Education
Common Career Paths
- Teaching
- Research
- Applied linguistics
- Teacher training
- Curriculum development
- Test/Assessment development
- Foreign language instruction
- English as a second language (ESL) instruction
- English to speakers of other language (TESOL)
- Instruction
- Literacy development
- Information/Library science
Employers
- Universities and colleges
- K-12 school systems
- Language institutes
- Community education programs
- Testing companies (e.g., ETS)
Strategies
- To teach in higher education, earn a doctoral degree in linguistics or a related subject such as English, philosophy, speech pathology, or foreign language.
- As an undergraduate, maintain a high GPA and secure strong recommendations from faculty.
- Serve as a tutor, peer mentor, or other student leader.
- Look for opportunities to assist faculty with research.
- Study languages, both Indo-European and non-Indo-European.
- To be more competitive for tenure-track positions in linguistics, plan to complete a post-doc and gain experience with multiple subfields or those that are more applied. Subfields include: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, pragmatics, and language acquisition.
- Earn relevant graduate degrees to prepare for other fields such as, information science, ESL/TESOL, or language education.
- Foreign language instruction requires teacher certification for K-12 and a doctoral degree for postsecondary.
- To prepare for work with non-native English speakers, get involved with the campus or local international community. Study abroad and attend multi-cultural events on campus or in the community.
- Research the many programs available for teaching English abroad. Consider earning a certificate or seeking specialized training to prepare for these positions.
Computational Linguistics
Common Career Paths
- Speech synthesis
- Speech recognition
- Natural language processing
- Text-content analysis
- Machine translation
- Artificial intelligence
- Database or lexicon development
- Information extraction
- Text mining
- Research
Employers
- e-Businesses (e.g., Amazon)
- Software developers
- Computer companies (e.g., IBM, Microsoft)
- Natural-language processor firms
- Search engines (e.g., Google)
- Database developers
- Other business firms
Strategies
- Earn a master’s or doctoral degree in linguistics, computer science, or computational linguistics.
- Supplement undergraduate curriculum with courses in computer science.
- Develop skills in computer programming, computer scripting, natural language processing techniques, and other relevant technologies.
- Gain experience by completing an internship in the computer industry.
- Read use/net or netnews groups and professional journals to understand current trends in the field.
- Be prepared to continuously learn new computer languages and technologies to stay abreast of changes.
- This area represents some of the higher-demand opportunities within linguistics.
Government
Common Career Paths
- Translation
- Interpretation
- Localization
- Forensic linguistics
- Cryptology
- Intelligence
- Analysis
- Writing
- Editing
Employers
- Federal government:
- National Security Agency
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Foreign Service
- Armed Forces
- State and local government:
- Police departments
Strategies
- Seek leadership roles in relevant campus groups such as model United Nations, student government, and cross-cultural organizations.
- Develop skills in computers, statistics, and data analysis.
- Acquire foreign language competency and travel experience for international positions. Consider studying critical needs languages (e.g., Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, Russian, Spanish).
- Complete an internship with the federal government. The armed forces also sponsor the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center for military personnel. Admittance is based on scores from the Defense Language Aptitude Battery Test.
- There are a large number of specialized agencies within the federal government. Do extensive research in order to find the area that best fits your interests and to learn about candidate requirements.
- Become familiar with the government application process. Utilize applicable websites and seek assistance from your college career center.
Communication Disorders
Common Career Paths
- Speech pathology
- Language disorders
- Audiology
- Aural rehabilitation
- Neurocommunicative science
- Cognitive sciences
- Teaching
- Research
Employers
- Schools, K-12
- Universities and colleges
- Hospitals
- Physicians’ offices
- Speech, language, and hearing centers
- Developmental learning centers
- Home healthcare offices
- Nursing homes
- Residential facilities
- Health maintenance organizations
- Private individual or group practice
- Public health departments
- Rehabilitation centers
- Federal agencies:
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- National Institutes of Health
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Education
- Armed Services
Strategies
- The study of communication disorders is interdisciplinary and draws upon linguistics, speech pathology, audiology, and psychology. Research prerequisite courses for graduate school admission and take the appropriate undergraduate classes.
- A master’s degree from an accredited speech language pathology program is required to enter that field. A doctoral degree is commonly required for audiology. Most states require certification of speech pathologists and all states for audiologists. Obtain the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology or Audiology offered by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
- Take courses in American Sign Language.
- Maintain a high GPA and seek related experiences to be competitive for graduate school.
- Learn to work well people of varying ages and backgrounds, including those with disabilities.
- Develop patience as progress in clients may be slow.
Additional Areas
Common Career Paths
- Translation
- Interpreting
- Language documentation
- Fieldwork
- Lexicography (work with dictionaries)
- Technical writing
- Editing
- Journalism
- Medical linguistics
- Forensic linguistics
- Product naming
- Consulting
- Multicultural marketing and foreign language advertising support
Employers
- Government agencies
- Foreign governments
- International businesses
- Hospitals
- Courts
- Publishers (e.g., magazine, book, textbook, dictionary)
- Internet sites
- Manufacturers of consumer products
- Law firms
- Consulting firms
Strategies
- There are many employment settings in which students can utilize a degree in linguistics.
- Research areas of interest and seek the appropriate education, skills, and experiences to qualify for that field.
- Some of these areas will require graduate degrees in linguistics or educational background in other disciplines.
- Gain relevant experience through internships.
Getting Started and Advancing in Major
- Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field and therefore good preparation for a wide variety of graduate programs (e.g., linguistics, speech pathology, audiology, cognitive sciences, English, law, journalism, foreign languages).
- Students who major in linguistics develop strong analytical and communication skills and the ability to debate. They are commonly required to gain proficiency in a second language.
- Students should consider a secondary area of study such as, foreign language, computer science, psychology, or other area of interest to increase opportunities for employment or graduate school.
- Some linguists find jobs outside of academia as computational linguists for dot-com companies. They build databases and lexicons and develop language-processing systems for Web sites to make it easier for people to navigate and get more precise answers to requests for information.
- Consider study abroad and getting involved with the international community on campus. Attend language conversation tables.
- Research career paths of interest and seek to gain the skills, experiences, and degrees necessary to work in that field.
- Conduct informational interviews with or shadow professionals to learn about various work environments.
- Join related professional associations as a student member.
- Because many career paths require graduate education, learn about the graduate school admissions process and build a strong candidacy.
Gain relevant experience through jobs, volunteer positions, or internships.
Professional Associations
- American Association for Applied Linguistics
- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
- Association for Computation Linguistics
- International Association of Applied Linguistics
- Linguistic Association of the Southwest
- Linguistic Society of America
- Society for Linguistic Anthropology