BA/BS in Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services

Students who take this minor treat language as a subject of scientific inquiry. Courses look at how sounds are organized, how sentences are built, how meaning is conveyed, and how children and adults come to acquire a language. Attention also goes to the ways speech varies between social groups and changes across time. The curriculum is interdisciplinary and borrows from several fields at once. Linguistics sits alongside cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, education, and the study of foreign languages, so learners see how the mind handles language and how language ties into identity and community life. The minor combines naturally with work in a modern language. The training suits those considering teaching, research, speech-language pathology, or cross-cultural work. Graduates have moved into education, nonprofits, NGOs, and private-sector roles, and some go on to graduate study. The minor is offered at the Los Angeles campus of Occidental College.