Students as Scholars:
Undergraduate Research in Linguistics
Shavauna Munster
Students seeking an undergraduate degree in linguistics analyze data sets, scrutinize syntax, and discuss semantics. However, when attending the Department of Linguistics at the University of Utah, students can expect an experience enriched with exposure to a wide range of languages and dialects, participation in cutting-edge faculty research experiments, and consideration as a fellow scholar. Says Aaron Kaplan, professor and chair of linguistics, “If you’re interested in language, the linguistics department has something for you, whether you want to become an ESL instructor, improve how technology uses language, or something else.”
The University of Utah is an R1 institution, a designation of “very high research activity” attributed to only 146 of the nation’s 2,000+ higher education institutions. Though public perception may focus primarily on the research contributions of faculty and graduate students, the Department of Linguistics demonstrates that undergraduate students are accomplished scholars in their own right.With student engaged research driving key department initiatives, linguistics majors often perform advanced research alongside faculty mentors, present at conferences, and apply for grants—all while completing their undergraduate degrees.
While students at other institutions may receive hands-on training, Rachel Hayes-Harb, professor of linguistics, notes, “Our focus is having our students, especially our undergraduate students, publish with us while developing and celebrating their expertise as actual scholars so that we break down barriers of who is a scholar and who isn’t.” For students hoping for research experience, Aniko Csirmaz, associate professor of linguistics, points to the abundant opportunities available at the U as particularly expansive for students. “Students gain hands-on experience in field methods courses,” explains Csirmaz, “and also have the opportunity for hands-on work that is not restricted to extra credit opportunities.”
The attention to student scholarship and engagement begins in the classroom with the department’s research engaged faculty. Bolognese, Catalan, Rastafarian, Igbo, Indo-Aryan, Swahili—are just a few languages and dialects studied by the linguistics faculty. Professors who perform research while teaching offer valuable exposure for students to participate in languages they may not have experienced otherwise. For example, in syntax courses, students identify interesting phenomena and patterns across languages
Expect an experience enriched with exposure
—they may be given a sentence from Mandarin and Bulgarian to compare to English to identify patterns. “At the end of the semester students can explain various aspects of that language,” explains Csirmaz. This exposure expands concepts of possibility and feeds into potential research opportunities alongside professors.
Tannen Jones, a linguistics alum (HBA ’24) loved her experience as an undergraduate researcher. Working alongside Kaplan and Edward Rubin, associate professor of linguistics, Jones worked on phonological research investigating Bolognese—an understudied minority Gallo-Italic language in the Bologna region of Italy. Reflecting on the senior year she spent on the project, Jones says, “The research was partly about preservation—documenting languages where there are not a lot of speakers left—but also about what phonological phenomena in minority languages can potentially teach us about how the brain works and how these different things can happen across different contexts.” The research eventually formed the data set for Jones’ honors thesis. Says Jones, “It was really different—most of the papers for regular classes, we would get a data set presented to us and we’d be assigned to figure out something specific. So this was cool—like a sneak preview of what it’s like to be a linguistics scholar.”
The Speech Acquisition Lab is another prime spot for undergrads to research alongside professors. “In our lab, we study speech perception and accentism, language bias in the context of sound features of peoples voices and how that effects the ways people move through the world,” explains Hayes-Harb, co-director of the lab. “We drive the set of questions, but we collaborate to extend to new languages that students may have interest in.”
The goal of the Speech Acquisition Lab is not just student-professor collaboration, but allowing students to make meaningful contributions to research and graduate with the ability to articulate those contributions.
Accessibility to these opportunities is at the forefront of student engagement in the department. Co-directors of the Speech Acquisition Lab, Shannon Barrios and Hayes-Harb, are piloting a credit-based structure to ensure the hands-on experience of the lab counts towards students’ degrees. As Kaplan puts it, “We are always looking for ways to make research a part of students’ path to a degree, not an extra activity disconnected from your major.”
Barrios and Hayes-Harb were recently awarded a Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Grant to expand their research into accentism and continue their extensive collaboration with undergrads. The grant will support ongoing research and provide students with opportunities to present their work at conferences and co-author studies with faculty. Says Barrios, “This is a game-changer for us. It allows us to honor the work of our undergraduate collaborators by providing them with funding and taking them to conferences.”
“We are always looking for ways to make research a part of students’ path to a degree, not an extra activity disconnected from your major.”
Through interactions with professors in professional settings such as the Speech Acquisition Lab, and informal meetings with the S-Group, the Department of Linguistics shows how an R1 institution can really engage undergrads. The S-Group, an informal meeting of faculty, graduates, and undergraduates, is an opportunity for students to ask questions outside of class, further explore topics in which they have interest, and find potential mentors and collaborators. “We are a scholarly discipline and the best thing we can offer our students is meaningful engagement with the actual scholarship of a research one institution,” states Hayes-Harb.
Undergraduate student collaboration and dismantling perceptions of who can contribute to leading research is highly valued in the Department of Linguistics. Says Kaplan, “Linguists are lucky. We encounter more data in overheard conversations as we walk across campus than we could ever possibly analyze, and our research doesn’t always require expensive specialized equipment. We want to share the excitement of that research with our students.” For students whose goal is to contribute to innovative research, collaborate with faculty, and articulate scholarship—the department is waiting.