Graduate Programs

Explore our Graduate Programs

As scientists, we seek to explain why the many language patterns we identify take the form that they do, and to understand how linguistic structure arises. Graduate students in the Department of Linguistics work with leading scholars whose research ranges from field linguistics to lab-based experimental approaches, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics.


students working on group activity in classroom

Master’s Degree in Language Teaching Studies

This 15-month intensive graduate program is a terminal degree for teachers of English and/or teachers of other languages. Only under exceptional circumstances do we admit students to work toward an MA in General Linguistics.

LTS prepares leaders in language education. In this era of globalization, the program serves the evolving needs of both majority and minority language learners. Students can specialize in more than one language, including minoritized languages such as the Indigenous languages of the Pacific Northwest.

LTS Master’s Degree Requirements
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Doctorate Degree in Linguistics

Tailored to the individual student’s needs and professional goals, the PhD program in Linguistics combines a foundation in functional linguistic theory with a strong preparation in empirical research methods, both in laboratory and field settings. The PhD program cuts across the College, with support from the fields of East Asian and Romance Languages, Psychology, Neuroscience, Anthropology, and Computer Science.

Our strengths include:

  • Descriptive linguistics
  • Language revitalization
  • Historical/typological/areal linguistics
  • First and second language acquisition
  • Second language teaching
  • Laboratory phonology and phonetics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Corpus linguistics

Cecilia Staggs

The Influence of Social Information on Speech Intelligibility

“The goal of my study is to analyze the ways that language ideologies within the US Latino community interact with social expectations related to speech production, and ultimately influence how intelligible listeners perceive a speaker to be. Intelligibility refers to a listener’s ability to transcribe the speech and has been found to be susceptible to factors external to the speech stream like language ideologies and listeners’ expectations.”

—Cecelia Staggs, PhD candidate, 2025


Funding your Graduate Studies

Explore the best ways to get help paying for school. Find costs and funding information for the MA in Language Teaching Studies, support for the PhD program in Linguistics, and general support at the college and university level.

Funding and Research Support


linguistics graduate student cohort group photo
Resources for the Graduate Community

Events

Linguistics Fall Colloquium
Oct3
Linguistics Fall Colloquium Oct 3 Straub Hall
Pre-Medicine Group Advising
Oct3
Pre-Medicine Group Advising Oct 3 Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall
Poetry Reading by Matthew Dickman 
Oct4
Poetry Reading by Matthew Dickman  Oct 4 Knight Library
Pre-Medicine Group Advising
Oct5
Pre-Medicine Group Advising Oct 5 Erb Memorial Union (EMU)
Department of History Welcome Back Barbecue
Oct5
Department of History Welcome Back Barbecue Oct 5 McKenzie Hall
Fall 2023 Knight Campus Entrepreneurship Speaker Series with Jorge Cham
Oct9
Fall 2023 Knight Campus Entrepreneurship Speaker Series with Jorge Cham Oct 9 Erb Memorial Union (EMU)
Linguistics Fall Colloquium
Oct10
Linguistics Fall Colloquium Oct 10 Straub Hall
Race, Disinvestment, and the Making of the North Philadelphia “Badlands"
Oct10
Race, Disinvestment, and the Making of the North Philadelphia “Badlands" Oct 10
Pre-Dentistry Group Advising
Oct10
Pre-Dentistry Group Advising Oct 10 Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall
SecureAsk: An Exclusive 'Ask Me Anything' with Open Raven CEO—Exploring Cybersecurity and Beyond!
Oct11
SecureAsk: An Exclusive 'Ask Me Anything' with Open Raven CEO—Exploring Cybersecurity and Beyond! Oct 11