Grad Schools

[nathdep]

Hello everyone!

I want to introduce myself. My name is Nathan and I'm currently a rising senior at Hartwick College. I'm doing a dual degree program pursuing a BA in French along with a BA in Spanish and Global Studies. (My GPA is currently a 3.66 if that is needed.) Lately, I registered to take the GRE and I know that I will have to give them some schools to send scores to since you are allowed to send scores to three schools for free if it is from the testing site.

Linguistics has always intrigued me. I don't have a very extensive background in linguistics except for what I've learned through language learning. I Unfortunately, my school does not have a linguistics program and it was too late to transfer when I decided that linguistics might be a viable field to look into. 

I know that linguistics is an incredibly broad field with many different specializations. I've thought some about what interests me most and I would love to go into the field of first/second language acquisition whether it be by teaching or doing research on how someone learns a first/second language. Really, any kind of area that deals with applied linguistics seems fascinating to me.

That being said, do you have any suggestions as to which grad schools might be good to apply to? How hard would it be for someone like me that does not have a BA in linguistics to go into a masters program for linguistics?

Thanks so much!

[historicallinguist]

I was in the similar situation where you are in now. I had a non-linguistics BA in two specific languages and their related area studies. GPA is not something you can change, and not the most important thing for admission. GRE is like a threshold. You need to be above certain scores for consideration of university-wide fellowship. But when it comes to admission, GRE is not the most important thing. 

I guess you need to think more specifically and then articulate in you SOP what question you are interested in in a more precise way. You said you wanted to do applied linguistics, with a focus on L1/L2 acquisition. But L1 acquisition is something quite different from L2 acquisition, and vice versa. Exactly which one are you interested in investigating? Suppose you want to deal with L1 acquisition. You will need to briefly discuss in your SOP whether you want to deal with the acquisition of phonology, or syntax, or something else. Also, L1 acquisition, whether it is theoretical or applied, generally involves some kind of experiments. You may want to also include in your SOP a brief discussion your proposed experimental methods, proposed target group of native speakers in this proposed experiment, and so on and so forth. 

Generally, it varies from school to school when it comes to whether someone with a non-linguistic BA could get into a masters program for (applied) linguistics. You may also consider programs in School of Education (SoE) in various universities.  It seems that programs in SoE rather than programs in a general linguistic department can better serve you for your interests in L1/L2 research, or language teaching. 

You did not mention whether full funding is a necessary condition for you to attend graduate school. If not, then I have two suggestions for you: 1. Department of Education, University of Oxford 2. Teacher's College, Columbia University. 

If I remember it right, the one in Oxford does not require GRE. Either way, these two programs are fairly easy to get into without funding (or in some cases, with a small scholarship of, say, 3000 pound, or 2000 dollar). 1 is cheaper than 2 in terms of price, because 1 is a one year program but 2 is a typical 2 year US. program.  

 

[nathdep]

@historicallinguist

Thanks for your advice! Regarding your last question, yes, I will need as much aid as possible.

I'm a little nervous to take the GRE. I am horrible at standardized testing (I didn't do too well on my SAT). I have been studying however so I'm hoping that'll be enough to get a good enough score.

I have looked into Oxford. Is it true that it is only a one year program? Would the degree offered there be something I could use in the US?

Also, I would probably look more into L2 acquisition because it would be of more interest to me. I'd like to do research but I'd also like to do something that would directly help people such as teaching. I'm mainly interested in how methods could be developed to make learning another language easier.

[historicallinguist]

2 hours ago, nathdep said:

I have looked into Oxford. Is it true that it is only a one year program? Would the degree offered there be something I could use in the US?

Yes. Msc is a one year program. Whether the degree offered there is useful for you depends on which tutor you have been assigned to. I heard good stories in department of education at Oxford, and that is why I am letting you know this possibility. Generally speaking, if your assigned tutor has a good track of publications appropriate to his/her stage of professional career, is a fellow of some college (preferably some colleges with better financial support for their fellows and students, such as Balliol College and St.John's College, rather than tiny colleges or PPHs that constantly struggle with financial issues), and is a full-time faculty with a title of either XXX Professor or University lecturer, this person will likely to be helpful for you to graduate from the program with a good thesis that you could use it later as a writing sample for various purposes, and write you good LOR for your applications for jobs/PHD programs in the future. If your assigned tutor is a short term contract-based part time departmental lecturer, then decline the offer, because departmental lecturer is generally over-loaded with tons of students, both undergraduate and graduate, to tutor, and therefore can pay very little attention to each individual student.(and that translates to very few contact hours to meet with you for your research project and tutorials). You will have an idea who will be your tutor when you receive your offer from the department. If not, you can always email the department and ask. 

2 hours ago, nathdep said:

Also, I would probably look more into L2 acquisition because it would be of more interest to me. I'd like to do research but I'd also like to do something that would directly help people such as teaching. I'm mainly interested in how methods could be developed to make learning another language easier.

 Great. Now you narrowed down your research area. Say more about L2 Acquisition. Explain why L2 acquisition is interesting not only to you but also to your intended audience, and what your intended audience can learn from this proposed research project. As for your final point, I guess it is still too broad. It is broad because the very notion of learning another language is very general. It would be helpful if you could narrow your object of investigation down to the L2 acquisition of phenomenon X in language Y by speaker of language Z. For example, L2 acquisition of argument structure in English by Spanish speaker would be a much more specific (feasible within the timeframe of a master program too) object of investigation. 

Also, the easiness to learn a second language is not only dependent on your teaching methods, but also a variety of factors such as the first language background of the learners,  whether the two languages share a writing system, etc. So, a better formulated question may be how, ceteris paribus, proposed method X is more efficient than old method Y to teach the phenomenon Z in language A as a second language to speaker of language B.