Quick! Is there an applied linguist on board?
October 22, 2016 6:25 AM Subscribe
I have the chance to complete my master's in applied linguistics for almost no cost. I want to do, but am not sure it's quite right for my career. Can anyone help me, please?
Next year, I could go back to grad school to finish my M.A. in Applied Linguistics that I had to quit due to mostly health reasons three years ago. The timing is perfect and I'm mostly thrilled to be able to go back, but I also wonder if it still fits with my career path. The degree itself it pretty cheap and my mother would cover it, while living costs would come mostly out of my soon-to-be-husband's salary and a tiny bit of my savings. (I'd still have a lot left. My current job sucks, but pays reasonably well for a frugal person like me.)
The thing is, when I first started with that degree, I had plans to become a language teacher. I'm still considering that, but I also fear that teaching might not be a forever-career for me. How many of you - or people you know - actually teach with a degree in Applied Linguistics/TESOL? This can be adult education etc. as well. What kinds of teaching jobs does the degree qualify me for? (I will ask the school about that as well.) Especially in Europe - we won't stay in Japan forever and I don't want to move to the US.
What non-teaching jobs have you seen applied linguistics doing? I know there are jobs out there that just require any master's degree - many of you here on the green seem to frown upon getting "unnecessary" degrees, but here in Europe, I often see job openings for people with advanced degrees only, and several organisations that would field my career so far have people with master's all over the place (religion etc.) doing completely different jobs. So please no replies discouraging me from any master's - I won't ever get one this cheap again.
Next year, I could go back to grad school to finish my M.A. in Applied Linguistics that I had to quit due to mostly health reasons three years ago. The timing is perfect and I'm mostly thrilled to be able to go back, but I also wonder if it still fits with my career path. The degree itself it pretty cheap and my mother would cover it, while living costs would come mostly out of my soon-to-be-husband's salary and a tiny bit of my savings. (I'd still have a lot left. My current job sucks, but pays reasonably well for a frugal person like me.)
The thing is, when I first started with that degree, I had plans to become a language teacher. I'm still considering that, but I also fear that teaching might not be a forever-career for me. How many of you - or people you know - actually teach with a degree in Applied Linguistics/TESOL? This can be adult education etc. as well. What kinds of teaching jobs does the degree qualify me for? (I will ask the school about that as well.) Especially in Europe - we won't stay in Japan forever and I don't want to move to the US.
What non-teaching jobs have you seen applied linguistics doing? I know there are jobs out there that just require any master's degree - many of you here on the green seem to frown upon getting "unnecessary" degrees, but here in Europe, I often see job openings for people with advanced degrees only, and several organisations that would field my career so far have people with master's all over the place (religion etc.) doing completely different jobs. So please no replies discouraging me from any master's - I won't ever get one this cheap again.
Best answer: I know that machine translation, automatic speech recognition, and natural language understanding researchers do hire linguists. My understanding is that it can range from evaluation (how good are the outputs produced by this automated system?), running user studies, data annotation, or project management. Actually knowing a language will help too.
Here's a search I did on the Google Careers site. You should do similar searches on Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nuance, and other companies that work on language technologies. I bet there are startups with similar openings, as well as European research institutes and companies that I don't know about.
Side note: I wouldn't say machine translation is in it's infancy -- it may not work up to human expectations, but research has been ongoing for decades, and Google Translate has pretty sophisticated models that work reasonably well. All of these are purely data-driven, so linguists unfortunately tend to work at the peripheries of evaluation and experimentation. It can be still be fun, though.
posted by redlines at 9:17 AM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Here's a search I did on the Google Careers site. You should do similar searches on Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Nuance, and other companies that work on language technologies. I bet there are startups with similar openings, as well as European research institutes and companies that I don't know about.
Side note: I wouldn't say machine translation is in it's infancy -- it may not work up to human expectations, but research has been ongoing for decades, and Google Translate has pretty sophisticated models that work reasonably well. All of these are purely data-driven, so linguists unfortunately tend to work at the peripheries of evaluation and experimentation. It can be still be fun, though.
posted by redlines at 9:17 AM on October 22, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you! I would prefer to leave Japan soon after gradution, and jobs in Europe might be easier to find for my husband as well. My academic supervisor definitely wants us to make our theses presentable, though, so I will ask him about that.
Please keep your answers coming!
posted by LoonyLovegood at 1:19 AM on October 23, 2016
Please keep your answers coming!
posted by LoonyLovegood at 1:19 AM on October 23, 2016
Best answer: Work I have done with an MA in applied linguistics: teach ESL at a college, do transcription and editing for a legislative assembly, edit/translate, get certification to do language assessments. Other work that people I know have done with an MA in applied linguistics: curriculum development for ESL courses, work in admin level and project development level positions in universities, and teach teach teach teach.
Other than the language assessment and ESL teacher jobs, most of these jobs required a generic Masters degree, not specifically Applied Linguistics. So I think the value is in getting a Masters itself. The field is secondary.
posted by bluebelle at 5:53 AM on October 23, 2016
Other than the language assessment and ESL teacher jobs, most of these jobs required a generic Masters degree, not specifically Applied Linguistics. So I think the value is in getting a Masters itself. The field is secondary.
posted by bluebelle at 5:53 AM on October 23, 2016
Oh, and to be specific: the vast majority of the teaching jobs I and my colleagues have had are in ESL/EAP at a college/university level and in foreign language instruction at the college/university level.
posted by bluebelle at 5:59 AM on October 23, 2016
posted by bluebelle at 5:59 AM on October 23, 2016
Best answer: Like bluebelle, I've used my ApLing Masters to teach ESL in higher ed, which I've been doing since I graduated. The university-level programs I'm familiar with (which can pay between 2-4 times as much as adult ed) require a Masters in TESOL/ApLing. I've also written supplements for textbooks, done a fair amount of consulting and the occasional editing job on the side. I work in the US, but I would second Gotanda's advice to get your name out there and network, no matter where you are--or want to end up. As a side note, several students from my program quit teaching early on and got jobs at educational publishers through networking. And as bluebelle said, getting a Masters in any field is going to help you down the line. I say go for it!
posted by pangolin party at 4:11 PM on October 23, 2016
posted by pangolin party at 4:11 PM on October 23, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by A hidden well at 8:03 AM on October 22, 2016