What makes the English spoken in Trinidad different from English spoken in Jamaica or Britain? You could probably tell the difference instinctively, but even though each of us speaks at least one language and speaks it fluently, most of us know surprisingly little about the actual structure of languages, including our own.
While the aim of learning a foreign language is to know and speak a language as naturally as possible, Linguistics is the scientific (objective) analysis of the nature, structure, function and usage of human language. It is the study of how languages are structured, how they are related, how they vary and change, how they are born, created, and die, and how they can be revived.
Linguistics has several multidisciplinary sub-fields, and contributes to many other fields such as Communication, Literatures in English, French, Spanish, History, and Education (including Language Arts and Language Teaching), Law, Anthropology, Ethnology, Psychology, Sociology; and Biology, Computing, Mathematics, Physics and Zoology.
The discipline is both theoretical and practical. Applied Linguistics deals with issues in the study of languages, such as Language Acquisition, Language Learning, Foreign and Second Language Teaching, Literacy, and Language Planning and Development, and much more. All Linguistics majors are strongly encouraged to learn a foreign language, whether French, French Creole (Patois), Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish at the Centre for Language Learning, or Trinidad & Tobago Sign Language in the Department.
CSEC Minimum passes: 5
CSEC Mandatory: English Language, Mathematics
CAPE Minimum passes: 2
Career Opportunities: Undergraduate Linguistics training can lead to careers in language teaching, journalism and broadcasting, translation and interpreting (a postgraduate diploma may be necessary}, and the computer software industry. Postgraduate training is necessary in areas such as speech technology, natural language, artificial intelligence, the medical and legal professions , lexicography, and linguistics research.