FAS - Linguistics

Contact Information

Department Chair: Alan Juffs

Main Office: 2816 Cathedral of Learning

Phone: (412) 624-5938

Fax: (412) 624-6130

Web site: http://www.linguistics.pitt.edu

Facilities

The Linguistics Department is directly engaged in language teaching through the Language Laboratory and two institutes:

English Language Institute

The English Language Institute offers courses in English as a foreign language to students for whom English is not the native language. Three-credit courses are offered, LING 0008, 0009, 0010, and also non-credit intensive courses in English. The ELI also offers courses for the School of Engineering and the Department of English, and conducts proficiency tests of international TA/TFs for the Office of the Provost.

Language Acquisition Institute

The Language Acquisition Institute offers instruction in uncommonly taught languages. The languages taught in any given term are determined by availability of native-speaking instructors and materials and availability of funds. In a typical Fall or Spring Term, about 15 languages will be offered to over 275 students. The most popular course is currently American Sign Language; other languages that have been taught recently are Arabic, Aymara, Dutch, Finnish, Modern Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish Gaelic, Korean, Persian (Farsi), Quechua, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Language Laboratory

The Language Laboratory is administered by the Department of Linguistics on behalf of all the language departments.

Admissions

The department offers programs leading to the MA and PhD degrees. In order to be admitted to graduate standing in linguistics, students must meet the admission requirements of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and have at least two years, or the equivalent, of university-level study of a foreign 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.

Financial Assistance

Most of the aid offered by the department is in the form of teaching assistantships in the English Language Institute. There are about four to six new positions per year. There are between two and five 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 mainly ranked on the basis of their academic qualifications, but relevant teaching experience or research can help.

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 the same as for admission: February 1. For more information on these fellowships, see Fellowships and Traineeships in the FAS section of this bulletin.

Degree Requirements

The minimal requirements established by the Graduate Faculty of the University, as described under General Academic Regulations, and any additional requirements of FAS Graduate Studies described under FAS Degree Requirements, should be read in conjunction with program-specific degree requirements described in the following sections.

Requirements for the Master's Degree

The MA program in Linguistics requires students to satisfy course requirements, to demonstrate research proficiency (including a thesis or long paper), and to have proficiency in one foreign language.

Course Requirements

The MA program requires a minimum of 10 courses (30 credits) chosen in consultation with the departmental graduate advisor. Six core courses are required, including the following five: LING 1950, 2578, 2579, 2773, 2777. For the sixth core course students must take one of the following courses: LING 1443, 2146, 2267, 2441, 2860, 2681, 2682, or 2945.

Additional course work may also be taken outside the department. No more than three courses may be chosen from the 1000 series. The student must earn a B average in graduate linguistics courses in order to receive the MA degree.

Research Proficiency

This requirement may be satisfied by electing LING 2000, Research and Thesis, and meeting the FAS requirements for the thesis; or the student, with the approval of the departmental faculty, may write a "long paper" under the supervision of a faculty member. The paper will be read by the advisor and at least two other faculty members. Before the long paper has been written, the student must submit a long paper proposal that must be evaluated by a committee of three faculty members. (Consult the graduate advisor for complete details.)

Foreign Language Requirement

Proficiency in one foreign language is required for the MA degree. This proficiency should fall into one of two areas: either (1) the ability to do research in sources written in the language: normally the choice would be French, German, Spanish, or Russian; or (2) acquaintance with the sounds and structure of a language, for which any language may be chosen. An examination to ascertain student proficiency in the chosen language will be administered by members of the faculty or by the Language Acquisition Institute.

International students who are not native speakers of English may use English to fulfill the MA language requirement, and the requirement will be fulfilled automatically by the completion of MA course work with a B average.

Comprehensive examinations are not mandatory. A minimum B+ in all core courses (both departmental core and specialization core) is required; students who do not have a B+ will have the option of repeating the course or taking comprehensive examinations in that area.

Course Requirements for Specialization in Applied Linguistics

For MA students pursuing a specialty in applied linguistics, the required course work (for a minimum of 30 credits) is described below:

1. 1950 Introduction to Linguistics
2. Core courses in Linguistics (9 credits):

2578 Phonetics and Phonemics

2579 Phonology

2777 Introduction to Syntax

3. Core courses in Applied Linguistics (12 credits):

2139 Approaches and Methods in Second Language Teaching

2144 Research Methods in Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics

2146 Second Language Acquisition

At least one course chosen among the following:

2147 Current Issues in Second Language Learning

2149 Special Topics in Applied Linguistics

2267 Sociolinguistics

2945 Psycholinguistics

4. Electives (9 credits)

Requirements for the PhD Degree

By the end of the third term of doctoral study, the student is expected to have established his/her eligibility to continue toward the degree by passing the required preliminary screening examination.

Two foreign languages are required for the PhD degree. Ordinarily, one of these two languages must be French, German, Spanish, or Russian. Proficiency in these languages will be demonstrated by examination. In addition, the department requires either previous knowledge of, or one term of study with a grade of at least a B in, some language that is not Germanic, Romance, Slavic, or Greek, unless one of the two languages chosen for examination falls into this category.

A comprehensive examination precedes admission to candidacy and dissertation research. This examination covers the following areas: (1) linguistic theory and methodology, including descriptive analysis, and (2) an area of specialization-a particular group of languages, an interdisciplinary area such as Native American linguistics, or a subfield such as sociolinguistics, or second language acquisition. The papers are subject to an oral defense.

Additional information can be found in the General Academic Regulations section of this bulletin and in the department's Web pages.

Requirements for the Certificate in TESOL

A Certificate of Advanced Study in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is offered by the Department of Linguistics. Candidates for the certificate should be in a graduate program of the University or should have completed a master's or PhD degree. An application form for admission is obtainable from the department's admissions officer. LING 1950, Introduction to Linguistics, or an equivalent course is a prerequisite. It may be taken concurrently with the first certificate course in which the candidate enrolls.

Students must take six courses, all of which must be passed with at least a B grade, to fulfill course requirements for the certificate:

In addition, the student must take one of the following courses:

(Note that 2945 or 2267 may also count as one of the five required linguistics courses for the MA degree, and all certificate course work counts toward the credit requirements for a graduate degree in linguistics.)

Each candidate who is not a native speaker of English must also achieve a score of 250 or higher (600 or higher on the paper-based test) on the TOEFL examination or its equivalent, and must have good spoken English ability (as determined by an interview test). Native speakers of English must satisfy a foreign language requirement: they must have classroom foreign language experience equivalent to at least one year of college-level study.

Students from outside the Department of Linguistics must complete a TESOL Certificate Plan of Studies form and submit it to the TESOL Certificate advisor after consultation. On completion of all TESOL Certificate requirements, a transcript must be submitted to the Department of Linguistics. The certificate is officially awarded only when the student has also completed all requirements for-or has previously received-the MA or PhD degree and completed an Application for Graduation form.

Course Listings

The courses listed below are those taught regularly. Other courses are taught when there is sufficient student interest. Consult the department for a complete list.

LING 0080 Aspects of Language

LING 0090 Language and Computation

LING 1235 Language, Gender, and Society

LING 1240 Language and the Law

LING 1267 Aspects of Sociolinguistics

LING 1442 Mayan Languages and Cultures

LING 1443 American Indian Languages

LING 1444 Gypsy Language and Culture

LING 1930 Introduction to Applied Linguistics

LING 1950 Introduction to Linguistics

LING 1951 Languages of the World

LING 2000 Research and Thesis for the Master's Degree

LING 2139 Approaches and Methods in Second Language Teaching

LING 2142 Techniques and Procedures in Language Teaching: TESOL

LING 2143 Materials Development for Second Language Teaching and Testing

LING 2144 Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

LING 2146 Second Language Acquisition

LING 2147 Current Issues in Second Language Learning

LING 2190 Seminar: ESL Teacher Supervision

LING 2195 Practicum: Second Language Teaching

LING 2196 Practicum: Second Language Curriculum

LING 2197 Teaching of Linguistics

LING 2234 Language Planning

LING 2267 Sociolinguistics

LING 2269 Current Issues in Sociolinguistics

LING 2441 Field Methods in Linguistics

LING 2450 Structure of an American Indian Language

LING 2578 Phonetics and Phonemics

LING 2579 Phonology

LING 2580 Topics in Phonological Theory

LING 2681 Pragmatics

LING 2773 Morphology

LING 2774 Seminar: Current Issues in Syntax

LING 2777 Syntactic Theory

LING 2860 Introduction to Historical Linguistics

LING 2861 Seminar: Current Issues in Historical Linguistics

LING 2862 History of English Dialects

LING 2902 Directed Study for MA Students

LING 2940 Seminar: Current Issues in Linguistics

LING 2945 Psycholinguistics

LING 2959 Departmental Seminar

LING 2990 Independent Study for MA Students

LING 3000 Research and Dissertation for the PhD Degree

LING 3902 Directed Study for PhD Students

LING 3990 Independent Study for PhD Students

Courses of collateral interest are offered in the foreign language departments, in the Departments of Anthropology, Computer Science, English, Philosophy, Psychology, and Communication, and in the School of Education and the School of Information Sciences. The facilities of the University's Computing Services and System Development (CSSD) are also useful for certain kinds of research in linguistics.

In addition to the preceding, the department periodically offers specially arranged programs for EFL teachers from abroad.