A blog about all things linguistic by Gretchen McCulloch. I cohost Lingthusiasm , a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. I'm the author of Because Internet , a book about internet language! Linguistics jobs - Interview with a university course coordinator I've known Colleen since we were both PhD students at The University of Melbourne. When I found out that she had also moved to La Trobe, it was lovely to have a friendly face around the place! Colleen has taken a slightly unusual, but increasingly common, lateral step; although she's no longer working in linguist research she's still working at a university and running courses. She kindly agreed to be interviewed about her work. What did you study at university? Forundergrad I studied a BA (Languages) at Monash University (in Melbourne, Australia). I did a double major- Chinese and Linguistics. I also did a minor in Spanish to satisfy the"languages" part. Originally I wanted to work as a translator at the UN!When I realised that probably wouldn't work out, I pursued Linguisticsfor Honours. My thesis looked at the efficacyof using the first four formants of certain vowels to distinguish onespeaker from another. After Honours I got a job as a Research Assistant at The University of Melbourne in Otolaryngology (now Audiologyand Speech Pathology). My PhD topic was a response to what I'd beenhearing and experiencing in working with individuals using cochlearimplants. I looked at the perception and production of some aspects ofprosody in adolescents who had grown up with cochlearimplants astheir only hearing. What is your job? I'mthe Deputy Coordinator for the first year of a range of Allied HealthCourses. There's about 2000 students across six campuses, so it's huge! Imainly look after those courses wherethe teaching involves external partners. There's a lot to do aroundcompliance and reporting for these third party teaching contracts. Ialso teach myself – I teach a Work Integrated Learning subject that'sopen to all students from the College of Science,Health and Engineering. They go out on placement and we look at careermanagement and how to utilize what's learnt on placement out in the jobmarket. I also teach an Industry Innovation subject that brings studentstogether from all over the uni. They workin small teams to tackle wicked problems. How does your linguistics training help you in your job? Alot at The University of Melbourne because I'm still involved in research. At La Trobe it does help,particularly when you need to advise studentswho are struggling. I used to teach in the Master of Speech Pathology at the University of Melbourne and between that and Linguistics I've gained a wide perspective onwhat could be going on when someone is struggling in first year.Linguistics also helps in the subjects I teach at La Trobe. It's great to be able to provide very specific advice for studentsas to their writing and how to improve it. I also try to slip in activities on interculturalcommunication where I can. Do you gave any advice do you wish someone had given to youabout linguistics/careers/university? Iwish they had been more honest about studying languages (notlinguistics) as a career. I realised after awhile thatpeople born into bi- or multilingual households would be the oneslanding the interpreter/translator jobs, although I don't regretstudying languages. I think in general I would have appreciated someadvice re jobs that you could go onto with Linguistics. I'massuming they're better at that now but we really received no careeradvice at all. For those doing PhDs I think we do well on the researchtraining side, but not so well on the careers side, both in talkingabout potential industries you could go into andabout what a career in academia actually entails. Any other thoughts or comments? I'd like to say something about how Linguistics is so undervalued but I'm not sure how to put it. I feel like perceiving,producing, communicating is something so fundamental that linguistics should be a standard part of everything! Don't miss out on any interesting linguistics! Get my monthly newsletter in your inbox. haptichoax said: Hey, Colleen took us (UniMelb MSpPath) for lectures in acoustics, prosody, and syllable structure over the past couple of weeks! She's a great lecturer, how lovely to see her here! #J-18808-Ljbffr
