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Applied English Linguistics Major to Replace English Language Major

Starting Fall 2022, the English Language major will be replaced by the Applied English Linguistics major, which features tracks in linguistic computing, TESOL, sociolinguistics, and historical English linguistics.

The aim of the new major is to prepare linguistics students to enter the professional world with applied skills in their field of choice or to study applied linguistics at a graduate level. Additionally, the major will help students understand how linguistics can be used to solve real-world problems in data science, natural language processing, education, law, business, and other fields.

To help students gain depth of understanding in specific areas, the major has four tracks that each focus on an area of applied linguistics:

  • Linguistic Computing
  • TESOL/Language Acquisition
  • Language in Society
  • Language in History

Students in the major will complete four courses in their primary track and two courses in a second track. The department also offers minors in Linguistic Computing and TESOL, and a great deal of coursework from the major can be double-counted towards these minors as well. We hope that students who are interested in these minors will gain additional experience from this new major, and that students in the new major will further deepen their expertise by enrolling in the Linguistic Computing and/or TESOL minors.

As part of this change, all courses with the ELANG (English Language) course code will be renamed to ELING (English Linguistics). The required coursework for the major includes:

  • Prerequisite course: ELING 322 (Introduction to the English Language)
  • LING 198 (Career Explorations in Linguistics)
  • ELING 273 (Introduction to English Language Research Methods)
  • ELING 324 (History of the English Language)
  • ELING 325 (The Grammar of English)
  • ELING 326 (English Semantics and Pragmatics)
  • ELING 327 (English Phonetics and Phonology)
  • ELING 495R (The Senior Course)

Note that ELING 322 (Modern American Usage) will not be required for all students as it was in the English Language major, but it remains an option in the Language in Society track.

In addition to these core courses and the courses in their chosen tracks, students in the new major will select two courses that involve collecting and processing linguistic data, choosing among ELING 362 (Discourse Analysis), LING 360 (Programming for Text Processing and Analysis), LING 445 (Introduction to Psycholinguistics), LING 452 (Introduction to Sociolinguistics), and LING 485 (Corpus Linguistics).

Like students in our other majors, Applied English Linguistics students must complete coursework in a foreign language up to a 200-level. Students will also be required to participate in experiential learning; graduates of the major will have worked as a research or teaching assistant, participated in a Study Abroad program, or completed a linguistics, TESOL, or editing internship for academic credit.

Students enrolled in the English Language major prior to Fall 2022 will have the choice to either complete the old requirements or switch to the new Applied English Linguistics requirements. For students who have already completed some linguistics coursework and are interested in switching to the Applied English Linguistics major, some LING courses may be used to fulfill similar ELING requirements. These decisions are made by a faculty advisor. Advisors are assigned based on last name; visit this page to find your advisor’s contact information.

You can preview the full major requirements here.