University Calendar

Brown Bag Talk on Language, Information, and Computation - Applying coursework in linguistics to an obscure field of language assessment, or what you can do with your linguistics degree.

Thursday March 16th, 4PM
Schmitt Hall, Room 104

Abstract: There are various career paths a linguistics major can follow after graduation. Have you heard about an exciting though somewhat obscure field of language assessment? It is applied linguistics in action, and language assessment professionals get to utilize knowledge from their college coursework on a daily basis. Syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis and corpus linguistics – all of these (and more) are put to use to create, administer, score, and even advertise language tests. Language assessment is essential in different areas, from classroom instruction and customer service to law enforcement. The aim of this presentation is to demystify language assessment for linguistics majors based on concrete examples and to highlight connections between theory and practice, aka between college studies and real-world applications.

Bio: Liubou Shefarevich, MA in Applied Linguistics, is a program manager at Second Language Testing Inc., a Berlitz company. She plans and oversees complex programs and projects of language assessment development, administration, and research for domestic and international clients. Prior to joining Second Language Testing Inc., she worked as a consultant for Audible, assisting with development of a language-learning app. She also taught ESL and undergraduate linguistics courses at MSU.