Why Study Linguistics?

(partly from Penn State University’s Linguistic Department)                                                                    

·        Minor in linguistics and major in political science, administration of justice or business administration for careers in forensic linguistics (patent agents, copyright law, FBI, foreign service).

·        Minor in linguistics and major in communications for careers in publishing, communications consulting, telecommunications specialist, or mediation specialist.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in language and/or psychology for careers in second language teaching/acquistion, multimedia language instruction, human/computer interaction.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in speech communication and/or communication disorders for careers in speech pathology/audiology, English as a Second Language.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in sociology for careers in government (linguistic rights and Native American languages, literacy).

·        Minor in linguistics and major in philosophy or mathematics for careers in research groups dealing with intelligent agents, or computer applications.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in English for editorial careers or international programs coordinator.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in writing for careers in editing, technical writing, script writing, speech writing, copy writing.

·        Minor in linguistics and major in computer science for careers in machine translation, software design, voice synthesizer design, speech recognition, computational linguistics.

ü      The largest employer of linguists is the national intelligence agencies—the CIA and the NSA—and the US Military.

ü      Linguistics coupled with writing, sociology, psychology, English or philosophy is an excellent combination for entrance into law school, especially if you are interested in the language of the law.

ü      Linguistics coupled with writing, a foreign language or English is excellent preparation for entrance into graduate programs in rhetoric and composition, linguistics, foreign languages or English studies.