I'm in!

It has been over a month since my last post. I guess I've been feeling a bit on edge or in a waiting pattern. Haven't felt too motivated to post.

Well in the past two weeks, plenty has happened. I turned in my first applications to grad school back in mid-December. I turned in my application to Penn State (the last one I submitted) on January 15th. I thought I would be waiting for a while. At least February for the first ones and probably March for the later ones. The actual due date for Penn State was Monday, February 1st. I received an email Wednesday the 3rd from the graduate coordinator asking for an interview. I had an interview via Skype the next Monday. Wednesday the 10th, I received an offer of admission to their graduate program. I was completely blown away by how fast everything happened. This past Friday, I made my official decision.

So this fall, I will be joining Penn State's Applied Linguistics PhD Program. I have received a graduate assistantship which will allow me to teach English to non-native speakers. It's a great school and Applied Linguistics at Penn State is a top notch program with great faculty, resources, and opportunities. I didn't let myself have a top choice school after I submitted my applications. I didn't want to be disappointed if I didn't hear good news from any of the schools. But once I received their offer, it wasn't hard to realize that Penn State was my top choice all along. When I first read the program's website, it sounded perfect for my interests. I went down the list of faculty and their interests and kept thinking, "I can see myself really enjoying studying that." And an added bonus is that State College is only 30 minutes from my parents house and much closer to most of my extended family. I knew finding a strong program in applied linguistics would require leaving the Atlanta area and my friends there, so I was hoping to be in a place close to family so I would have a support system nearby.

In seems some people aren't quite sure what Applied Linguistics is. Most hear "linguistics" and think it means grammar or rhetoric. Linguistics is the study of natural language. Natural language is what people speak and hear every day. Most of linguistics is focused on spoken language. Writing is a human invention and from a linguistics perspective is an inexact representation of spoken language (Of course from a literary perspective, writing is an a form of artistic expression is not attempting to represent spoken language). Written expression, rhetoric, and the grammar that most people are familiar with from grade school and high school are usually the purview of English departments. This is not linguistics.

Traditional linguistics focuses on studying and describing the nature of language: phonetics-physical sounds, phonology-mental sounds (we hear the 't' sounds in top, cat, butter, Canton as 't' even though they are all different physical sounds) , morphology-how meaningful bits of language get put together to make words, syntax-how words get put together to make sentences, semantics-meanings of words and phrases and how they work together, pragmatics-how the context of speech adds to its meaning. These form the main areas of linguistics.

Applied linguistics is just what it sounds like: applying knowledge gained by studying language to real-life problems and issues related to language. The most common application is usually in language education though there are many applications in technology, policy, and international relations. My area of interest is second language acquisition which basically investigates how to teach/learn a second language. You can read more about my interests on my website.

Needless to say, I am very excited about this opportunity. It's been a long time coming. I've always thought I would continue my education, but I wanted some experience. I'm glad that I waited because it has given me the opportunity to better determine my specific area of interest and present a solid graduate application. Wish me luck!

WE ARE!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! May this year bring you success and fulfillment.

明けましておめでとうございます！

Bonne Année tout le monde! Que cette année vous apporte du succès et du bonheur.