The field of linguistics does tend to attract people who speak more than one language, or people who are interested in learning new languages. But linguistics is much more than being multilingual--it is the scientific study of language. 

Students in our program discover topics--like formal grammar, language and culture, language acquisition, cognition, and bilingualism--in the context of a broad liberal arts experience. UVM linguistics students have continued on to distinguished graduate programs. Many others join the private sector in jobs ranging from technology, medical research, education, translation and teaching as a second language. Students who major in linguistics are equipped with a broad range of transferable skills, enabling them to succeed in any profession.

Meet just a few of our recent graduates here.

  • Exploring the science of linguistics leads to job with Amazon

    Claudia Garber ‘18 declared chemistry as her UVM major before eventually switching to linguistics. The Needham, Mass., native was intrigued by the symmetry between the two disciplines—in chemistry she deconstructed matter from compounds, to molecules, to atoms, while in linguistics she broke down language into sentences, words and then sounds. “Specifically I’m interested in phonetics, phonology, and morphology—the scientific ways of approaching language,” she said. Garber found plenty of opportunities to gain research experience as an undergraduate. She partnered with Shelley Velleman from UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences on a study focusing on speech development in children with Williams Syndrome.

    Read more of Claudia's story.

    “I did an analysis of four children over their first three years of life. I identified speech sound acquisition patterns in the children through transcriptions and analyses of recorded play sessions.” Garber received two grants—an Honors College Career Development Award and a College of Arts and Sciences APLE Grant—which funded her research at UVM over two consecutive summers. A semester at the University of Cardiff in Wales introduced her to corpus linguistics, or the study of large language data processing. Taken together, her academic experience turned out to be ideal preparation for her job as a data specialist for Amazon’s voice service program Alexa. She stepped into the role within weeks of graduation. “It’s not within the scope of what I even knew was possible as a career path when I started studying linguistics at UVM, but it’s an up and coming field and an awesome first job.”

     

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"I came to UVM undecided, but took some linguisitcs courses right away, though I had no idea what that really meant. After two semesters, I declared it as my major! . . . Linguistics helps you become aware of the intricacies/patterns in language that you hear and use on a regular basis."

Shannon Foley '19
Predoctoral Research Fellow at Dartmouth College

 

"I really loved phonetics. I appreciated how it was more on the 'sciency' side of things. I liked being able to pick out differences in speech – now my party trick is to test people for the 'cot/caught merger' and then talk about dialectal differences."

Meghan McClure '19

 

"I’ve always loved languages, and linguistics is a perfect blend between the 'hard' and 'technical,' and the more abstract nature of languages and art."

Yovita Poerwanto '19

 

Many of our students take advantage of the variety of learning opportunities our program and the university offer - from on-campus clubs and residential learning communities to study abroad programs.