Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The current study focuses on a linguistics program in the unusual situation of having emerged from another department. Therefore, the program began by creating classes that would be of interest and relevance to other fields, and, only after the formation of the stand-alone major (2008) and minor (2006), began to fill in with classes that are important to linguists but less “marketable” outside that program. The presentation will focus on the following strategies for maintaining and expanding our relevance to other majors and to the university as a whole and the success and challenges of each:
1. Use of cases/examples in class when appropriate that are relevant to other fields (e.g., disordered speech and non-English for transcription, etc.)
2. Offering a course, when possible, that attracts more majors from other programs and can grow to a larger size, whether or not they are the best fit for linguists. (For example, we offer Structure of the English Language, which is required for speech pathology and education majors but is an elective for linguistics majors.)
3. Propose acceptance of ALL courses to fulfill general requirements. (All of our courses count toward the social sciences requirement our BA students must fulfill.)
4. Market the minor as a logical pairing with professional majors, such as speech pathology and business.
5. If diversity courses are required, some linguistics courses, such as Language and Ethnicity, have been successfully proposed as fulfilling these requirements.
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Recommended Citation
Roberts, Julie, "Transitioning from Serving Others’ Students to Serving Our Own" (2014). Taking Linguistics Beyond Linguistics Programs and Departments Symposium. 2.
https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/lsa2014_symposium/2