News feedsStudents' experiences
- Inés, MA in Transnational Studies, first year
- Darren, PhD Spanish Sociolinguistics, second year
- Doris, MPhil/PhD Applied Linguistics, third year
- Gabriela, Research PhD in Applied Linguistics, third year
- Laurence, M.Phil in Linguistics, final year
Inés
Inés is from Spain and is studying an MA in Transnational Studies. She is in her first year.
Experiences of studying at Southampton
The aspect I most like of this MA is its interdisciplinarity, which allows you to analyse a single issue from different perspectives. I also enjoy the freedom that we have to choose the topics for all our assignments, so we can focus in what really interests us! Since the first day, I have found all the resources available at Southampton Uni very impressive. Hartley Library is incredible, and the Reserve Collection in both Avenue and Hartley guarantees that every student has access to all the key readings for the course. Another thing I have also particularly enjoyed is the international group we are in, all the people in the course speak two or more languages and have lived abroad, they are all friendly and full of great ideas. This is probably the most enriching aspect of the whole experience: to get to know other people with the same multicultural and multilingual interests. Finally, all the teachers have always been very helpful and approachable, and open to suggestions and criticism. I would definitely recommend this MA to open-minded students wanting to broaden perspectives and to challenge the way we think about national categories.
Experiences of university life
All our lessons are concentrated on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so we have plenty of time during the week to do other activities, to go out, and even to work in the weekends as I have done! However the workload is very demanding so I would suggest that future students organise their time well! Every week there are plenty of conferences and cultural activities organised in both Avenue and Highfield. The conferences organised by the Transnational Department this year have brought academics as well known as Deborah Cameron, Ankie Hoovert and Jan Blommaert, which are precisely some of the key authors we have been studying in the course.
Darren
Darren is studying a PhD in Spanish Sociolinguistics. He is in his second year.
Experiences of studying at Southampton
Studying at Southampton has been extremely positive which explains why, having arrived as an undergraduate in 2000, I stayed on and am now part-way through my PhD.
My study provoked something of an 'awakening' - linguistically, culturally, politically and in terms of convincing me that I wanted to pursue a career in university research and teaching. You could say that Southampton has been a life changing experience for me!
Throughout my time here, the resources, support and learning/research environment have just kept improving. My PhD supervisor is outstanding: extremely supportive, and along with other staff, makes me feel very well supported in my studies here. I am given abundant opportunities to develop professionally, getting involved in conference organisation and participation, research project management and even website development - all very stretching, but massively useful in terms of transferable skills.
Experiences of university life
As a teaching assistant, I spend about a day and a half on preparing, teaching and administrating the beginners' Spanish language course. The rest of my time is spent on my doctoral research, so from day one I've been learning to prioritise and manage my time well. Postgraduate life is way more independent and demanding than undergraduate study, so it's important to be a motivated and organised kind of person in order to embark on any kind of postgraduate course.
Why did you choose to study linguistics?
I chose to follow a linguistics 'track' to my degree partly because it was all very new and fascinating to me, and partly to avoid any contact with literature (it's just not me!!). I'm so glad I did this, as the specialism that I've developed in sociolinguistics is a result of me absolutely loving my work and research. The first two years of my undergraduate degree gave me a broad foundation in theoretical, applied and socio- linguistics, and I then had sufficient opportunities to choose final year courses in the areas of linguistics I particularly enjoyed.
Linguistics is so useful in terms of understanding all aspects of communication, from the micro-level (how language is acquired and speech produced) to the macro-level (the social processes which affect and are affected by language).
What has been the highlight?
The highlight of my Linguistics PhD has been specialising in language ideological studies and understanding that my research is not just fascinating for me, but useful and applicable to "real life" debates and social processes. My studies are not limited to linguistics but include related aspects such as politics, history, sociology and social psychology - it never gets too monotonous or predictable!
What would you say to someone thinking of studying linguistics at university?
Go for it. If you're even slightly interested in linguistics already, studying it in depth at university (and particularly at postgraduate level) will blow your mind open to the complex realities and applications of language and its intricate role in human life.
Doris
Doris is from German and is studying a MPhil/PhD Applied Linguistics. She is in her third year.
Experiences of studying at Southampton
I thoroughly enjoyed studying for a PhD in Southampton. Both my supervisors - supervision of my project changed after one year because my first supervisor started working at another university - were and are absolutely brilliant, leaving me a lot of freedom to explore my field on my own, but are there when needed!
Although doing this degree wasn't always easy, in particular because I funded my study through a teaching assistantship, support was always at hand, and the Centre for Learning and Teaching as well as the Graduate School offered a lot of opportunities for professional development in both teaching and research, which I really enjoyed and would advise others to make use of.
Experiences of university life
One of the best aspects of university life in Southampton, in particular postgraduate study, is the fact that everything here is so international. In my postgraduate office alone there are, according to my count, representatives of more than ten different nations.
In my second year,we revived the "Postgraduate Forum", an organisation for postgraduate students in the humanities. The forum now organises the occasional social, plus a yearly conference. And there is, of course, the conference organised by the Graduate School! So there are plenty of opportunities to get involved, meet others, and exchange ideas!
Why did you choose to study linguistics?
During most of my earlier university study, I had focused more on literature than linguistics. However, in the last year of my MA, I got extremely interested in one particular topic area, and wanted to explore it further. Furthermore, as I was already teaching German as a foreign language at that time, I wanted to explore issues of language learning and teaching from a theoretical perspective as well.
What has been the highlight?
Too many to mention all of them: my supervisors, interacting with and learning from colleagues and other students, attending conferences and meeting linguistics celebrities...
What would you say to someone thinking of studying linguistics at university?
It is an extremely interesting and wide subject, offering a wide array of areas to explore. A thoroughly worthwhile endeavour, and one that, if you also use all the opportunities open to you to develop your transferable skills, offers good chances to find employment both within and outside of academia.
Gabriela Adela
Adela is studying a PhD in Applied Linguistics (Computer Assisted Language Learning), and is in her thrid year.
Experiences of studying at Southampton
The life of a Research PhD student is very independent, you have to be organised and disciplined since, ultimately, it is yourself who dictates the pace of the investigation. The library at Southampton offers excellent services; I have found Inter-library loans particularly efficient which is what you need when depth is an essential component of your work.
Laurence
Laurence is from France and has just completed a M.Phil in Linguistics.
Experiences of studying at Southampton
My experience is definitely positive: Lots of support, lots of encouragement and lots of resources! It's ultimately up to the student to use his/her time and the facilities the best s/he can.
Experiences of university life
As a postgrad, uni life is as much about the teaching and researching, as about the socialising and making friends, since you spend most of your time on the campuses! So, even if postgrad's socialising is not as intense as the undergrad version (!), it's still definitely worth it!