Thousands of study and academic opportunities in Linguistics are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Linguistics are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Linguistics and postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in Linguistics.
Scholarships in Linguistics
- Languages and Linguistics Scholarships, The University of Melbourne
- Scholarships and Awards from the Department of Linguistics, The University of UTAH
- Simon Fraser University Linguistics Scholarships and Teaching Assistantships
- Linguistics Taught Postgraduate Scholarship, Victoria University of Wellington
- Linguistics Ph.D. Scholarship funded by Norwegian Research Council, Australian National University
- Linguistics Award in Diversity Scholarship, University of Washington
- Fees and Funding in Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, University of Oxford
- Postgraduate fees and funding in the Department of Language and Linguistics' Science, University of York
- Linguistics Postgraduate Scholarships, The University of Auckland
- Modern Languages and Linguistics Scholarship, University of South Dakota
Fellowships in Linguistics
- Fellowships in Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Fellowships, Grants, and Awards, Linguistic Society of America
- Linguistics Fellowships, Assistantships, and Financial Aid, University of Buffalo
- Student Grants and Fellowships, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences
- Postdoctoral Linguistics Fellowships, University of Toronto
- Modern Languages and Cultural Studies Fellowships, University of Alberta
- Postdoctoral Fellows, MIT Linguistics
- Baggett Post-Bac Fellowships and Summer Scholarships, University of Maryland
- The University of Hawaii Bilinski Fellowship in Linguistics
- Undergraduate Fellowships and Awards, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Linguistics Associations & Networking opportunities
- American Association for Applied Linguistics
- International Association for Applied Linguistics
- Linguistics Association of Great Britain
- Center for Applied Linguistics
- Association for Computational Linguistics
- British Association for Applied Linguistics
- Linguistic Society of the Philippines
- The Spanish Society for Applied Linguistics
- Malaysian Association for Applied Linguistics
- Canadian Linguistic Association
Linguistics Relevant Accounts on Twitter
- @linguistlist
- @LingSocAm
- @IamLinguistics
- @AAALinks
- @LaymansLinguist
- @LAEL_LU
- @LinguisticsUCL
- @_BAAL
- @ACLA_CAAL
- @LAEL_LU
Linguistics as an Academic Discipline
The question linguists probably face often is: Are you a polyglot?. Your professional reputation will not suffer if you answer no, as learning and speaking many languages is not the goal of linguistics.
Linguistics is a science about languages and their structure, meant to understand the processes behind oral communication. Linguists study how and why humans learn languages and how to make the language learning process easier.
To state more professionally, linguistics cover:
- the unconscious knowledge and understanding that humans have of languages,
- the process of acquiring a new language both by children and adults,
- the structure of languages,
- the main differences between languages,
- the impact of languages on the forms and style of global communication,
- the impact of certain languages on the person's perception of the world.
If you wonder about the worth of studying linguistics, remember that your native and foreign language skills were gained due to the language learning practices linguists establish and constantly improve.
So, do not doubt your idea of pursuing a major in linguistics and exploring one of the most crucial aspects of human life: communication.
The main three comparisons of the discipline may give you additional insight into it.
- Synchronic vs. diachronic: Synchronic linguistics explores the language the way it is spoken at the moment. Diachronic linguistics dig deeper into the historical development and amendments that happened in language.
- Theoretical vs. applied: Pretty intuitive, theoretical linguistics is meant to construct the theoretical image of the language structure, whereas applied linguistics seeks ways to project the theoretical findings on practice to improve the language teaching process.
- Microlinguistics vs. Macrolinguistics: The difference between those terms is the scope and deepness of the language examination. Microlinguistics focuses on the separate fractions of language analysis, such as psychological mechanisms underlying speech production, language learning manners, etc. Macrolinguistics doesn't stop here and expands to broader areas like psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, etc.
What is the General Academic Path for Linguists?
As the vast majority of other disciplines, you have the opportunity for the full range of academic degrees in Linguistics: from Bachelors to Doctoral studies. After the standard BA in Linguistics, graduate students have the following main ways to advance their skills further.
- Masters and Ph.D. programs in linguistics, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, communication sciences, education, etc.
- TESOL and similar applied linguistics programs, which prepares students for teaching English to non-natives.
- Professional programs such as audiology, communication sciences and disorders, information science, law school, etc.
Of course, the mentioned variants do not limit your opportunities to continue Linguistics studies at the postgraduate level. As a linguistics graduate, you will have crucial intellectual skills such as widely hyped analytical reasoning, critical thinking, and argumentation. Those professional qualities open many doors for you.
Linguistics Careers
The last paragraph of the previous section hints about the wide variety of options you may have as a linguist, both in academic and professional life. Linguists may be firstly associated in your brain with teachers and lecturers, but the scope of their professional activity is significantly larger than that.
Before I provide the most popular linguistic careers, let me draw a condensed division of professional perspectives based on the academic degrees.
So, with the sole Bachelors's degree in linguistics, one may work as a teacher for non-natives or a translator. In the case of also having computer skills, there is an opportunity to work in IT companies and create technologies that will comprehend and produce human languages.
With the Master's in linguistics, one can teach to a higher-level audience such as native speakers. In case the Master's is not the final academic destination, students can continue education in related fields like law or journalism.
Ph.D. in linguistics allows me to occupy the highest positions in the field, such as lecturing at universities, working on software development projects, etc.
To sum up the major, the below list includes the career perspectives for linguistics and related fields.
- Development of artificial intelligence, speech recognition, and similar systems.
- Language teaching, including teaching ESL.
- Translation and implementation services.
- Publishing industries: journalism, content writing, technical writing.
- Lexicography.
- Advertising, branding and governmental organizations, etc.
Linguistics helps to understand the processes behind the art of mastering languages and speech techniques. For linguists, it also shapes the important skills of communication, negotiation, and self-expression. We hope that this article will assess you in your linguistics academic path.