KAMS junior heads linguistics club & competition
February 1, 2021
Fundamental linguistic work isn't something that a traditional high school student often encounters during their time in school. A KAMS junior took it upon herself to change that this year by establishing and founding a linguistics club on the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) campus. The club offers a linguistic, contest-based experience for early college (KAMS/AMS) students and traditional college students.
KAMS junior Ellie Bultena (Sublette, KS) had been interested in learning about languages since middle school, and the study of linguistics seemed to fit her love for both language and mathematics. Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. When Bultena began attending KAMS, she could not find a linguistic-related club on campus, so she decided to create her own.
"The Linguistics Club is the only campus organization related to linguistics and languages, besides Spanish Club. Since the university doesn't have a linguistics department, this club can expose [FHSU] students to an entirely new field."
Bultena says that the club features two components: working on linguistics problems together and presentations about the fundamental concepts of linguistics. Many of the problems that the club members work on stem from the North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO), which is the competitive exam the club hosted on campus on January 28, 2021.
Four KAMS students, including Bultena, participated in the open contest. The exam featured problems regarding the diversity and consistency of language, all while asking students to exercise their logic skills. According to Bultena, "though most students who do the linguistics olympiad are interested in linguistics, the problems don't require prior knowledge of linguistics. Instead, they utilize problem-solving skills like those used in computer science and math."
Bultena says that the new FHSU Linguistics Club can most certainly be fun and beneficial for those interested in something new. "Most students don't know very much about linguistics, so they learn new and exciting information about subjects like language families, writing systems, and different types of languages. The members of the club greatly enjoy solving problems (we use problems from previous NACLO competitions) and say that it's 'like solving a math problem, but more fun'."
The FHSU Linguistics Club meets weekly on Fridays at 4:30 PM. In March, the club will hold the Invitational Round of NACLO, which is for high-scoring participants from the Open Round. The Invitational Round is where the U.S. team for the International Linguistics Olympiad is selected.