Throughout this textbook, I have included a series of sections under the name Becoming a linguist. These sections have three main goals:

• To help students learn the “hidden curriculum” of the field of linguistics; that is, the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in linguistics, but aren’t always explicitly taught.
• To incorporate writing throughout the curriculum, as with the “Writing across the curriculum” approach, to help students develop their general writing skills, learn genre-specific linguistics writing skills, and  deepen their learning through writing tasks.
• To guide instructors, especially new instructors, in incorporating hidden curriculum and writing instruction and assessment into their courses.

End-of-chapter exercises also include activities that support the Becoming a linguist content, especially the Communication and study skills exercises.

Becoming a linguist content

Currently, the following Becoming a linguist sections are already included in the text, with more on the way!

• Section 1.4: Study tips for linguistics classes
• Section 1.5: Myths and misconceptions about academic integrity (by Connor Mark)
• Section 2.5: Identifying academic sources
• Section 2.6: Scientific writing in morphosyntax
• Section 1.7: Citation in morphology and syntax
• Section 3.7: Empirical and theoretical arguments
• Section 4.6: Discussing data
• Section 4.7: Glossing spoken language data
• Section 6.8: Anatomy of an academic article
• Section 6.9: How to read an academic article

Planned sections:

• Section 4.8: Glossing signed language data
• Finding academic sources
• Careers in linguistics
• The research process
• How to take notes
• Applying to grad school
• Navigating uncertainty and competing theories
• The names of languages
• Getting the most out of your course syllabus

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact the author.

References and further resources

More resources for students

Charity Hudley, Anne, Cheryl Dickter, and Hannah Franz. 2017. The Indispensable guide to undergraduate research: Success in and beyond college. New York: Teachers College Press.

Macaulay, Monica. 2011. Surviving linguistics: A guide for graduate students, 2nd edition. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.

Research on the hidden curriculum in linguistics and beyond

Bergenhenegouwen, George. 1987. Hidden curriculum in the university. Higher Education 16: 535-543.

Doner, Julianne, and Connor Mark. 2024. Explicit writing instruction in an OER textbook. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association. Slides.

Doner, Julianne, Lisa Sullivan, Emilia Melara & Heather Yawney. 2024. Why aren’t we teaching writing?: The advantages of early explicit writing instruction in linguistics. Canadian Journal of Linguistics special issue on Teaching and Learning in Linguistics.

Pappas, Panayiotis A., Maite Taboada & Kathryn Alexander. 2019. Teaching linguistic argumentation through a writing-intensive approach. Language 95(3): e339–e363.

Petrucci, Peter R. 2002. A writing-to-learn approach to writing in the discipline in the introductory linguistics classroom. The WAC Journal 13: 133–143.

Portelli, John, 1993. Exposing the hidden curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies 25(4): 343-358.

Smith, Buffy. 2013. Mentoring at-risk students through the hidden curriculum of higher education. Lexington Books.