English, Spanish, Linguistics, Oh my!

    Hello Readers!

     I mentioned before in my first blog post that I wanted to become an ESL teacher. To achieve this, in addition to majoring in English and Spanish, I am currently working towards an Applied Language Studies (Linguistics) certification Normally, when I get asked what I am going to school for, and I answer the way I explained above, I get a variety of responses. Maybe they do not know exactly what Linguistics is, or what ESL stands for. So, I am going to break all of this down and explain exactly what I am talking about.

What, exactly, is Linguistics? 


    Linguistics is broadly defined as " The study of Languages". When I tell others that I want to be a Linguist, a lot of them ask about the other languages I speak. Although I am studying Spanish, I do not want to limit Linguists to only studying other languages, as there are many more components. For starters, Linguistics deals with phonetics, syntax, and other features of the language. Linguists attempt to analyze how we as humans use language as a whole. It is an interdisciplinary field, meaning that it encompasses components of a multitude of fields such as Science, History, the Humanities, and more. UC Santa Cruz provides more examples of the many sub-fields Linguistics offers at https://linguistics.ucsc.edu/about/what-is-linguistics.html.

An image that shows how "Hello" is translated in multiple langauges


     I could write pages and pages on the different types of Linguistics here- that is how broad the subject is. Personally, I was overwhelmed when I first heard the term in eleventh grade in my Human Geography class (another sub-field!) and decided to research it. After doing some digging, I became very invested in the topic and I just wanted to keep learning more- it seemed like after every search I made, I had to search again to get a better picture of what exactly Linguistics was and it was intriguing to me. I also really liked Linguistics because of all of the opportunities it posed. As an indecisive person with a variety of ambitions in life, I was pleased to find that I could become a professor, an FBI agent, or a speech pathologist depending on what specific sector of Linguistics I wanted to focus on. 

All About ESL

    I decided to focus on "Applied Linguistics", hence, the Applied Language Studies certification. According to the Linguistic society( https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/why-major-linguistics ) applied Linguistics is how students learn a language. This certification will permit me to teach ESL, which is English as a second language. ESL can be taught in other countries as well, and some teachers move outside of the United States to teach English. Personally, however, I think I want to begin teaching in the United States. I want to teach ESL because I think that it can be a good opportunity to teach non-English speakers a second language that will benefit them, but also to embrace my student's cultures and encourage them not to abandon them for the sake of solely speaking English. 

I hope this post offered some insight into the world of ESL and Linguistics. I know it can be confusing, but I hope you were able to find a piece of information that you did not know before! Thank you for reading.

From my Desktop,
Kanya
🍎🍎🍎🍎🍎



                 References
 
 Macaulay, Monica, and Kristen Syrett. “Why Major in Linguistics?” Linguistic Society of America, www.linguisticsociety.org/content/why-major-linguistics.

“What Is Linguistics?” What Is Linguistics?, UC Santa Cruz, 2017, linguistics.ucsc.edu/about/what-is-linguistics.html.

                                                                        

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