Who is the Linguist?

Dr Rickerson

Rick Rickerson is Professor Emeritus of German and former Director of the Division of Languages at the College of Charleston. When he retired from teaching in May 2004 and it was clear that Congress would proclaim 2005 as the Year of Languages in the U.S., he started working on Talkin' About Talk as a contribution to the national celebration of language. Dr. Rickerson was an undergraduate at Hamilton College and received his PhD from the University of California (Berkeley). He was a Fulbright scholar in Germany, did graduate work at Middlebury College and is a graduate of the US State Department's School of Advanced Chinese Studies in Taiwan.

At the College of Charleston, Dr. Rickerson developed and oversaw a summer Institute for Language Teachers and a Master of Education degree in Languages. He encouraged the development of an undergraduate minor in linguistics and fostered the linkage of languages to other disciplines at the College. He led the Division of Languages as it received the only Commendations of Excellence ever awarded by the SC Commission on Higher Education to an undergraduate language program.

Before coming to Charleston in 1997, Dr. Rickerson was Deputy Director of the federal government's Center for the Advancement of Language Learning, where he coordinated linguistic efforts and served as liaison between the federal language community and US universities. In his work as a federal linguist he was primarily known for curriculum design and the development of new language programs. He is credited with being founder of the first "total immersion" experience in federal language schools (1972), project director for national-level curriculum projects in less-commonly-taught languages (Arabic, Armenian, Cantonese and Turkmen), and a principal designer of Standard Chinese: A Modular Approach. In addition to his role as narrator and editor for "The Five-Minute Linguist," Dr. Rickerson consults on the development and improvement of language programs at the university level. He is a member of MLA, ACTFL and the Linguistic Society of America and serves as Chairman of the South Carolina Council on Languages.

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