Going from a Psychology BA to a Linguistics MA

[quirkycase]

Hey, everyone!

 

I will be beginning an MA Linguistics program this fall, but my experience in this field is rather limited as my BA is in Psychology. I took one general linguistics course my last semester of undergrad, but the rest of my experience is more indirect (psychology and philosophy) or self-pursued.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions or tips for preparing for an MA program as a linguistics newcomer?  I feel severely underprepared, switching fields like this. I plan to revisit the minimal linguistics materials I currently have, but beyond that I’m not sure how to best prepare.  Any advice would be appreciated.  

Edited May 8, 2015 by ashso

[fuzzylogician]

Do you know what courses you'll have to take in your first year? If so, you could try and read up on the material that is likely to be discussed there. You could contact the program's admissions officer or the director of graduate studies and ask for his/her recommendation on what to do, and if there are any particular textbooks or article he/she would recommend perusing before starting the program. You may be surprised to learn that they expect at least some students to show up without much/any background and courses will therefore not assume much previous knowledge. You might still want to prepare some, because first-year courses can be very difficult to keep up with if you've never seen the material before, but on the other hand if the course is well-designed then you should be able to succeed (with hard work) without prepping over the summer. Either way, your program is the best source of information on this and the best people to answer your question.

 

If you want to share what courses you expect to be taking, someone here might be able to recommend some useful background reading, in case your program doesn't have more specific suggestions.

 

Also, to ease your mind, it's not all that uncommon for someone to come into an MA program with little or no background. Linguistics is not offered as a major and sometimes not even as a minor at many schools. Linguistics graduate programs are aware of this and know how to deal with it. Expect to work hard, but to nonetheless be able to survive and, by the end of the year, feel confident in your knowledge. It may not be fun while your'e in it, but it's doable. Once you're through the first year, you'll pretty much be up to speed with students who came in with a BA in linguistics for the fields that are outside their main focus. Within the second year, I would expect you to be completely caught up and in good shape in your chosen subfield.

[quirkycase]

Thanks for the detailed reply, fuzzylogician!

 

I have emailed the department already, as you suggested, but I got an out-of-office autoreply, and I have no idea when I'll hear back.  Plus, I've heard that the school isn't necessarily prompt about responses, which is why I thought I would post here as well. 

 

I just read back over my original post and realized I didn't say this, but I will be attending grad school in the UK.  I am doing a two-year taught MA program that combines linguistics with intensive language study (Korean).  My program doesn't start until the end of September, and I don't think I will find out which courses I will be taking for quite a while.  The only two courses I am pretty sure I will be taking early on are Phonology and Syntax.  The rest is up in the air.

 

 You might still want to prepare some, because first-year courses can be very difficult to keep up with if you've never seen the material before, but on the other hand if the course is well-designed then you should be able to succeed (with hard work) without prepping over the summer. 

 

This was my thought process as well.  The course doesn't require a background in linguistics, so I know I should be okay, but I would prefer to make it a little easier on myself if possible.  Not only am I starting graduate studies, but I'll be moving to a different country as well.  I'd like to minimize stress wherever I can.

 

 

[beefgallo]

You have class notes from some Linguistics courses here:

 

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/#linguistics-and-philosophy

 

That may be of some assistance in getting a general (or more than general...) clue about at least some of the topics you'll be studying.

[quirkycase]

Thanks for the link, beefgallo! I'll definitely check those notes out; they should be really helpful.