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The University of Southampton
Humanities

Xia Yu PhD Modern Languages

Xia Yu's Photo

Hi, I'm Xia Yu and I studied PhD Modern Languages within Humanities at the University of Southampton.

Southampton is very highly regarded and respected for modern languages and the staff are among the best.

Xia travelled halfway round the world to study for a PhD in Southampton because of the University’s reputation. She says: "Southampton is very highly regarded and respected for modern languages and the staff are among the best."

She is enjoying finding out more about life in England while working hard on her thesis into traditional ways of language learning in China. She explains: "A lot of younger students learn texts by heart but some older people use this method too. I want to investigate the benefits and problems of this technique and see if there are any benefits that other cultures could take from this."

Xia spent five years teaching English in China after studying for a masters degree in applied linguistics at university in her home city of Chongqing. She says: "I am pleased I spent some time working as well as studying as it gave me an insight into how students learn and encouraged me to look into this further."

She is now halfway through her PhD studies and is proud to have been asked to present a conference paper on her research. "It was a very good experience and has motivated me to work even harder!" she says. After graduating she is not sure what she intends to do but is sure she will remain in the academic world.

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