Students in linguistics scientifically study languages of all kinds. Offering a flexible selection of courses, linguistics will help you develop the analytical and observational skills necessary to understand how language influences society and cultures around the world. Courses in linguistics cover the methods of analyzing language, roles of languages in societies, word formation processes, mechanisms of producing speech sounds, as well as broader skills such as systematic observation and description, and communicating clearly.<br><br>Students learn ear training for discriminating speech sounds and analyze parts of speech, constituent phrases, sentence structure, representations, ambiguity, and applications of current theory. Linguistics also offers a minor to complement other areas of study.<br><br>All liberal arts majors prepare students with the skills identified as contributing to managerial success: communicating and listening well, possessing insights into others, creative/critical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to make connections across complex ideas.