Linguistics, B.A.

Learning Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

The following goals and learning outcomes have been established for students pursuing a degree in Linguistics:

Knowledge of language organization, usage, history and learning

• Understand how language is structured, particularly to what extent languages share a universal structural base and to what extent they differ from one another
• Understand how language is used, and the factors accounting for variation in language use
• Understand how language is learned by children in first language acquisition and by adults in second language acquisition
• Understand how language changes over time and the principles of historical linguistics

Think critically

• Demonstrate the ability to analyze problems, both linguistic and otherwise, and to find and critically evaluate alternative solutions

Write effectively

• Demonstrate the ability to present ideas in effectively written form

Research

• Demonstrate the ability to find in textbooks and research materials — paper and electronic — the kinds of information relevant to a given problem or issue, linguistic or otherwise, and to integrate that information into one’s own written work to support one’s argument while giving appropriate credit to the source of the information

Knowledge of linguistics subdisciplines

• Have a working knowledge of the subdisciplines of linguistics dealing with the organization of language, i.e., phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics
• Have a working knowledge of the subdisciplines of linguistics dealing with language use, change and acquisition, especially sociolinguistics, historical linguistics and psycholinguistics