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.

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The program learning outcomes for this major are the following:

✔ 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.

✔ 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.

✔ 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.

✔ 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.

✔ Second Language Proficiency
Students will demonstrate proficiency in a second language at an advanced level.