Linguistics Research and Study Opportunities

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

Fellowships in Linguistics

Linguistics Associations & Networking opportunities

Linguistics Relevant Accounts on Twitter

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. 

  1. 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. 
  2. 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. 
  3. 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.