LIGN199 provides undergraduates with the opportunity to participate in linguistic research conducted in the Department of Linguistics, both by graduate students and faculty members. This is an excellent opportunity to see how research is conducted, and it provides foundational training for graduate school.
Students assist in running experiments, analyzing data, or participating in field research.
LIGN199 is taken for Pass/No Pass. Students may take more than one LIGN199, but may only count one quarter of LIGN199 towards their major or minor.
Opportunities for each quarter will be posted here with contact information.
Click here for the 199 enrollment application.
Several 199 positions for 5 or 10 hours a week. Thai or Armenian speakers desired for help with stimuli development. Spanish-English bilinguals desired for subject running. Previous experience is desired but training will be provided. Please contact Page Piccinini at ppiccinini@ucsd.edu if interested.
We study how language comprehension unfolds in real time through psycholinguistic experiments. Duties include experimental sentences, recruiting participants, running experiments (using eye-tracking and other methodologies), compiling results and assisting with analysis. Training is provided on these tasks, and you will learn a lot about both the structure of language and human cognition. Continuation in winter and/or spring quarters is possible, and paid positions may be available for interested undergraduates who perform well as 199s. Please include an unofficial transcript and a brief statement of your interests in language research in your email to Roger Levy at rlevy@ucsd.edu.
Requirements:
• Background in linguistics and/or cognitive science
• Good English & people skills
• Familiarity with Excel
• Minimum GPA: 3.0
• Programming skills a plus
A 199 position is open on a project that seeks to analyze how English speakers use accent to convey particular meanings in discourse (e.g., "John pushed Bill and he FELL" versus "John pushed Bill and HE fell"). Your role will be to schedule and run experimental participants who will be asked to produce such sentences, and then linguistically segment the audio data that results using computer software. There will also be opportunities to assist in data analysis and the design of follow-up experiments. LIGN 101 is required, and LIGN 110 is strongly preferred. An interest is linguistic pragmatics is also an asset. If interested, please contact Gwen Gillingham at gwen.gillingham@gmail.com.
A 199 research assistant position is open in the Experimental Syntax Lab for up to 5 hours/week (2 credits). Duties include generating experimental sentences, recruiting participants and running experiments, compiling results, and assisting with analysis. Training is provided. Preference is given to those with native or near-native ability in English (or another language, depending on what lab projects are currently underway), a background in basic syntactic analysis (such as in LIGN 121) and basic computer skills in Word and Excel. Knowledge of statistical analysis is a plus. If interested, please contact Grant Goodall at ggoodall@ucsd.edu.
For this study, data have already been collected on people's perceptions of the "correctness" and "pleasantness" of their own speech and the speech of others living in the same state (Kentucky). A portion of the data have already been entered and coded for analysis. Some information about the study is available at http://gspresearchclub.wordpress.com/.
A 2-credit (up to 5 hours/week) position is available for someone to perform the following tasks: (1) enter and code the remainder of the collected data, (2) come up with a variety of questions to ask of those data (e.g., "Do people who think that their own speech is more correct than that of others also think that it's more pleasant?"), and (3) create graphs for displaying the answers to these questions. Someone with the skills to perform the following additional tasks would be highly desirable: (4) create a web-based tool that would allow anyone to ask questions about the data and display the answers, and (5) display the answers to these questions with maps rather than graphs. If interested, please contact Eric Bakovic at ebakovic@ucsd.edu.
Requirements:
• Background in linguistics
• Familiarity with Excel
• Minimum GPA: 3.0
• Programming skills a plus
One position is open for a 199 research assistant on a phonological acquisition project for 5 hours/week (2 credits). Duties include preparing and organizing elicitation materials, helping with participant recruitment and scheduling, supervised elicitation, and coding and entering data. Training is provided. Native competency in Spanish is a must, preferably Mexican Spanish. Preference will be given to those with a basic background in phonology or phonetics (such as in LIGN 111 or LIGN 110) and basic computer skills in Word and Excel. Knowledge of statistical analysis is a plus. If interested, please contact Bethany Keffala at bkeffala@ucsd.edu.
One 199 position is available involving sign language research under the supervision of Prof. R. Mayberry. This research involves using computerized transcription software known as ELAN, video transfer, and assisting the researcher responsible for analyzing the data. Attendance at weekly research laboratory meetings is recommended when schedule permits. Preference will be given to students who know some ASL and are linguistic majors. A minimum of three hours/week commitment is expected.
Contact: Marla Hatrak mhatrak@gmail.com