|
If you want to become a phonetician or phonologist, the University of Amsterdam is a good place to start, because phonetics and phonology courses are well integrated into the curriculum at all levels. The information written on this page applies to the academic year 2011-2012.
Courses at the BA level are taught in Dutch. There are at least three routes, depending on your prior education and on your other interests besides speech.
If your prior education is VWO and your main interest is linguistics and speech, you can enroll in the BA Taalwetenschap, which consists of three years of courses and leads to a BA diploma. Here we mention only the speech-related courses (in some cases, years and semesters fluctuate because of a reorganization):
If your main interest is in a certain language, you may enroll for the BA programme in that language. Within such a programme you have to choose a minor outside that language. If your second interest is linguistics and speech, you can choose the Minor Taalwetenschap, which consists of six BA courses in linguistics, including Spraak and Vorm, which you will then follow in your second BA year.
If you have a propedeuse (first year) in a language, say French, and you get interested in linguistics, then you can switch to the BA in Linguistics for the second and third years of your BA studies. The trick is to do the BA in Linguistics in two years, while counting your year in French as a minor and as keuzemodules. Since you no longer have to follow Academische Vaardigheden I and II and Inleiding Taalwetenschap, you can fill your second year with the remaining nine BA courses of the propedeuse Linguistics plus the three second-year linguistics courses Taal- en Spraakvermogen, Methoden en Technieken, and Spraakverwerking per Computer. You can then fill your third year with the remaining third-year linguistics courses plus three keuzemodules (perhaps French again). The details have to be worked out with your study advisor, but this route seems to be perfectly possible. (thanks to Titia Benders for coming up with this strategy)
If you already have a HBO diploma in logopedie (speech pathology), language or computer science, you can get a BA in Linguistics in two years, basically by following only the second and third years.
We also give a BA course outside the Faculty of Humanities:
Courses at the MA level are taught in English.
The MA General Linguistics consists of one year of courses. You can enroll if you have finished a BA in linguistics or something equivalent (like the Schakelprogramma mentioned above). Note: if you want to pursue a PhD career later on, you are advised to apply for the Research MA instead (see below).
In the MA General Linguistics, you generally select seven out of a total of 21 courses and more. If you are interested in speech, you will very probably want to take the following course:
Beside this course, you have to choose six others. You may choose six of the following, or any of the remaining courses (see all 21 courses):
For one of the courses in block 1, you will write a term paper in block 2.
For advice, contact Paul Boersma.
We participate in the Research MA Linguistics, which is for students who want to pursue a PhD career later on. With a Research MA, you are much more likely to find a PhD position in the Netherlands or abroad than if you only have the shorter MA mentioned above.
With a finished BA, you can apply for a Research MA, which will then take two years. With a finished MA, a Research MA will take you only one year.
If you are interested in First or Second Language Acquisition of Speech, Speech Communication, Speech Technology, or Speech Disorders, you are likely to take some of the MA courses mentioned above.
In the Netherlands, PhD students are regarded more as researchers than as students. See the research page.