<p>Linguistics is a program under the auspices of the English Department at George Mason University. In collaboration with faculty from many other departments, it offers theoretical and applied programs of study for graduate and undergraduate students.<br /><br />Started in the late 1970's, the program has grown with the field of linguistics. Built on a strong foundation in theoretical linguistics, it strives to bring the knowledge of these theories to bear on the issues of how language is acquired.&nbsp; In turn, that understanding helps inform the basic, applied questions of how to teach English to speakers of other languages and how to best prepare future teachers of English as a second language (ESL).<br /><br />The Linguistics Program hosts the <a href="http://accent.gmu.edu">Speech Accent Archive</a>. This nationally and internationally acclaimed archive presents speech samples of speakers from a variety of language backgrounds. It is used by anyone interested in the phenomena of accent, including language teachers, speech therapists, actors, and laymen fascinated by accents. Students in the Linguistics Program have an opportunity to work on the archive.</p> <h4>What is linguistics?</h4> <p>Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists examine the components of language&mdash;sounds, words, sentences, and meaning&mdash;as a system of rules and universals. Every normal human has internalized such a system, since, by definition, we all possess knowledge of a language. <br /><br />Linguists study how humans represent, use, and acquire the language(s) they speak.&nbsp;</p> 3 2009-02-12T16:51:34Z 1 387 false about 1 12 2009-04-06T20:16:34Z 2009-04-06