Language Studies B.A.

Information and Policies

Introduction

Language studies is an interdisciplinary major offered by the Linguistics Department. It is designed to equip students with advanced competence in a foreign language and, at the same time, provide them with an understanding of the general nature of human language—its structure and use. The major also provides an opportunity to explore the culture or cultures connected with the language of concentration. The cultural context electives may include courses in art, history, literature or politics. Currently, majors may choose a concentration in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish. Interested students should contact the Linguistics Department office early in their college careers to obtain essential information about requirements. The requirements for the major may also be found in the Requirements and Planners tab above.

Students interested in spending a portion of a year or a full year studying abroad should review the UCSC Global Learning website. A senior year abroad is approved only when all of the language proficiency requirements have been satisfied and when it is clear that any remaining courses can be satisfactorily completed abroad. Courses taken abroad may be used to satisfy major requirements only if approved by the undergraduate program director or a designated advisor. A maximum of three outside courses may be used toward the major.

Program Learning Outcomes

The program learning outcomes for this major are the following:

1. Analytical Thinking
   Students will formulate testable hypotheses, and present them clearly and completely. Students will accurately and insightfully use relevant evidence to evaluate hypotheses and determine routes for future investigation.
2. Writing
   Students will formulate well-organized written arguments. At the micro-level, sentences will be grammatical, follow appropriate conventions, and strike an appropriate balance of clarity and complexity. At the macro-level, sentences will be linked together into paragraphs, and paragraphs into logical sections of a larger document. 
3. Properties of Language
   Students will apply analytical techniques to identify general properties of language, including but not limited to sound structure, word structure, sentence structure, meaning, use, and language processing. Students will explain the significance of relevant universal properties in some domain. 
4. Linguistics Theory and Investigation
   Students will demonstrate an active command of linguistic theory and linguistic investigation in at least one area of linguistic theory, including but not limited to morphology, phonetics, phonology, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, syntax, and semantics. 
5. Second Language Proficiency 
   Students will demonstrate proficiency in a second language at an advanced level.

Academic Advising for the Program

241 Stevenson College
(831) 459-4988
ling@ucsc.edu

Undergraduate Advisor

The undergraduate advisor can advise you about requirements for the major, about prerequisites, and about many other aspects of your academic progress. During the academic year, there are regular drop-in office hours available and posted on the department website.

If none of the drop-in office hours work for you, email the undergraduate advisor at ling@ucsc.edu for an appointment.

Transfer students, please also refer to Transfer Information and Policy.

Peer Advisors

During the academic year, the department has a peer advising program to provide an additional advising resource for undergraduate majors. The peer advisors are advanced students in linguistics or language studies who volunteer their time and expertise to provide guidance and advice to other students. They hold regular office hours and provide one-on-one advising in the Linguistics Department office at Stevenson College (245 Stevenson). Peer advisors do not have signature authority on forms (i.e., Declaration of Major Petitions and study abroad planning forms). Students must see the undergraduate advisor for any forms requiring a department signature. We encourage any prospective and current language studies majors to stop by during the peer advisors' office hours if they have questions about the program.

Faculty

You should feel free to meet with any faculty member for advising, but it may make sense to speak with the undergraduate advisor first, to find out which faculty member might be best placed to advise you about your interests or concerns. You can find the current office hours for all faculty members in the faculty directory. For issues specifically related to the undergraduate program, you can turn to the undergraduate program director.

Getting Started in the Major: Frosh

This major is not highly course intensive. Although it is advisable to begin taking courses toward the major in the first year, it is not required.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when embarking on your major in language studies:

• Meet with a peer advisor to create your academic plan and get questions answered about your major.
• Determine how many language courses you need and begin any necessary language instruction as soon as possible. Visit the Languages and Applied Linguistics Department website to find out about language placement, articulation and course offerings. Many language placement exams take place just before classes start in September.
• Prospective students should declare the major as early as possible so that they can complete the language, linguistics, and context requirements within the allowed period of enrollment. Major requirements are specified in the Requirements and Planners section of this statement.
• Students who wish to include a study abroad experience in their course of study will have to coordinate their choice of time abroad with the scheduling of UC Santa Cruz courses.
• Plan to complete the bulk of your general education requirements early on. The sophomore, junior, and senior years can fill up quickly with major requirements (especially if you are planning to study abroad). Also, as general education courses are often lower-division courses, it can be frustrating to have to take them in the final quarters of your career when you would like to take more advanced courses.

Transfer Information and Policy

Transfer Admission Screening Policy

No major preparation courses are required prior to transfer for consideration of admission to UC Santa Cruz.

While not required for selection, transfer students are strongly encouraged to complete as much preparation as possible in the foreign language of their choosing. Students pursuing the concentration in Japanese or Chinese should place into Level 4 (Level 5 for students entering in the winter term) or higher when they enter UC Santa Cruz, if they wish to complete the major in two years. Students in other languages may be able to complete the major in two years if they have completed general education requirements. Transfer students admitted to UC Santa Cruz for the winter term who do not place into Level 2 or higher in a language placement test when they enter UC Santa Cruz may not be able to complete the major in a timely manner.  

Prospective students are also encouraged to complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or to complete all UC Santa Cruz general education requirements before matriculation. 

Getting Started in the Major: Transfer Students

Consult with the undergraduate advisor before enrolling for your first term to create a two-year plan. Some required courses are only offered once a year, and careful planning is essential. Plan to take LING 50 and LING 53 in your first quarter, along with a language course. Visit the Languages and Applied Linguistics Department website to find out about language placement, articulation, and course offerings. Many language placement exams take place just before classes start in September. Transfer students can declare the major in their second quarter, after completing two gateway courses with a C+ or better.

Major Qualification Policy and Declaration Process

Major Qualification

The Linguistics Department has adopted a major qualification policy for language studies majors that is intended to encourage students to take their performance in the gateway courses seriously and to help them lay a solid foundation for further coursework in the major.

Transfer students, please also refer to Transfer Information and Policy

In order to qualify for the language studies major, a student must pass two gateway courses with a grade of C+ or better in each:

And one of the following courses

Appeal Process

Students who are informed that they are not eligible to declare the major may appeal the decision within 15 days from the date the notification was mailed. They should do this by submitting a formal letter, addressed to the department's undergraduate program director, to the Linguistics Department office (Stevenson 241 or 243 or by email to ling@ucsc.edu). This letter should explain any extenuating circumstances that influenced performance in the gateway courses. Within 15 days of receipt of the appeal, the department will notify the student of the decision. The department may set conditions to be fulfilled within one quarter from the date of the appeal, such as achieving a minimum grade in a particular class.

How to Declare a Major

You should formally declare your major as early as possible in your academic career. Doing so will mean you get helpful advising. It will require you to plan out all the courses of the major. This means you will know you have time to meet all the necessary requirements for language studies before you graduate.

Once you have successfully completed the two gateway courses, and/or you have reached your declaration deadline, you should do the following:

1) Please meet with the department advisor or a peer advisor, to complete or update your academic plan. If you are declaring a second major, please first complete an academic planning form with the advisor for your declared major. Major Degree Checklists are useful resources, which you may want to look over prior to the declaration session. You can find them in the Major Requirements section for the language studies major on the department website.

2) Petition to declare your major. Log into MyUCSC and navigate to the Student Homepage. Select the Undergraduate Student eForms tile > Petition for Major/Minor. If you are already logged in to MyUCSC, you can simply use this link: Petition for Major/Minor via MyUCSC.  The petition will automatically be routed to the department.

3) Attend one of the department’s Declaration Information Sessions. These sessions are held in the first month of each quarter. Invitations to sign up for a declaration session are sent out by the first week of the quarter to all proposed majors through the Navigate/Slug Success system. If you have completed the gateway courses, and you do not receive an invitation by Week 2, please contact the department advisor for assistance. Please sign up well in advance, as these meetings tend to fill quickly.

The campus undergraduate advising website has further helpful information about declaring a major.

Letter Grade Policy

The two qualifying courses for the major must be completed with a grade of C+ or better. Once you qualify, there is no requirement that courses for the major be taken for a letter grade. There is a campuswide requirement that you need to be aware of and to keep track of (no more than 25 percent of all of your UC Santa Cruz courses can be taken on a Pass/No Pass basis). Further information about campus letter grade policy is available at the website of the Office of the Registrar.

Course Substitution Policy

Students may petition the department to have elective courses offered through other institutions or other UC programs applied toward the major requirements. At most three such courses can be applied toward the major. These courses must be upper-division and clearly fit into a coherent program of study. Because language studies majors routinely take classes from other UC Santa Cruz departments to fulfill their cultural context elective requirements, these are not considered course substitutions. However, students may substitute an outside class for an upper-division linguistics elective. A list of these approved outside courses from other UC Santa Cruz departments is available below.  A list of approved outside courses being offered in the current or upcoming term may be found on the department website. Independent study courses taken within the Linguistics Department are counted as outside electives and toward the three-course limit.

Outside Courses

Double Majors and Major/Minor Combinations Policy

A student may not double major or major/minor in linguistics and language studies, as there is too much overlap between the two programs.

Study Abroad

Students majoring in language studies often spend at least one quarter studying abroad in the course of their degree program. Studying abroad is a good way to cultivate and enhance your language skills, as well as to gain rich life experiences. There are programs available for students of all levels of language ability, from language and culture programs for beginning or intermediate speakers, to full immersion programs for students with advanced language skills.

Study abroad does require careful planning, especially for those who wish to pursue a yearlong program, or who wish to study abroad during the senior year. Meeting with your major advisor early and often throughout the Global Learning planning process will help to mitigate lengthening time to degree. Before being approved for the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), you must declare your major. Also, majors must complete LING 101, and either LING 111 or LING 112, before they leave for any EAP programs during the academic year. The department does not place any restrictions on summer study abroad.

If you plan to study abroad during your senior year and do not plan to return to UC Santa Cruz before graduating, your plan will be approved only when all major requirements have been completed prior to departure, and/or when it is clear that any remaining requirements can be satisfactorily completed abroad. Please consult with the department advisor before the end of your sophomore year if you are considering this option.

Language studies majors can satisfy certain major requirements in the course of study abroad; for instance, some of the context elective course requirements. No more than three elective course requirements can be satisfied abroad. Students can also make progress in the language component of the language studies major while studying abroad. In order to determine the level of proficiency achieved, they must take a placement exam upon return. Whether a given course requirement in linguistics can be satisfied abroad depends on the course and the study site.

Most importantly: Students who wish to have a study-abroad course count toward the major must bring back syllabi, completed papers, and course evaluations to the department, so that the department can make a decision about whether the course satisfies a major requirement. Ideally, students should have courses pre-approved for the major before they go abroad. Students can visit the UCSC Campus Credit Abroad database to find pre-approved courses. Remember that a maximum of three outside courses may be used toward the major.

Students who are interested in studying abroad should contact the Global Learning Office (105 Classroom Unit, 459-2858). Global Learning staff can provide detailed information concerning Global Learning selection criteria and application procedures. The first step in preparing to study abroad is to set up a profile on the Global Learning website.

Honors

Students who wish to be considered for honors should meet the deadline posted by the Office of the Registrar for declaring the intent to graduate. It is important to minimize the number of major courses you take on a Pass/No Pass basis. Determination of honors is based on the student’s grades for all courses relevant to the major and other factors relevant to an assessment of academic excellence, such as research papers of professional quality. Generally, honors in the major are awarded only to the top 10 percent of those graduating in the major. Only those students whose performance in coursework is excellent will qualify. Highest honors are rarely awarded, and then only to students whose performance in coursework is outstanding and who have completed an outstanding senior thesis.

Preparation for the UC Santa Cruz Master’s Degree

Every year, UC Santa Cruz undergraduates in the final year of their language studies major can apply to be admitted into the graduate program to pursue the M.A. in theoretical linguistics. Interested students should discuss the possibility with one or more faculty members and formally apply online to the graduate program during the fall quarter of the senior year. For up-to-date information about the application process, consult the Linguistics Department’s website; and see the graduate advisor and program coordinator. The combined B.A./M.A. program provides another pathway to the M.A. program.

Information About Linguistics Courses

The 80-level courses have no prerequisites. Although most will fulfill a general education requirement, they do not fulfill any requirements for the major. They are intended to introduce the concepts of linguistics through their relation to other areas of general interest.

LING 50, Introduction to Linguistics, introduces the subfields of the discipline. LING 53, Semantics 1; LING 100, Phonetics 1; LING 101, Phonology 1; LING 112, Syntax 1; and LING 171, Psycholinguistics 1, serve as entry courses to the specialized upper-division sequences. Upper-division courses generally have at least two of these courses as prerequisites.

A variety of upper-division elective courses are offered each quarter. For a list of the current offerings, please see the department website.

To enroll in the graduate (200-level) courses, undergraduates need special permission from the instructor. Permission is usually granted only to especially motivated undergraduates who have completed all the named requirements for the major with excellent performance.

Requirements and Planners

Course Requirements

Language studies majors must satisfy course requirements in languages and linguistics and complete elective coursework in linguistics and/or the cultural context of the language of concentration.

Lower-Division

Lower-Division Language Requirements

Language studies majors must achieve a level of competency equivalent to six quarters in the language of concentration.

Lower-Division Linguistics Requirements

Upper-Division

Students in the language studies major are required to complete a minimum of 10 upper-division courses (50 upper-division credits) in linguistics, cultural context, and advanced language study. The requirements include three named courses in linguistics and at least one upper-division course conducted in the language of concentration.

Upper-Division Language Requirements

One advanced language course after level 6 is required for students concentrating in French, German, Italian, or Spanish. Majors in Chinese and Japanese must take two advanced language courses after level 6, the second of which (and any subsequent) counts toward the cultural context elective requirement.

Upper-Division Linguistics Requirements

One of the following upper-division courses:

Plus one additional upper-division linguistics elective:

This upper-division linguistics elective may serve as the capstone course for students completing Option 1 (Capstone Course) for the major's senior exit requirement. Capstone electives for the language studies major will be offered every quarter during the academic year, concurrently with LING 190, Senior Research. Please see the Comprehensive Requirement section below.

Electives

The major also requires five upper-division elective courses (25 credits) in linguistics or the cultural context of the language of concentration. Linguistics elective courses include any upper-division course offered by the Linguistics Department (except LING 100, LING 101, LING 111, and LING 112). Cultural context courses are to be selected from among those approved by the department, and include disciplines such as literature, history, and politics. A list of approved cultural context courses is available, and a list of those available within the current or upcoming quarters is also available on the Linguistics Department’s Language Studies Major Requirements webpage. Further upper-division courses conducted in the language of concentration may also be used as electives. The five electives may comprise any blend of advanced language, linguistics and cultural context courses.

See Course Substitution Policy in the Information and Policies section of the catalog for information on substituting courses outside the Linguistics Department for linguistics electives.

Disciplinary Communication (DC) Requirement

Students of every major must satisfy that major's upper-division disciplinary communication (DC) requirement. The DC requirement in language studies is satisfied by completing:

Plus one of the following courses:

Comprehensive Requirement

Senior exit requirement. In their senior year, and after completing the Disciplinary Communication requirement, language studies majors must satisfy the senior exit requirement in one of three ways: 

Option 1

Capstone course: Students complete a 2-credit senior research course, LING 190.  Each instance of LING 190 is taught concurrently with one of the upper-division linguistics electives offered in that quarter. Students must enroll in both an instance of LING 190 and its associated upper-division elective. This elective can also serve as the one linguistics elective required for the major.

Students must enroll concurrently in an upper-division elective and in the corresponding instance of the following course:

Option 2

Senior thesis supervised by a faculty member. The proposal for a senior thesis must be submitted for the approval of the department faculty at least three quarters prior to the quarter of graduation. The senior thesis is an original investigation of the major language in some relevant way, such as the linguistic structure or history of the language or its historical, literary, cultural, sociological, ethnographic, or political context.

Students may enroll in the following course:

Option 3

By exception, students in their senior year may enroll in a graduate-level linguistics class, by permission of instructor. This option is for students who have performed exceptionally in the available undergraduate courses in a particular sub-discipline of the field. Under these conditions, a graduate-level course may satisfy the senior exit requirement.

Planners

The tables below are for informational purposes and do not reflect all university, general education, and credit requirements. See Undergraduate Graduation Requirements for more information.

Four-Year Students

The following is a recommended academic plan for four-year students who wish to pursue the language studies major.

* WRIT 2 should be taken in or before spring quarter of the second year. It is a prerequisite for LING 101 and LING 111/112.

**LING 190 is a 2-credit course taken concurrently with a capstone elective. Students who choose to write a thesis or take a graduate-level class need not take LING 190.

The second upper-division foreign language course is required only for students with a concentration in Chinese or Japanese. In addition to the specific courses shown in these planners, a student must complete courses satisfying the general education requirements. The courses in the four-year planner cover at least the following general education requirements: C, CC, MF, SI.

Junior Transfer Students, Language Studies

The following is a recommended academic plan for junior transfer students who wish to pursue the language studies major.

*LING 190 is a 2-credit course taken concurrently with a capstone elective. Students who choose to write a thesis or take a graduate-level class need not take LING 190.

Note: this major planner presumes that the student enters UC Santa Cruz having already completed three quarters of foreign language or having equivalent proficiency. The second upper-division foreign language course is required only for students with a concentration in Chinese or Japanese. This planner also assumes that a student has completed any required GE courses — including UC Santa Cruz or community college GE requirements—before coming to UCSC. This can be accomplished by completing the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC).

Additional planning templates are available on the department website.