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2014-2015 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog

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Applied Linguistics Minor

For additional information about opportunities your college offers, please refer to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences section in this catalog.

Website: www.gvsu.edu/english

The applied linguistics minor is designed to provide systematic study of and principled approaches to issues in which language is implicated, including language teaching, language learning, and language use. Relying on foundational linguistic concepts and an understanding of the structural properties of language as elaborated in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, the minor engages issues and seeks resolution to language-related problems in the world. Courses in the minor consider such topics as learning and teaching of languages, social and regional language variation, literacy, language policy, language disorders, and language history, to name a few. The applied linguistics minor serves as an excellent disciplinary complement to such fields as African/African American studies, anthropology, classics, communications, computing and information systems, English, education, modern languages, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, and writing.

Career Opportunities

The discipline of applied linguistics has application to careers in a wide variety of fields, including computer science, foreign and second language teaching, speech-language pathology and intervention, forensic analysis, literacy and educational assessment, language planning and policy, and publishing and advertising. Applied linguists, for example, teach second and foreign languages, compile dictionaries, resolve communication problems among pilots who must use a common nonnative language, work with legislators in countries to develop language policies, and assist with criminal and legal investigations.

Minor Requirements

The applied linguistics minor is designed to provide systematic study of language and applied issues in language teaching, language learning, and language use. The minor is an excellent disciplinary complement to such fields as African/African American Studies, anthropology, classics, communications, computing and information systems, English, education, modern language, philosophy, psychology, and writing. The minor requires a minimum of 21 hours: 9 hours in the foundation and 12 hours in 300-level and 400-level electives (*2 exceptions). Three electives must be taken from English electives (see below) and one elective must be taken from cross-departmental electives (see below).

Requirements for a Minor in Applied Linguistics Credits: 21

Foundation Courses (required) Credits: 9

Electives Credits: 12

The minor requires four electives. Three electives must be chosen from the English electives (below). The fourth elective must be chosen from the Cross-departmental electives (below), or be an elective approved by an English linguistics advisor.

English Electives Credits: 9

Cross-departmental electives Credits: 3

Applied Linguistics Program Description



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