University of Pittsburgh department.

II.  The certificate candidate must earn a grade of B or higher in each certificate course.

Degree prerequisite for admission

Applicants must hold a baccalaureate degree or its foreign equivalent with a minimum grade point average of B (3.0 on a 4-point scale).  Preference is given to applicants who have studied abroad, worked with international students, and/or have any EFL/ESL teaching experience (including volunteer).

Second language learning prerequisite for admission

Native speakers of English must have classroom second language learning experience equivalent to at least one year of college level study of a language.  Each applicant who is not a native speaker of English must: (1) achieve a score of 100 or higher on the iBT TOEFL or 7 or higher on the IELTS or their equivalent and (2) have good spoken English skills (a score of at least 4 on the ITA interview test administered by the University of Pittsburgh). 

Transcripts and CV

Undergraduate transcripts (and graduate if applicable) and a CV (including a list of references) must be submitted as part of the application.

PLAN OF STUDY

Students must complete a TESOL certificate plan of study form after consultation with the TESOL Certificate advisor during the first term of study.

COMPLETION OF REQUIREMENTS

On completion of all TESOL certificate requirements, a transcript must be submitted to the Department of Linguistics.  If in an MA of PhD program while earning the certificate, the certificate is officially awarded only when the student also has completed all requirements for the MA or PhD degree.

SUGGESTED SEQUENCE OF COURSES

Higher Ed. Concentration: 4-Term Option (entering in the summer term)

Higher Ed. Concentration: 3-Term Option (entering in the fall term)

Note: Students enrolling in the TESOL certificate program only and not a graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh may not enter the TESOL Certificate program in the Spring term

Application Deadlines:

November 15 for the following Summer term start date

March 15 for the following Fall term start date

Course Listing

Faculty