A Revamp in Research

At BYU, students are encouraged to get involved in research and to better understand the process behind forming a hypothesis. To make it easier for undergraduates to assist in Linguistics research, Associate Professors Jeffrey Green (Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics) and Grant Eckstein (TESOL, Second Language Writing) created a new course: LING 449R. In the class, students join the research community and gain hands-on experience that prepares them for future educational and career opportunities.

Photo by Colby St Gelais

Set in Motion

The class, launched in fall 2025, was inspired by Green’s previous work at the University of Illinois, where students could earn course credit for working as a research assistant. Wanting to bring a similar experience to BYU, Green worked with Eckstein to create LING 449R, a class where students receive one-on-one mentoring from faculty and apply practical research skills in course assignments.

Students can sign up with their own project in mind or simply join a faculty member’s existing project. Outside of their research hours with a designated faculty mentor, students meet once a week as a class to discuss the progress of their research, report on past goals, and set new ones. In these meetings, they also learn practical research skills such as communicating their findings, writing reports, and giving mock presentations.

Tools for Success

Green says the class is unique because it focuses on developing skills. “The class assignments, like writing an abstract and presenting a poster, are not necessarily things students would get with other research experience,” Green says. “I think it helps the students learn a lot about how research works and get more excited about their research.”

Beyond getting involved in research, students gain a sense of community with their classmates and mentors. “They come together as a group, as this cohort of researchers,” says Green. He encourages students to collaborate and learn about the research their classmates are doing.

Green hopes the course provides students with meaningful friendships as well as impactful mentoring. “One of the biggest outcomes is that they will develop this relationship with a faculty member who can mentor them through the semester and maybe be a reference or a mentor later on as well.”

Lilly Greathouse (Linguistics, Cultural Anthropology ’29) heard about the class from Dr. Eckstein and enrolled during the fall 2025 semester. She joined a research project with Assistant Professor Holly Baker (Editing and Publishing), where she helped analyze qualitative and quantitative data from Baker’s research and reviewed papers for a literature review. At first, she felt intimidated because she had no prior research experience and the subject matter was outside of her major, but it didn’t take long for her to gain confidence. Greathouse says reading research papers and survey responses taught her a lot of vocabulary and concepts specific to the editing and publishing field. “It was a little hard to get immersed in that world, but it’s really fun now,” she says.

She recommends the class to anyone looking for research experience. “I think BYU gives students a great opportunity with this class to start wading into the waters,” she says. “It’s a really easy way to get your foot in the research door.”

Looking Forward

As the class continues to grow, so does the opportunity for student involvement. “There are lots of projects that faculty could use a student on,” Green says. Students can engage in a variety of research interests across several disciplines, including editing and publishing, TESOL, Spanish, Portuguese, digital humanities, and Asian and Near Eastern languages.

Green feels that the class’s diverse opportunities allow students to benefit from the university-wide focus on experiential learning. “We learn by doing,” he says. “The more you get involved in a learning experience, the better you will remember it.”

Learn more about the course’s learning outcomes and objectives here.