Job Discussion Forums

[Drizzt]

I enjoy teaching ESL so much, that I'm interested in pursuing a master's in linguistics.

Before I invest lots of time and money into a master's program; however, I would like to read some good and interesting introductory books of linguistics to make sure that this discipline is suitable for me.

I'm not looking for books with practical teaching methodology, but rather more of the theoretical side of linguistics which I will encounter in post-graduate study.

I want to make sure this is a field I'm really interested in -- can anyone offer some good suggestions?

[thelmadatter]

I have a bachelors in Linguistics and a masters in English Language and Linguistics. I cant think of a single book except maybe an introductory textbook by anyone in the field. You dont say where you are, but you might consider taking an introductory course.

Most ppl either love or hate theoretical linguistics and those who love it tend to go for a specialty (syntax, phonetics, semantics, etc.) esp. at the masters level.

Good luck!

[fluffyhamster]

Good single-volume overview in digestible chapters (will still leave you wanting more technical works, though): The Handbook of Linguistics (Blackwell)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/reader/1405102527/ref=sib_dp_pt/203-4017053-7942345#reader-page

Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language is challenging but pretty wide-ranging.
http://bbsonline.cup.cam.ac.uk/Preprints/Jackendoff-07252002/Referees/
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/12759;jsessionid=baa5_0Z5cSnI9J
http://kybele.psych.cornell.edu/~edelman/on-Jackendoff/edelman.html#Clark00
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/jackpink.htm

Also check out the review of Seuren's Western Linguistics: An Historical Introduction:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/viewtopic.php?p=11488#11488

Could also be of interest to you:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/viewtopic.php?p=17322#17322
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0198530862/reviews/203-4017053-7942345


The Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics series is very respected (but they can be quite heavy going):
http://www.cambridge.org/series/sSeries.asp?code=CTL
(Van Valin and LaPolla's book on Syntax in the above series is probably one of the more accessible and wide-ranging books that you can get on syntax).
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521499151


Less authoratative than the Blackwell Handbook/more bitty, but still quite interesting in parts: The Linguistics Encyclopedia, Second Edition (Routledge)


Quick Reference:
P.H Matthews' The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics has just been reissued. Could go the whole hog though and get Crystal's A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (Blackwell).

Concise but not too simplistic, handy if you want a really quick take on something: Trask, R.L. Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics (Routledge)

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Your MA will likely be in Applied Linguistics, not theoretical Linguistics if you have no background in the area. That means you will be studying a lot of (theory of) second language acquisition, English grammar etc.

That doesn't mean you won't also be studying theoretical linguisics (an intro course at least will almost definately be a requirement, or prereq if you haven't taken one before), it just means that the focus will probably be on the applied side.

I second looking at a first year introductory text An Introduction to Language [- Canadian edition- if there is more than one], by VA Fromkin was used in my intro course. the prose style is not convoluted in any way.

For the SLA type stuff do a google scholar search (click the 'more' tab to the right of the web, news etc list above where you type in google and then hit scholar) for MA Thesis language acquisition or something similar (you can also put in journal articles TESL, TESOL, TESOL Quarterly etc and get lists of topics or names of essays and then do a search on those topics and eventually get an essay in front of you). If you don't specify MA thesis or essay, then you may just get a list of books. I don't know if it goes without saying or no, but if you look at the bibliography of papers available on line then you can get other topics to look up. All this assumes that you don't have access to a university library that will have a tonne of journals already bound that you can just go look through- that would be far easier.

[Drizzt]

Great list!

Thanks a bunch...

To the poster that asked where I was -- I am now in Shanghai.

[Gordon]

I second the vote for the Fromkin book, a great intro to linguistics. I am just finishing my masters in applied linguistics now and found in way more interesting than I thought it would be.

[Gregor]

No one yet has questioned the sense of the very first statement in this thread:

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

The other mistake in his first sentence is that he almost definately isn't teaching ESL at all. He is in China. He's teaching EFL. I think everybody knew what he meant, and actually, I did mention that he would be doing Applied Linguistics, not Linguistics.

[sojourner]

Drizzt,

As you are currently in Shanghai, have you ever visited the Shanghai Foreign Languages Bookstore ? On the 1st Floor (2nd Floor, if you're an American !), there is an excellent range of the sorts of texts that are often used in Applied Linguistics and TESOL courses in the English-speaking world. Although many of these texts are C.U.P. reprints, they are much, much cheaper than what you'd pay for, back in the West !

Of