News

News & Announcements

Congratulations Graduates!

Published: Tue, 14 May 2013

Congratulations to all our Spring 2013 graduates:

B.A. in Linguistics

Hamzah Abbadi
Hannah Greening
Robin Jun
Natawut Monaikul
Elizabeth Mucha
Adina Raizen
Martin Rosenberg
Joshua Todd
Sean Zolfo

M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language

Ryan Boyd
Kayla Hewitt
Andrew Hunt
Carleen Sacris
Mica Swyers
Elizabeth Thacker

M.A. in Linguistics

Megan Kennedy
Myeong Hyeon Kim
Elias Shakkour

Ph.D. in Linguistics

Erin Rusaw

Iftikhar Haider to present at CALICO 2013 on May 23rd

Published: Mon, 06 May 2013

Iftikhar Haider will be presenting at Calico 2013 on May 23rd. The title of his presentation is Assessment of Inter-language Pragmatics through Computer Mediated Role Play Tasks. The abstract can be found below:

Identifying task characteristics that affect the richness of elicited data as well as task difficulty is a challenging endeavor in developing specifications of pragmatic tests. This study developed a task typology based on different factors related to pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics factors related to three speech acts of request, refusal and apology. International students performed four interactive role play tasks through e-mail communication in pairs and produced pragmatically rich data. It is concluded that e-mail role plays can be used to have extended communication among language users, which can be used for the assessment of pragmatics.

Highest Distinction for Raizen

Published: Thu, 02 May 2013

Our graduating senior Adina Raizen has been awarded Highest Distinction in Linguistics for her honors thesis 'Effects of Context and Individual Differences on the Processing of Taboo Words'. Congratulations, Adina!

Daniel Ross gave talk at GLAC 19 in Buffalo, NY

Published: Sun, 28 Apr 2013

Daniel Ross presented a paper entitled "Pseudocoordination in English and Germanic" at the 19th German Linguistics Annual Conference, held at the University at Buffalo, in New York, on Saturday, April 27, 2013.

http://wings.buffalo.edu/org/gggaas/GLAC19/

New LING graduate program requirements approved

Published: Mon, 15 Apr 2013

The department has received approval to implement the new requirements for the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in linguistics! Students who have already entered the program have the option of completing their degrees either under the new requirements, or under the requirements which were in place when they began.

The main differences between the new and old requirements are:

For the M.A.:

Historical Linguistics is no longer a required course.
Students must take BOTH Sociolinguistics I and Introduction to Psycholinguistics.
Students do not have to take both Phonology II and Syntax II, but may take just one of these.
The qualifying examination now consists of just one paper with an oral presentation and exam during the SECOND year in the program. (But see also Item #2 of the Ph.D. requirements below.)

For the Ph.D.:

Field Methods is no longer a required course. (However, the language requirement remains intact, and Field Methods may be used to satisfy that requirement.)
Students must submit an original research paper, and present and defend it in an oral exam, during their first year in the Ph.D. program (third year overall).
The requirement to take either Logic and Linguistic Analysis or a course in statistics for social sciences is no longer imposed as a general requirement for all students. However, these or other courses may be required for particular subfields within Linguistics.

The new requirements are listed below:

Master of Arts in Linguistics

Requirements:	Thesis Option- Required Hours	Non-thesis Option-Required Hours
Four elective courses (Non-thesis students may apply LING 590 to this requirement, to a maximum of 4 hours.)	16	16
LING 501, 502, 425 and 450	16	16
LING 541 or 542	4	4
LING 507 or 509 or 551	4	4
Research/Project/Independent Study Hours, LING 590 (min/max applied toward degree):	max 4	max 4
Language Requirement: Students must demonstrate proficiency in one language other than their native language
M.A. Qualifying Examination or writing of an acceptable M.A. thesis is required.
Thesis Hours Required LING 599 (min/max applied toward degree): Students writing a thesis are required to take 4 hours of LING 599 in addition to the required 40 hours.	4 min	N/A
Total Hours	44	40
Minimum 500-level Hours Required Overall:	20	16

The aim of the master's program is to instruct students in the major areas of linguistic theory and the methods of linguistic analysis. Candidates for this degree must earn at least 40 graduate hours with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (A = 4.0) and satisfy other department and Graduate College requirements.

Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics

Requirements:	Required Hours
LING 504 and at least 2 hours of LING 590	4
Courses as required in the area of specialization, or a combination of such courses across specializations upon the approval of the advisor	varies
First-year exam: Students must submit a substantial research paper, and present and defend it in an oral examination
Research/Project/Independent Study Hours:	12
Language Requirement: Students must demonstrate knowledge of the structure a language that is neither their native tongue nor the same language that satisfied the foreign language requirement for the M.A. degree
Thesis Hours Required (LING 599):	32
Total Hours	64
Minimum GPA:	3.0
Master's Degree Required for Admission to PhD?	Yes
Qualifying Exam Required	No
Preliminary Exam Required	Yes
Final Exam/Dissertation Defense Required	Yes
Dissertation Deposit Required	Yes

Admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. requires a grade point average of 3.5 or better in the non-elective M.A. courses (or comparable evidence of achievement in the case of students admitted directly to the Ph.D. program with an external master’s degree), and a minimum grade point average of 3.0 over all graduate work in linguistics. In deciding whether students will be admitted from the Linguistics M.A. program to the Ph.D. program, the Student Examination and Evaluation Committee considers their performance in meeting these requirements, as well as their general potential for successfully conducting advanced linguistic research.

Students are encouraged to attend at least one summer session of the Linguistic Institute of the Linguistic Society of America. Up to 8 graduate hours of credit granted under this program may be transferred, with Graduate College approval. Candidates are required to take the preliminary examinations (written and oral) after completion of 32 graduate hours beyond the master's level and to present a research paper at a meeting of the Linguistics Seminar.

Daniel Ross to present at UNC Linguistics Colloquium 2013

Published: Fri, 12 Apr 2013

Daniel Ross will present a paper entitled "Age, Memory, and Flexibility in Language Acquisition" at the 2013 Linguistics Colloquium at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on April 13, 2013.

http://linguistics.web.unc.edu/2013-spring-colloquium/

CTE certificates awarded to ESL teachers

Published: Wed, 10 Apr 2013

Congratulations to the following ESL writing TAs and lecturers who earned certificates this year from the Center for Teaching Excellence. To learn more about CTE certificates, visit their website: http://cte.illinois.edu/programs/teachcert.html. They will receive their awards at the annual CTE awards ceremony on Tuesday, April 30, 3:30-5:00, in the Heritage room of ACES Library.

Teacher Scholar Certificate:
Iftikhar Haider

Certificate in Technology-Enhanced Teaching:
Lin Zhou
Becky Menendez
Eugenia Joukova
Cassandra Rosado
Iftikhar Haider

Graduate Teacher Certificate:
Kristen Michelson
Farzad Karimzad
Melissa Dunne
Leyla Lambert
Sergei Zalesov
Lin Zhou
John Kotnarowski
Hina (Hie-jung) You
Yelena Forrester
Eunice (Yunjung) Nam
Becky Menendez
Hope Crenshaw
Kate Lyons
Sea Hee (Sarah) Choi
Bob Kallister
Josh Evans
Lisa Ortiz
LaTasha Nesbitt
Katie Honken
Erin Lamboi

Slade takes position in Utah

Published: Mon, 08 Apr 2013

Our graduate Benjamin Slade has recently accepted an offer of a position as Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utah. Congratulations Ben!

Hugh Bishop Featured in the Champaign News-Gazette

Published: Wed, 03 Apr 2013

Hugh Bishop, Visiting Lecturer, Linguistics, was featured in the Sunday edition of the Champaign News-Gazette as Danville Correctional Center Volunteer of the Year for his work with the Language Partners program in the Education Justice Project at the prison.

The story appears on page 1 of the "Living" section of the Sunday, March 31 edition of the News-Gazette.

For more about Hugh and the Education Justice Project, visit its website: http://www.educationjustice.net/home/

Fred Davidson Named to Editorial Board of Language Testing Asia

Published: Tue, 02 Apr 2013

Professor Fred Davidson has been named the Distinguished Editorial Adviser for the journal Language Testing in Asia.

Daniel Ross to present at Purdue Graduate SLA Symposium

Published: Fri, 29 Mar 2013

Daniel Ross will present a paper entitled "Factors Affecting Flexibility in Language Acquisition" at the Graduate Student Symposium on Second Language Studies & English as a Second Language at Purdue University on March 30, 2013.

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~eslgo/symposium.html

List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent Fall 2012

Published: Mon, 25 Mar 2013

Please join the department in congratulating the following teachers for their excellence in teaching in Fall 2012.

(* indicates that the instructor's rantings were outstanding)

EIL

DAVIDSON,F 460

*DICKERSON,W 488,510

KOSHIK,I 456

MARKEE,N 489

ESL

AHMED,S 507

ARRIGO,J 114,115

*BOYD,R TA 114

BULKES,N TA 501

*CHA,E TA 510

*DEFIBAUGH,S TA 505

*DIVINE,B 500

*EVANS,J TA 114

FORRESTER KNEZEVIC,Y TA 114

*GUO,J TA 114

*HEWITT,K TA 506

*HILL,R TA 501

*JAGUSZTYN,A TA 114

*JAYES,J TA 115

JI,S TA 500

*JOUKOVA,E TA 114

*KALLISTER,R TA 500

KARIMZAD,F TA 500

*KIM,H TA 501

KIM,J 114

*KOTNAROWSKI,J TA 500

*LAMBERT,L TA 500

*LAWSON,L TA 115

*LYONS,K TA 115

*MENENDEZ,H TA 114

NESBITT,L TA 500

*ORTIZ,L TA 500

PERKINS,S TA 506

*PIERCE,L 504

ROSADO,C 115,503

*RUSSELL,M TA 115

SWYERS,M TA 510

*TORRES,M TA 505

*WATTS,P 504,508

YOON,J TA 501

ZALESOV,S TA 115

ZHOU,L TA 500

GLOBAL STUDIES

*BALCI,E 298

*MISHRA,M 298

LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT LANGUAGES

BIDAOUI,A TA 403(ARABIC)

HERMES,Z TA 201(ARABIC)

*SAADAH,E 405(ARABIC)

SHALASH,D TA 210(ARABIC)

*CHAITRA SHIVAPRASAD,U TA 201(HINDI)

*MISHRA,M 405,412(HINDI)

KATSIKAS,S 201,403(MODERN GREEK)

KIRAMBA,L TA 403(SWAHILI)

*BALCI,E 201,405(TURKISH)

*GUEYE,M TA 201(WOLOF)

LING

BOKAMBA,E 400

COLE,J 542

HUALDE,J 410

KENNEDY,M TA 100

LASERSOHN,P 507

LUCHKINA,T TA 100

MACDONALD,J 501

*SHOSTED,R 401,522

STILLWELL,K TA 111

New joint major in Computer Science and Linguistics

Published: Thu, 07 Mar 2013

The Department of Linguistics and the Department of Computer Science are pleased to announce the availability of a new joint major in Computer Science and Linguistics, starting Fall Semester 2013. This is one of four new joint majors between Computer Science and other disciplines in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, all culminating in a Bachelor of Science degree in LAS.

The new Computer Science and Linguistics degree should be of interest to any students planning careers in speech processing, computational linguistics, or other areas at the intersection of linguistics and computer science.

Requirements are summarized in the chart below. More information will be made available on the websites of the Department of Linguistics and the Department of Computer Science, as it becomes available.

Hours Requirements
30	Computer Science Core
	CS125, Intro to Computer Science (4 hours)
	CS173, Discrete Structures (3 hours)
	CS225, Data Structures (4 hours)
	CS231, Computer Architecture I (3 hours)
	CS241, System Programming (4 hours)
	CS242, Programming Studio (3 hours)
	CS373, Theory of Computation (3 hours)
	CS421, Programming Languages & Compilers (3 hours)
	CS473, Fundamental Algorithms (3 hours)
12	Mathematics (may also fulfill the General Education Quantitative Reasoning I and II requirements)
	Math221, Calculus I (4 hours)
	Math231, Calculus II (3 hours)
	Math225, Introductory Matrix Theory (2 hours)
	Stat100, Statistics (3 hours)
Min of 24 hours	Supporting coursework.
	An additional 24 hours of coursework in a Liberal Arts and Sciences discipline or in a coherent Liberal Arts and Sciences interdisciplinary field chosen in consultation with an advisor. Must include at least 12 hours at the 300- or 400-level. An approved LAS major may be used to satisfy this requirement. [Linguistics Example]

12	Core Courses: LING100 - Intro to Language Science (3 hours) LING250 – Language Diversity in the USA (3 hours) LING225 – Elements of Psycholinguistics (3 hours) LING270 - Language,Technology & Society (3 hours)
12	Students can choose courses in one of the following thematic areas: Speech Processing Computational Linguistics
	Speech Processing (12 hours): LING302 - Elements of Phonology (3 hours) LING401 – Intro to General Phonetics (3 hours) ANTH470 - Mind, Culture and Society (Same as LING 470) (3 hours) LING4xx - Seminar in Linguistic Analysis (Corpus Methods for Phonology and Phonetics an example topic) - to be developed (3 hours)
	Computational Linguistics (12 hours): LING301 - Elements of Syntax (3 hours) LING307 - Elmts Semantics & Pragmatics (3 hours) LING406-Intro to Computational Ling (3 hours) One of the following: LING4xx - Topics in Computational Linguistics; to be developed (3 hours) LING4XX - Human and Machine Translation – to be developed (3 hours)
Total of 66 hours (minimum)

Background Information:

The program will bring together students and faculty interested in different aspects of the computer- natural language relationship – i.e., studying the cognitive aspects of natural languages;

endowing computers with human-like behavior and understanding of spoken and written natural language; and designing computer software and interfaces that work well with human users, using natural language communication.

Students will be exposed to the tools of both disciplines -- formal methods, philosophical analysis, computer programming, and empirical research -- with the aim of being able to apply the appropriate tool(s) required by the field. Statistics from a similar program at Berkeley, for example, show that alumni of such a program are very successful in landing jobs in various occupations, including natural language software design and applications, teaching and research, law, medicine, and public service (i.e., http://symsys.stanford.edu/).

Together with the Computer Science Department and the Beckman Institute, the Linguistics department houses a variety of research labs, reading groups, and informal workshops on computational linguistics and speech processing. We also have close ties with a wide variety of companies working on computational linguistics applications. For more information, see the Semantic Frontier Group, Cognitive Computation Research Group, the Speech Prosody and Speech Dynamics Labs, the Phonetics and Phonology Lab, as well as the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab and the Center for Translation Studies. Thus, we anticipate that existing resources within CS and LAS will be sufficient to address student job placement assistance.

Amanda Huensch to join faculty at the University of South Flordia