Linguistics Undergraduate Program
Our program aims to equip students with a strong foundation in core areas of linguistic analysis and to train students to think critically about a broad range of issues in language use, development, variation, and change.
Faculty interests include Indigenous languages of North America, language development, phonology, semantics, morphosyntax, and typology. We offer a range of courses in general theoretical and descriptive linguistics, as well as coursework leading to a Certificate of Accomplishment in ESL. The Linguistics Program at UM is the only degree-granting unit in Linguistics in Montana.
Meet a Current Undergraduate
McKenna Flannigan hails from Kalispell, just a few hours north of Missoula. She graduated with her AA degree from Flathead Valley Community College and transferred to UM to continue her studies. At UM, she quickly realized that she had a passion for linguistics. McKenna then enrolled in UM’s unique 5-year BA/MA program, through which participants can earn their Bachelor’s and Master’s of Arts in Linguistics in only five years. McKenna is currently in her final semester of the BA portion of her program and will be beginning her MA this coming Fall.
Linguistics Program Options
- Linguistics BA Bachelor's
- Linguistics Minor Minor
- 5 year Linguistics BA/MA Master's
Career Options
What Can I Do with a Degree in Linguistics?
A degree in linguistics prepares you for a wide range of jobs and careers. Linguistics is a diverse field intersecting with various other disciplines such as anthropology, computer science, communication, engineering, language teaching, neurology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech & hearing science. Studying linguistics helps you develop skills such as analytical and critical thinking, problem solving, organization, and data collection and analysis.
Language teaching
- second language teaching
- teaching English as a second language
- teaching English in elementary and secondary schools
Technical and academic professions
- speech pathologist
- accent coach
- audiologist
- professor
- lawyer
- researcher
- translator
- interpreter
- subtitler
Publishing and Writing
- editor
- lexicographer (dictionary editor/developer)
- publishing
- technical writer
Information technology
- natural language processing
- machine translation
- speech recognition
- speech synthesis
- language data analyst
Other
- librarian
- archivist
- marketing specialist
- web developer
Advising
Contact advising center for advising
Email: HSAdvising@umontana.edu
Phone: (406) 243-4100.