Linguistics Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (LURAP)

What is LURAP?

  • The Linguistics Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (LURAP) matches Linguistics undergraduate research apprentices to graduate student and faculty led research projects.
  • LURAP provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to participate in original linguistic research.
  • Undergraduate Research Apprentices will earn 1-5 units (CR/NC) in Linguistics 499B.  (Note: LURAP units may fulfill up to 6 elective units toward the Linguistics Major.)

Benefits

Apprentices will:

  • gain skills and experience with independent linguistic research and a body of linguistic data;
  • gain proficiency in discipline-specific methods, equipment, and software;
  • gain a better understanding of the general research and scholarship process and what it is like to be a linguistics graduate student;
  • become more competitive candidates for admission to graduate school;
  • gain experience relevant to future jobs;
  • develop a relationship with a mentor who may provide advice, references, etc.; and
  • the opportunity to develop independent research which may lead to an honors thesis down the line.

Mentors will:

  • gain experience with supervision and mentorship;
  • be more productive through having some of their research tasks completed by an assistant;
  • become more competitive on the academic and non-academic job markets.

The department will:

  • have a mentorship program that may entice more undergraduates to major in linguistics and more graduate students to apply to UW;
  • produce more experienced and competitive BA graduates.

Responsibilities

  • The mentor and apprentice(s) should meet and communicate regularly.
  • An apprentice should work 3 hours per week, including the weekly meeting, for every Ling 499B unit in which they are enrolled (1-5 units). The course is repeatable for credit.
  • Apprentices are expected to work on the same project for a minimum of two consecutive quarters.
  • The tasks performed by the apprentice will depend on the nature of the mentor’s research project and the apprentice’s abilities and interests. Tasks might include coding data, entering field notes into a database, parsing texts, gathering data from written sources (including library research), performing statistical analyses, running subjects for a study, transcription, etc.
  • The mentor-apprentice pairs will all meet at the end of the quarter (during finals week) to share their experiences.
  • Apprentices may be asked by their research mentor to present their work at the end of the quarter, either as an oral presentation or a term paper.

Eligibility

  • LURAP is open to all majors and all class standings (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior).
  • Each project will have distinct eligibility criteria, such as completed courses, experience, and/or knowledge of certain languages.
  • The majority of projects will require apprentices to have completed LING 200A (Introduction to Linguistics) with a grade of 2.0 or better.

Timeline

  • Graduate students and faculty will be required to submit their call for projects roughly 6-8 weeks before the beginning of the quarter. (Look for an email around that time or email Prof. Ogihara.)
  • Applications for undergraduate students opens roughly 2-3 weeks before the beginning of the quarter.
    • At this time, applicants will be able to view the different project opportunities. They will be required to fill out a detailed Google Form in which they will have the opportunity to select and rank projects in which they would like to participate. Applicants may also be required to provide a CV and transcript.
  • Each application will undergo a review process to evaluate quality and fit before apprentices are matched to a project. Depending on the demand for apprentices, it is possible that not all applications will be matched to a project.
  • LURAP pairing decisions will go out during the first week of the quarter.
  • Enrollment in 499B LURAP units will begin once pairing decisions have been announced.

Contact

  • For questions about LURAP, please contact Prof. Toshiyuki Ogihara, the LURAP coordinator, email: ogihara (at) uw.edu (replace (at) with @).
Share