The Linguistics Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the oldest, largest, and most distinguished departments of linguistics in the United States, attracting students from all over the world. With faculty members covering all major areas of linguistic research, the department offers a large number of undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degree programs. Formally established in 1965, the Department of Linguistics quickly became one of the leading linguistics departments in the nation. While its focus was originally on research and the training of graduate students, the Department has also developed an undergraduate program that has attracted some of the best students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Our M.A. program in Teaching English as a Second Language is one of the oldest in the United States, having celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016. However, the program traces its history back over 70 years to 1947, when it began as a program focusing on the teaching of English to students from other language backgrounds.