Linguistics

Overview

Students and faculty in linguistics investigate the nature of human language, its structure, diversity, universality, acquisition by children and adults, historical change, and its use in society. They study how language is processed in the human mind/brain, and how it relates to other human cognitive faculties. And they study and develop applications of linguistics to teaching, technology, and many other fields.

This master degree in Linguistics is available at California State University, Fresno. Our degrees and programs develop intellectual skills that are essential to professional careers or advanced degrees and can be applied directly to various professional fields. An undergraduate or advanced degree in linguistics can prepare you for a career in a variety of different fields, including but not limited to: teaching, publishing, national security, international affairs, policy, forensics, medicine and technology. 

Our programs also serve as excellent preparation for pursuing advanced degrees in linguistics and other fields such as English, Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, Computer Science, and Foreign Languages.The M.A. degree in Linguistics is designed to increase the student’s knowledge and understanding of linguistics and its applications. The M.A. degree has two options, one in General Linguistics and one in TESL. The general linguistics program is designed to train students who expect to do further graduate work, to teach linguistics at the college level, or to do linguistic field work on less-studied languages. The option in TESL prepares students for further graduate work in applied linguistics and serves those who wish to teach English to speakers of other languages at any educational level, either abroad or in this country. The TESL option specifically meets the needs of English language teachers in this region.

Student Facilities

• The Department of Linguistics has a computer lab for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and for language study. 

• The Department also has a sound booth for phonetic analysis. 

• The Linguistics Department provides practical classroom teaching experience for qualified ESL students through internship programs at area schools and through employment with the American English Institute.