14.1520, Sum: Linguistics in General Education

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-1520. Tue May 27 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.1520, Sum: Linguistics in General Education

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1)
Date:  Fri, 23 May 2003 15:56:10 +0000
From:  Trudi Patterson <tpattrsn at mailclerk.ecok.edu>
Subject:  Linguistics in General Education

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 23 May 2003 15:56:10 +0000
From:  Trudi Patterson <tpattrsn at mailclerk.ecok.edu>
Subject:  Linguistics in General Education

Two months ago, I posted a request for information on how courses in
linguistics were used to fulfill general education (GenEd)
requirements. The query read as follows:

I am interested in extending the reach of linguistics beyond courses
for future linguists and/or teacher education. There are discussions
across the U.S. about language policy, e.g. identifying English as an
official language, and one going on here in Oklahoma.  So it would
seem important, nay critical, for us to try to reach students in other
majors and educate them about language/linguistics.  Here, we offer a
course in Language & Culture to fulfill a humanities requirement. I am
told that some schools offer linguistics as a lab science course to
fulfill the lab science requirement.

I would like to know how schools use linguistics-type classes in the
general education curriculum. What linguistics-type courses do you
offer that fulfill general education requirements and how/which
category do they fulfill?

I did not receive as many responses as I had hoped. If anyone else
would still like to respond to this question, I welcome your input.

Thank you once again to those who responded and answered my questions.

Leor Alcalay
Lynn Burley
Wendy Burnett
Seran Dogancay-Aktuna
Joseph Foster
Naomi Nagy

The responses indicate that linguistics courses are used to fulfill
the following kinds of GenEd requirements:

Arts & Letters
Arts & Sciences Social Science
Social Science
World Cultural Traditions

All of these purposes seem to fall along the Arts-Humanities-Social
Science spectrum, which is what I expected to find, at least in
part. Rumor has it, however, that linguistics courses are also used to
fulfill other science (perhaps lab-type) and communication (a la
foreign language) requirements. No one responded indicating that
linguistics was used for such purposes at their institution. But I am
not giving up hope. If anyone has information on linguistics being
used for either of these types of GenEd requirements, I would
appreciate hearing from you.  Thank you all again.

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