Does anyone know what the course for a minor in linguistics at the average American university entails?
Julian
Do you mean the coursework or how to go about enrolling in such a program?
The coursework depends on the school. Here are the requirements for a BA Minor in Linguistics at three Southern California universities:
UCLA
Language Interaction Culture (LIC) Minor
The LIC minor is designed for students who wish to augment their major program of study with a distinctive program of courses and training experiences pertinent to the study of discourse across the life span, across diverse speech communities, and across culturally meaningful settings within particular communities. The minor is sponsored by the Center of Language, Interaction and Culture (CLIC) and draws upon faculty and courses in a number of different departments. It provides a locus for students to integrate ethnographic, interactional, and linguistic approaches to discourse in society.
The Language, Interaction, and Culture minor is designed to train students in the naturalistic study of discourse in everyday interaction. To enter the minor, students must have an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better, have completed 80 quarter units, and file a petition with the minor adviser, 3300A Rolfe Hall, (310) 825-4631. All degree requirements, including the specific requirements for the minor, must be fulfilled with 228 quarter units.
Required Lower Division courses (eight units total) for the LIC Minor:
Two courses selected from the following groups (each course must come from a different group):
• Group 1 -- Anthropology 33 or 34
• Group 2 -- Sociology 3 or 24
• Group 3 -- Linguistics 1 or 2 or 20.
Required Upper Division Courses (28 units total)for the LIC Minor:
Applied Linguistics/TESL M194 and six courses from the following, with at least one course from each group:
All minor courses must be taken for a letter grade, with an overall grade-point average of 2.0 or better. No more than two upper division elective courses may be applied toward both the students' majors and this minor. Successful completion of the minor is indicated on the transcript and diploma.
USC
Linguistics Minor Requirements
Lower division: LING 210. Upper division: LING 301 and LING 302, one course in psycholinguistics (LING 405, LING 410 or LING 406) or in sociolinguistics (LING 375), and one additional upper division course from LING 380, LING 401, LING 402, LING 403, LING 405, LING 407, LING 406, LING 410, LING 415, LING 466 and LING 485.
CSUN
BA Minor
The Undergraduate Minor (21 units)
Students at California State University Northridge may earn a minor in Linguistics by completing the following:
1. Introduction to Linguistics (3 units)
Select one of the following courses:
o ANTH 310 Anthropological Linguistics
o ENGL 301 Language and Linguistics
o COMS 420 Language and Symbolic Processes (rarely offered at present)
2. Core Courses in Linguistics (5 courses = 15 units)
o LING 402 Phonetics and Phonology
o LING 404 Morphology and Syntax
o LING 408 Semantics and Pragmatics
o LING 417 Language Development and Acquisition
o LING 441 Sociolinguistics
3. Electives (3 units)
One course, selected in consultation with the Coordinator/Advisor, from the list of Approved Elective Courses as found in the description of the BA Elective Track.
TOTAL UNITS IN THE MINOR: 21
Benjamin [inactive]
I can tell you what the linguistics 'minor' at the University of St Andrews in Scotland entails, because I'm hopefully going to be starting it next year. I know you asked for American universities, but I can't imagine that it would be radically different:
First year:
Foundations of Language 1 — structure and function of language; grammar and pronunciation
Foundations of Language 2 — language and society; language and the mind; teaching language
Second year:
Structure of Language — introduces descriptive techniques in linguistic analysis
Aspects of Language — function of language in external domains
Third year:
General Linguistics 1 — method of grammatical rules and lexical exceptions; Saussurean structuralism
General Linguistics 2 — language variation and change
Fourth year:
General Linguistics 3 — semantics and discourse
General Linguistics 4 — languages in contact
David
Thanks for the info, guys! Julian, I was referring to the coursework.
