Learning Outside the Classroom

Honors

If you are passionate about linguistics and an independent thinker, the Honors program offers you the opportunity to pursue your own questions about language. In order to receive Honors, you must write an interdisciplinary thesis under the supervision of a faculty advisor, who chairs the thesis committee. Those who successfully complete the Honors program receive a BA degree that includes the designation cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude. Among over 50 majors, minors and certificate programs in the college of Arts and Sciences, the Linguistics department ranks second in percentage of BA degrees awarded with Honors. On the basis of her Honors thesis, Tory Stockton, a 2004 graduate in Linguistics and Anthropology, received The Distinguished Colorado Graduate Award. Following is a list of recent Honors thesis projects completed in the department of Linguistics:

• Davis, Taryn (2007). "The Frame Makes the Picture: Politically Engineered Phrases and the Public Response."
• Hott, Katya (2007). "Spirits and the Unknown in Susu Language."
• Cantrell, Sarah (2006). "A Monolingual Education: Barriers to Foreign Language Education at the Primary Level in Colorado."
• Groene-Sackett, Simone (2006). "She's in the Money: Financial Femininity Discourses in Cosmopolitan and Good Housekeeping."
• Balder, Sara (2004). “Cultural Promotion of Homophobia Manifested in Chilean Spanish.”
• Gehret, Heidi (2004). “Where Language Unites, Writing Divides: Conflicting Ideologies in the Quest for Orthography in Postcolonial Somalia.”
• Padilla, Ramón (2004). “The Role of Culture in Bible Translation: An Analysis of Hebrews 2.”
• Stockton, Tory (2004). “Disrobing Identity: Education Reform and Language Politics in the Coroico Municipality of the Nor Yungas of Bolivia.”
• Brontsema, Robin (2003). “A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate over Linguistic Reclamation.”
• Hoffman, Sara (2003). “Language Attitudes among High School Seniors in Santa Fe.”

The Linguistics faculty strong encourages academically prepared students to pursue Honors. Learn about the Honors process by contacting the Honors Program office and LING Honors Council representative, Prof. Rebecca Scarborough.

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Linguistic research is often a group enterprise, and Linguistics faculty collaborate with advanced undergraduate students in a wide variety of research projects. As an undergraduate researcher, you might examine the speech habits of everyday speakers of American English or help to analyze the grammatical structures of endangered languages spoken in Africa of the Americas. The Department offers research tools that include equipment for video data collection, software for speech analysis and electronic databases of speech and texts in many languages. Many LING majors have received funding from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program for collaborative research with LING faculty.

The Study Abroad Program

The Department recommends participating in one of the many study abroad programs offered by CU and other universities. Interested students should consult with staff undergraduate adviser Izabella Kenney. Programs last from a few weeks to a full academic year, and offer opportunities to take language courses as well as linguistics courses. Since prior language study is a prerequisite for many programs, early planning for study abroad is essential. For more information, contact the Office of International Education.