DOING RESEARCH

The Department of Linguistics strongly supports undergraduate research. Individual and collaborative research projects allow students to make substantive contributions to linguistic knowledge at the undergraduate level, to hone their linguistic knowledge, and to develop new skills. Students gain numerous benefits from such projects, which provide excellent preparation for careers as well as graduate study: (1) the ability to plan and carry out a successful large-scale project; (2) a deeper understanding of the research process and of linguistic concepts and research tools; (3) familiarity with linguistics-related technologies; (4) greater expertise in formal and academic writing; (5) the opportunity to contribute new knowledge to the field of linguistics. Students who carry out original research projects collect and analyze linguistic data through a variety of empirical methodologies, including the audio- or videorecording and analysis of spoken or signed interactions of various kinds, elicitation of grammatical knowledge from native speakers, quantitative anlaysis of linguistic corpora, experimental techniques, and other methods. Students are strongly encouraged to share their research with the larger academic community; they may choose to present their completed project at linguistics conferences and at UCSB’s annual Undergraduate Research Colloquium or submit it for publication under the guidance of a faculty supervisor. In addition, many students use an original research project as a writing sample for graduate school or job applications.

Opportunities to participate in original linguistic research projects are available through several avenues:

The Departmental Senior Honors Program allows students with a minimum 3.5 grade-point average in linguistics to complete a senior honors thesis, a significant original research project of publishable quality on a topic of the student’s own choice.

Linguistics 199 provides students with a chance to conduct research one-on-one or collaboratively in a small group, under the supervision of a linguistics professor. Linguistics 199RA gives undergraduates course credit for working as research assistants on a faculty member’s or graduate student’s ongoing research project.

Linguistics faculty seeking undergraduates to assist with their research may list project information in the Faculty Research Assistance Program (FRAP) directory. Students earn credit in Linguistics 199 or 199RA for providing research assistance. Interested students should check the FRAP listings for projects that match their qualifications.

Opportunities to contribute to faculty and graduate student projects are also posted on the linguistics undergraduate listserve (to subscribe, see Contact); in addition, students seeking such opportunities should contact individual professors and graduate students in their area of interest to find out about possible research opportunities.

To find resources for doing original research in linguistics at the undergraduate level, visit the Resources for linguistics undergraduates page.