Do you want to become a teacher?
We recommend adding Linguistics to your study plan.
Teaching Primary/Junior Levels
It is very clear that language is the central component in primary education. During grades 1, 2 and 3, children are busy learning the skills of reading, spelling, writing, accurate listening and precise speaking. These skills are but different manifestations of one and the same thing-the system known as language. It is language which relates and integrates these diverse skills in the human brain.
Teaching Secondary Level
An understanding of the essential characteristics of language will permit the teacher to provide a program for the student which combines the subject area material with a program that develops language skills. To be effective all teachers must be language teachers to some degree or another.
Taking a linguistics course will not provide you with a methodology for teaching spelling, reading or history. It will give you a better understanding of how language works as a social and intellectual medium which in turn will provide many new perspectives on teaching and the world.
Course Recommendations
Any of the following courses will be of use to the classroom teacher. For students interested in special education AS/LING1000 6.0 is especially recommended.
- AP/LING 1000 6.0 Introduction to Linguistics
- AP/LING 2060 6.0 English Grammar
- AP/LING 2400 3.0 Language in its Social Context
- AP/LING 2410 3.0 Language and Gender
- AP/LING 2420 3.0 Language and Culture
- AP/LING 2430 3.0 Language, Power and Persuasion
- AP/LING 2450 3.0 Language and the Law
- AP/LING 3220 3.0 Psycholinguistics
- AP/LING 3240 3.0 Second Language Acquisition